Adoption

Thank you to Janice Page for addressing the often inappropriate use of adoption as a tool in children’s movies (“ ‘Panda’ stresses serious subjects over silly stuff,’’ g, May 26). Adoption content is seldom noted in film reviews. As an adoptive parent of a sibling group of nine children, I cannot tell you the number of times we have been surprised by the insensitive nature with which adoption is portrayed. In “Elf,’’ Will Ferrell takes off for New York certain that his “real’’ father will love and adore him. In “Tangled,’’ the stolen princess is reunited with the King and Queen without issue.

Portugal's Parliament has endorsed a four-year budget plan that places legal limits on state spending in an effort to restore the bailed-out country's fiscal health. Meager growth and excessive borrowing over the past decade pushed Portugal close to bankruptcy last year, compelling it to ask for (EURO)78 billion bailout and adding momentum to Europe's sovereign debt crisis. The Budget Strategy Document introduces legal caps on public spending, which will be linked to forecast income.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Dana Delany is happy to describe her life as containing "no pets, no plants, no children. " But she adds, "Don't get me wrong, I like babies. " Good thing, because she had to spend time with an especially cute one in "Baby for Sale," a Lifetime original movie airing Monday at 9 p.m. Actually, two babies portrayed little Gitta, who is offered for adoption to more than one family by an unscrupulous baby broker. "We had no problem with the crying scenes," says Delany, deadpan, about her tiny costars.

After listening to months of heated debate, the Haverhill Board of Health has granted the city's pigs a reprieve. Rather than banishing them, the board has adopted a new set of rules governing their continued presence. The rules, adopted by a unanimous vote of the three-member Health Board on Tuesday, are "based on the state's toughest bylaw, but tempered with language that looks at each situation on a case-by-case basis," board member Peter Carbone said at the outset of last week's meeting.

Parents in Sierra Leone who claim their children were adopted without their permission in the late 90s say they support a new commission of inquiry set up to investigate the accusations. In a statement released Monday the parents of the 29 children said they will aid police in an investigation to determine if more children were adopted without proper consent. Sierra Leone's government on April 13 mandated police to reopen an investigation into the adoptions of children placed at the Help A Needy Child International center during the war. The government said police are now able to...

A six-foot boa constrictor that crashed a funeral a few months ago has been nursed back to health and is ready to be adopted. Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary tells The Patriot-News of Harrisburg that the snake, Cocoa, is now healthy enough for a new home. Animal welfare workers took Cocoa into custody in May after people attending a memorial service at Hershey Cemetery spotted her. Police believe Cocoa's owner dumped the snake after being unable to care for her. The Patriot-News report ( http://bit.ly/o7o7eV)

NEW YORK - Catholic Charities in Illinois has served for more than 40 years as a major link in the state's social service network for poor and neglected children. But now most of the Catholic Charities affiliates in Illinois are closing down rather than comply with a new requirement that says they can no longer receive state money if they turn away same-sex couples as potential foster care and adoptive parents. For the nation's Roman Catholic bishops, the outcome is a prime example of what they see as an escalating campaign by the government to trample on their religious...

NEW YORK — The US government yesterday suspended the adoption of abandoned children from Nepal because of concerns about unreliable and fabricated documents. The State Department said the suspension would take effect immediately, although it will continue to consider adoption applications already in the pipeline on a case-by-case basis. About 80 such cases are pending. More than 60 Nepalese children were adopted by Americans in 2006. The number dropped to six last year as US officials intensified warnings about possible problems.

METHUEN - Frequent drivers on Route 213 have gotten used to the sight of a 2,000-pound steer grazing in a paddock alongside the busy highway. "We get people calling and saying ‘Thunder is lying down; is he OK?' " said Heather Robertson, community outreach coordinator for the MSPCA at Nevins Farm in Methuen, where the steer has lived for four years. He is also a favorite with the thousands of visitors to the 55-acre animal care and adoption center overseen by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

To the Hellspawn ranks of Damien, Rosemary’s baby, Rhoda “Bad Seed’’ Penmark, and the Olsen twins, let us now add the title character of “Orphan.’’ Her name is Esther, which sounds about as scary as your bubbe, but as played by the very serious young actress Isabelle Fuhrman she’s a prim little psycho with a taste for cutlery and an accent out of downtown Transylvania. The movie has already come under heavy fire from the national adoption community as the absolute worst PR a foster child could ever have, and correctly so: As a concept, “Orphan’’ is reprehensible.

