Brazil judge orders boy returned to father in US

BRASILIA: The Brazilian Supreme Court's top judge ruled yesterday (Beijing time) that Sean Goldman, the 9-year-old boy at the center of an international custody battle, must be reunited with his father and return to the United States.

The ruling is a major victory for his American father, David Goldman, who has been fighting a drawn-out custody battle that reached the top levels of the Brazil and US governments and threatened to sour relations.

The ruling by Brazil's chief justice in favor of an American man seeking to gain custody of his son has important resonances in an era of increasing international marriages, several legal experts told the Christian Science Monitor.