ELTON JOHN TURNS TO AFRICA FOR ADOPTION

Following the refusal by the Ukraine to allow Sir Elton John to adopt a 14 month old orphan, the singer and his partner, David Furnish, may look to Africa for a child.

According to the Telegraph, Furnish recently said at a function: “We were in Africa for the [Sir Elton John] Aids Foundation and met a boy, and immediately thought about adopting him.”

He added, however: “When we found out he had a maternal grandmother, and brother and sister, we realised it wouldn’t be the right thing to take him away from the family he had there.”

John expressed his interest in adopting the Ukrainian boy to journalists during a visit last month to an orphanage in the Eastern European country.

Ukrainian officials said that John was ineligible to adopt the child because of his age and that only married couples can do so in the Ukraine. The country does not recognise the star’s British-registered union with partner David Furnish.

Furnish said that the couple would not challenge the Ukrainian government on the issue.