NASHVILLE - An American woman who adopted a Russian boy and later sent him back to Moscow on a one-way flight has been ordered to pay $150,000 and an additional $1,000 per month in child support until he is an adult. On Thursday a Bedford County, Tenn., judge said Torry Hansen must begin making the child support payments in June and continue to pay until the boy, who is now 10 years old, turns 18. Circuit Court Judge Lee Russell said the $150,000 Hansen must pay includes damages for breach of contract, legal fees, and support for the boy. Hansen sent Artyom Saveliev back to Russia in April...

Amesbury, Chelsea, and Newburyport have adopted union-backed changes to their employee health insurance plans that they say will bring much-needed savings. The changes in Amesbury and Newburyport, to take effect July 1, involve moving from a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts plan with no deductibles to one that has deductibles and higher copayments. Chelsea is adopting similar changes, and will be charging employees a larger share of premiums as part of its adoption of a city-run health plan July 1. For more than two decades, Chelsea has been part of Boston's health plan.

A Guatemalan mother who says her child was stolen and later turned over to a U.S. couple for adoption said Tuesday that she will go to a Missouri court seeking to get her daughter back now that the U.S. State Department has said it doesn't have jurisdiction to help return the girl. The State Department confirmed Tuesday that it has informed Guatemala's government that it can't help return Anyeli Hernandez Rodriguez because the U.S. and Guatemala had not signed the Hague Abduction Convention at the time of the alleged kidnapping in 2006.

The jazz vocalist Tessa Souter, who released her fourth CD, "Beyond the Blue," last week, has always had an eclectic, even adventurous, approach to repertoire. Alongside songbook standards and Brazilian classics like "Manhã de Carnaval," she's delivered scintillating takes on spiritually intense works like Pharoah Sanders's "The Creator Has a Master Plan" or Mongo Santamaria's "Afro Blue. " And in echoes of her own upbringing in London in the 1960s and 1970s, she has interpreted her own arrangements of period songs like "White Room," made famous by Cream,...

The European Union imposed visa bans and asset freezes Monday on three new people associated with Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime — bringing to 128 the number of Assad supporters targeted by the bloc. Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said two Syrian entities were also added to the boycott list, which now includes 43 Syrian companies, banks and other organizations. The new measures, the 15th round of EU sanctions against Assad's regime and its supporters, were adopted at a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

HAMILTON - General George S. Patton's legacy is as stalwart in this North Shore community as the Sherman tank guarding a park named for the World War II hero in the town center. Patton came to live in Hamilton in 1928, on a country estate of fertile fields and horse trails running along the Ipswich River. Beatrice Ayer Patton spent the war years here while her husband raced across Africa and Europe. Willie, the white bull terrier who was Patton's companion during the war, returned here after the general's death in 1945.

A New Hampshire legislative committee is seeking public input on issues concerning childcare, foster care, adoption and juvenile justice. The Oversight Health and Human Services Subcommittee on Child, Youth and Family is holding sessions Tuesday on adoption at 9 a.m., foster care at 11 a.m. and daycare at 1 p.m. in room 205 of the Legislative Office Building in Concord. Additional sessions are planned Aug. 30 on in-home care, Sept. 9 on juvenile justice and Sept. 27 on prevention programs.

Brocade Communications Systems' fourth-quarter profit beat analysts' estimates. Excluding some items, earnings were 16 cents a share, vs. 13 cents a year ago. Analysts expected 10 cents. Record revenue for its Ethernet business and fast adoption of its 16 gigabit-per-second Fibre Channel products aided results. First-quarter revenue will be $530 million to $550 million.

HANOI - The number of international adoptions has plummeted to its lowest point in 15 years, a steep decline attributed largely to crackdowns against baby-selling, a sputtering world economy, and efforts by countries to place more children with domestic families. Globally, the number of orphans being adopted by foreign parents dropped from a high of 45,000 in 2004 to an estimated 25,000 last year, according to annual statistics compiled by Peter Selman, a specialist on international adoptions at Britain's Newcastle University.

The number of international adoptions has plummeted to its lowest point in 15 years, a steep decline attributed largely to crackdowns against baby-selling, a sputtering world economy and efforts by countries to place more children with domestic families. Globally, the number of orphans being adopted by foreign parents dropped from a high of 45,000 in 2004 to an estimated 25,000 last year, according to annual statistics compiled by Peter Selman, an expert on international adoptions at Britain's Newcastle University.