A year ago this week a 7.6-magnitude earthquake shook northern Pakistan killing more than 80,000 people and leaving more than three million homeless.

Because of red tape, not one child orphaned in the disaster has been adopted. The Pakistan-Canada Association in Vancouver have been working to move things forward, but without much luck to date.

Another winter is coming and more than a million people are still living in makeshift shelters and tents. Only 17% of the 450,000 homeless households have begun building permanent homes.

How many children with no one to care for them won't make it to Spring?

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Blah, blah blah.

Okay ... Who knew Madonna's husband has adoption issues? Apparently, he does and they are causing some rumored friction.

Guy has first hand experience of adoption as his mother, Lady Amber, gave up her first baby and he is worried his wife has not fully thought through her plans.

A friend told Britain's The Sun newspaper: "Madonna is convinced it is the right thing to do but Guy has been very wary.

"It has led to some serious arguments and put a lot of pressure on their marriage."

Whatever ...

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A report from India has me doing some head scratching today. Seems a nation-wide ban on child labor in domestic service and the hospitality industry took effect yesterday and many are worried about who'll be bringing home the bacon if Junior can't.

Talk of some 'poverty eradication schemes' are talked about, and, "Families below the poverty line or those dependent on the income of their siblings would be identified and provided with jobs under various government schemes ... "

So, will this help?

India has banned children under the age of 14 from working as domestic servants or at hotels, tea shops, restaurants and resorts. The ban comes into effect on October 10 and carries a jail term of up to two years and a maximum fine of Rs20,000. While this move has been welcomed by activists, the big question is, will it really work?

“It is a step in the right direction. For the first time we are talking about children working as domestic help and in the hotel industry. This is important as these two industries account for the largest percentage of child workers in Mumbai,” says Santosh Shinde, of Bal Prafulta, a child rights organisation. “We will appeal to housing societies, and also counsel them on how these children can be helped,” he says.

It's all well and good to insist that kids be allowed to be kids and to legislate against little ones working, but in many places work means food, and no work means starvation. If an eight-year old is forbidden to wait tables, there are far more unsavory duties someone will be happy to pay for.

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A doctor in Nigeria was one of six people arrested for suspected involvement in the sale of children.

Borno state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, made this known at a news briefing on Friday in Maiduguri.

Abubakar said that police intelligence officers got information that the suspect, a medical doctor by profession, had been conniving with some of his staff and selling children delivered in the maternity.

He said the medical doctor, whose name was being withheld, together with one of his staff, through an intermediary, had in April this year sold a newly born baby at the cost of N30,000 to a woman now at large.

Where these babies may have been going is not mentioned in the story, but you can bet international adoption does not enter into this tragedy.