No Baby for Elton John

Sad news for Elton John today. He and his partner David Furnish were hoping to adopt a fourteen-month old HIV-positive baby boy from the Ukraine, but John's request has been denied. The government's reported reasons are that he is too old and not married.

In the Ukraine, law requires that to adopt a child, you must be no more than forty-five years older than him. John is sixty-two. And though he and Furnish have a legal civil union in England, it is not recognized in the Ukraine.

John said: "I don't know how we do that, but he has stolen my heart. And he has stolen David's heart and it would be wonderful if we can have a home."

But Family, Youth and Sports Minister Yuriy Pavlenko said: "Elton John will not be able to adopt a Ukrainian child and if he files that request we will unfortunately deny it. The law is the same for everybody: for a president, for a minister, for Elton John."

We know plenty about celebrity adoptions gone wrong these days, but we also know that Elton John would probably give this baby a better home than the orphanage he's living in now.