Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi government at the Centre of cancelling December 25 (Christmas Day) as a holiday. 

She claimed that earlier it was announced as a holiday but the present government at the Centre cancelled it. 

Banerjee raised the same issue while speaking at the inauguration of the ‘Kolkata Christmas Festival’ at Allen Park and later at St Xavier’s College where she attended pre-Christmas celebrations. 

“December 25 was earlier announced as a national holiday. The current government at the Centre has cancelled it. Our state observes a holiday on December 25,” she said.

The Chief Minister also expressed shock at Union Home minister Amit Shah’s recent remarks about BR Ambedkar. 

“I am shocked at the comments made about Babasaheb Ambedkar,” she said. 

A senior employee at the Danish embassy informed an adoption agency, among other things, about bribery, experts estimate.

The Danish embassy in Lebanon and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs were involved in controversial adoptions in the 1980s, where Lebanese children came to Denmark.

This is the assessment of several experts after reading correspondence between a Danish adoption agency and several high-ranking employees at the embassy.

DR was able to reveal yesterday that the adoption agency AC Børnehjælp has in some cases used bribes to get adoptions from Lebanon through - including through donations. In other cases, according to experts, the children were directly trafficked.

The story of how Anna came to Denmark

New podcast series from DR Dokumentar reveals that Danish adoption agency was involved in bribery and child trafficking in the 1980s.

In March 1983, the Danish adoption agency AC Børnehjælp received a typewritten letter from one of the agency's employees in Lebanon. It was a Danish woman whose job was to help the agency find children for adoption.

The letter stated that she had been put in touch with a Lebanese midwife who could provide children.

- Apparently she can give us the children we want, but the price is 21-25,000 DKK (the currency of the time, ed.). Nobody gets anything for free in Lebanon. Take it or leave it (...) I'm standing in line with people who are willing to pay any amount for the child.

Lige nu er det stort umuligt for barnløse danskere at adoptere børn fra udlandet, fordi skandaler på adoptionsområdet har sat al aktivitet på pause.

Og det er blevet vanskeligere at forestille sig, at barnløse danskere igen kan komme på venteliste til at adoptere børn fra udlandet. Sådan lød det fredag fra flere af partierne i Folketinget.

Flere partier overvejer nu, om det er tid til at opgive tanken om international adoption endegyldigt. Et af dem er Liberal Alliance, som har meget lidt tiltro til, at adoption fra udlandet kan genoptages på en forsvarlig måde.

The podcast series 'Falske Minder' reveals that a Danish adoption agency was involved in bribery and child trafficking in Lebanon in the 1980s.

"Sick", "scandalous" and "absolutely heartbreaking".

This is how social spokespeople from both the right and left describe the content of a new DR podcast series 'Falske Minder'.

The podcast tells the story of a series of adoptions from Lebanon to Denmark in the 1980s, which, according to experts, occurred through bribery or "outright child trafficking" .

Iresha and Inoka Knops, two sisters who were adopted from Sri Lanka in 1985 by Ine and Ed Knops, are committed to the future of their birth village. The ladies grew up in the Netherlands, but discovered by chance last year that their biological mother, a sister, four half-brothers and a half-sister are still alive. What started as an emotional reunion, resulted in a mission to help the community in their birth village.
 

The discovery of their biological mother came unexpectedly during a holiday of Iresha. "It was very special, emotional and very beautiful," the sisters say. Although they never planned to visit their biological family, the meeting brought peace. "It is nice to know that our adoption went well and that our biological mother supported it."

From support to action

During their visit, Iresha and Inoka were confronted with the poverty in their home village. Although they support their biological mother financially, they wanted to do more for their family and the rest of the community. “We didn’t just want to give money, but to ensure that people can develop and build a better future,” Iresha explains. The idea arose to set up a community college, with which they want to invest in education and development together with the Dutch Sampath Foundation.

A warm childhood in Sevenum

Berhampur: A three-month-old baby girl found her home after a Koraput-based couple legally adopted her, two months after being surrendered by her unwed mother in Gajapati district's R.Udayagiri block. 

In a brief ceremony held at Paralakhemundi on Wednesday, Gajapati collector Bijay Chandra Dash officially handed over the infant to the couple, following the Central Adoption Resources Authority (CARA) guidelines. The couple, who run a business in Kolkata, had waited nearly three years for this moment after registering with CARA, an autonomous statutory body under the ministry of women and child welfare. 

"The baby was surrendered to the district administration when she was just 20 days old, as her unwed mother was unable to care for her," said district child protection officer (DCPO) Arun Kumar Tripathy, who was present at the ceremony along with officials from the child care home where the infant had been provided shelter. 

Several adoptive families criticize the Family Court for not preparing them for the risk of repeated lawsuits against the children's biological parents.

Imagine that you adopt a child. A child that you have to provide care and security for, while also having to hold meetings in the Family Court, hire a lawyer and conduct legal proceedings because the child's biological parents want visitation.

As TV2 ØST has previously reported , this is the situation of a woman from Zealand who in 2023 adopted a forcibly adopted Danish child. 

"I never imagined that I would have contact with the legal system and that I would have to hire a lawyer. I've never done that before," says Julie. 

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Didier Reynders soupçonné d'avoir blanchi jusqu'à 800.000 euros en dix ans

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