David Banda, 13 months, arrives at Madonna and Guy Ritchie's London home wrapped in a blanket. Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty Images "What you're waiting for has already left," an anonymous police officer told Associated Press. David was being cared for at the Home for Hope charity in Malawi after his mother died a week after his birth. His father, Yohane Banda, was unable to support the child and was forced to put him in the orphanage. Malawi law prohibits adoptions by non-residents, but it was waived for Madonna and her film director husband. Emmie Chanika, director of Malawi's civil liberties committee, said: "The rich shouldn't get preferential treatment. I am fine with the idea of the adoption but I want people to go through the system. " Madonna's publicist, Liz Rosenberg, said in a statement that Madonna and Mr Ritchie and been granted temporary custody for 18 months, "during which time they will be evaluated by the courts of Malawi per the tribal customs of the country". "It's not my sense that she would want to expose the whole thing to public scrutiny," she said. Madonna, 48, travelled to Malawi in early October to visit several orphanages and to raise awareness about AIDS orphans, for whom she is building an orphanage and a child care centre. Television footage showed the star looking relaxed as she visited villages and danced with local women. Madonna and Mr Ritchie have a son, Rocco, six, and the singer also has a nine-year-old daughter, Lourdes.
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