Madonna attends adoption hearing

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The American pop star, dressed in a black skirt and black high heels, entered the courthouse in the capital, Lilongwe, through a back door and left about an hour later.

The one adoption case on the court docket lists only the child's name - Chifundo James. The case was to be heard in a closed session before Judge Esme Chombo.

A welfare official and another person involved in the case said Madonna hopes to adopt a four-year-old girl whose mother died soon after her birth.

She adopted her son David, three, in Malawi last year.

Children's advocacy groups have accused her of wielding her immense wealth and influence to circumvent Malawian law requiring an 18- to 24-month assessment period before adoption.

Madonna brought both David and her 12-year-old daughter, Lourdes, to Malawi this time.

David then spent two and a half hours with his biological father at an exclusive lodge where the pop star is staying.

"I was very happy to see him," Yohane Banda said, adding that David did not recognise him. "He asked me who I was."

Madonna first travelled to Malawi in 2006 while doing charity work and filming a documentary on the devastating poverty and Aids crisis.