Chef Marcus Samuelsson sits down with Kristen Welker for a “Meet the Moment” conversation about the essential role restaurant workers play in American life and how immigration raids are threatening the people who “are adding to the American experience.”

Mumbai: A four-year-old girl, kidnapped from near Mumbai CSMT railway station in May, was traced to a Varanasi orphanage, from where she was taken into custody by police and reunited with her family, an official said on Friday.
 

Investigations revealed the girl was abandoned by the roadside by the kidnapper and a woman, on spotting the child alone, took her to the orphanage in the Uttar Pradesh city, he said.
 

A case was registered at the Mata Ramabai Ambedkar (MRA) Marg police station on May 23 after the girl was kidnapped by a man aged around 25 while her parents, originally hailing from Solapur district in western Maharashtra, were asleep near Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) station, the official said.
 

During probe, the police examined CCTV footage from the station premises and spotted a man walking away with the child, he said.
 

It was also revealed the kidnapper boarded a local train to Dadar and alighted at Kurla before proceeding to Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT), from where long-distance trains depart.

Suspecting the girl was taken to Uttar Pradesh, a Mumbai police team later travelled several times to Varanasi, but could not trace the child initially, he said.

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From: Köhler, Wolfgang

Date: Mon 24. Apr 2023 at 11:58

Subject: AW: Anfrage unter dem Informationsfreiheitsgesetz

To: Arun Dohle

Cc: Reschke, Jan , Gross, Markus , Ingenerf-Huber, Elisabeth

Received under IFG

In 2016, LWB decided to expand our successful family-based care model to India. We knew that implementing foster care there would be challenging due to cultural and administrative difficulties. Despite the government passing national laws to promote foster care, most Indian families and officials still see orphanages as the default solution for children without parental care. 

It took us three full years to find a locally-run organization that fit with LWB’s child-centered model for foster care. In 2019, we connected with YCDA (Youth Council for Development Alternatives), who are located in rural Odisha, one of the poorest states in India. For the last six years, we have worked together to help orphaned and vulnerable children grow up in families, not institutions. 

Recently, our local team member, Rini, spent time with the children in our foster care program, asking them simple questions about their daily lives, dreams, and favorite things. Their answers, some quite touching, reveal how much a nurturing foster home can mean to a child who once faced uncertainty.

In this story, we’re sharing some of the children’s responses along with a closer look at how foster care in India is helping children in Odisha grow up surrounded by compassion and hope.

After peaking in 2004, the annual number of international adoptions to the United States has fallen by 94% as of 2023, according to the most recent available U.S. State Department data.

The State Department recorded 22,988 international adoptions to the U.S. in fiscal year 2004. That number dropped to 1,275 in fiscal 2023.

International adoptions have also decreased as a share of all adoptions in the U.S.

Since 1999, most international adoptees to the U.S. have come from one of five countries: China (29%), Russia (16%), Guatemala (10%), South Korea (8%) or Ethiopia (6%). All five have moved to limit international adoptions in recent years:

PANAJI: A four-year-old boy from Canacona, who suffered grave injuries including a deep cut allegedly inflicted by his mother, has been moved to the Apna Ghar shelter in Merces as per the directions of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

The child, initially treated at Goa Medical College (GMC) where he underwent surgery and began recovering, was transferred to the care facility by the Bicholim Police. Meanwhile, Canacona Police have lodged a case against the mother, though no arrests have been made yet.

Social activists have expressed alarm over possible irregularities in the boy’s adoption, claiming it may not have followed the proper legal process.

Some have even suggested that the incident could be linked to a potential child trafficking racket.

In light of these allegations, the police have given the woman one day to provide proof of her biological connection to the child through DNA verification.

Citing the 'best interest of the child', the Supreme Court reunited two kids with their adoptive parents, even as the criminal probe continues.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court, in a Monday order, invoked its extraordinary jurisdiction to unite two children separated from their adoptive parents, who are facing criminal prosecution in Telangana. The parents are accused of allegedly paying a tout to buy the children, in contravention of the statutory framework for adoptions.

A bench led by B.V. Nagarathna took an “empathetic” view in the case as it directed the state to return the children to the adoptive parents. The direction was issued even though a criminal probe is pending against the parents for allegedly violating the adoption rulebook.

The state has had the custody of the children since an investigation into the allegations of child trafficking began last year.

In its order, which came on the parents’ appeal, the bench observed that the children had lived with their adoptive parents for nearly 20 months before the state took their custody when the trafficking charges surfaced. In the interests of the children who had spent considerable time with their parents, the bench allowed the kids to return home.

Woody Allen's adopted son, enraged by his father's affair with the boy's older sister, wrote an anguished letter saying he wished the actor would kill himself, according to evidence presented in court Tuesday.

"If you take us to court you are the one who is going to be sorry," said the letter purportedly from Moses Farrow. "I hope you get so humiliated that you commit suicide."

The undated letter was shown as Allen was cross-examined on the third day of his fight to get custody of 14-year-old Moses, 7-year-old Dylan and 5-year-old Satchel.

Farrow, who had a 12-year relationship on- and off-screen with Allen, sat staring at her ex-lover or scribbling notes during his time on the stand.