Adoption decision delayed

Lilongwe, Malawi – A High Court judge has postponed his ruling on a challenge to Madonna’s plans to adopt a Malawian baby.

Judge Andrew Nyirenda was unavailable to give his ruling Monday as he was attending a conference, Lilongwe High Court registrar Ken Manda said.

Manda said the ruling was now expected early next week.

Nyirenda was to rule on a challenge to the adoption proceedings by a coalition of human rights and child advocacy groups.

On Oct. 12, Nyirenda granted the 48-year-old pop star and her husband, filmmaker Guy Ritchie, an “interim order” allowing them to take 13-month-old David Banda to their home in London.

The rights groups argue the government cut legal corners to “fast track” the adoption because of Madonna’s celebrity status.

Yohane Banda, 32, has said he wants David to stay with Madonna and Ritchie, 38. On Friday, Banda married a woman who is three months pregnant.

Another drug relapse?

London – Pete Doherty was released on bail after he was arrested on suspicion of possessing crack cocaine, police said.

The on-off boyfriend of supermodel Kate Moss was arrested after he was spotted driving his car erratically near his east London home, police said.

The 27-year-old Babyshambles frontman, along with car’s other two occupants, were arrested on suspicion of drug possession.

All three men were released from Bethnal Green police station Sunday pending analysis of the substances recovered, said a Scotland Yard spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with force policy. They must report back to police next month.

Doherty was expelled from The Libertines in 2004 after band members issued an ultimatum for him to tackle his drug habit.

Romanian villagers sue ‘Borat’ makers

New York- Residents of a remote Romanian village filed a $30 million lawsuit Monday over their depiction in the hit movie “Borat,” accusing the filmmakers of misleading them into thinking the project was a documentary about poverty.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Manhattan on behalf of Nicolae Todorache and Spiridom Ciorebea, two residents of Glod, Romania, where residents were used as stand-ins for Kazakhs in the film.

The plaintiffs alleged that 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and others involved in the comedy exploited them, telling them the movie was a documentary about extreme poverty in Romania that would fairly depict their lives, occupations, heritage and beliefs.

“Nothing could have been further from the truth,” the lawsuit said. “The project was intended to portray the plaintiffs … and other villagers as rapists, abortionists, prostitutes, thieves, racists, bigots, simpletons and/or boors.”

In the movie, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen portrays a Kazakh journalist traveling across America in comic encounters that mock Americans. The film’s opening sequence showing Borat’s hometown in Kazakhstan is shot in Glod, 85 miles northwest of Bucharest.

Gregg Brilliant, a spokesman for 20th Century Fox, “Borat’s” distributor, said the movie “was never presented to anyone in Romania as a documentary.”

He said village residents were paid above the usual rate and mixed with professional actors and others to portray a fictional village.