Madonna has had her application to adopt a second child from Malawi approved by the southern African country's highest court.
The Judge rules today Friday in favor of the singer, overturning a previous lower court decision which it said was not in touch with the times.
Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo also said the on going commitment to helping disadvantaged children by the Madonna should have been taken into account when deciding on the original request to adopt 3-year-old Chifundo "Mercy" James.
Madonna founded a charity, Raising Malawi, which helps feed, educate and provide medical care for some of Malawi's more than 1 million orphans, half of whom have lost parents to AIDS.
Child welfare groups had raised concern that rules meant to protect children were being bent because of Madonna's celebrity, and perhaps out of gratitude for what she has done for the country. Malawi is one of the world's poorest and most AIDS-ravaged countries in the African continent.
Madonna had appealed against a lower court ruled she could not adopt the girl because the singer had not spent enough time in Malawi. waith the same court pointing out that residency rules had been bent when Madonna adopted her son David from Malawi in 2008.
The upper court though felt that it had taken a narrow interpretation based on old laws, and that it is possible in a globalized world to be resident in more than one place at a time.
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