Japan enacted Wednesday a law needed to ratify an international treaty to help settle cross-border child custody disputes, paving the way for implementation of the pact in Japan possibly early next year. The House of Councillors at its plenary session unanimously approved the legislation, which stipulates domestic implementation procedures for the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The parliament endorsed the treaty late last month.

By Chrystia Freeland NEW YORK (Reuters) - The past week has underscored one more way in which the lives of the super-rich are diverging from the lives of everyone else: The middle class is becoming a matriarchy, while the plutocracy remains firmly patriarchal.

SEOUL, May 30 (Yonhap) -- Kindergarten teachers who are caught abusing children will face stronger punishment such as a 10-year ban on establishing or working at childcare centers, the ruling party said Thursday. The measures, announced by the government earlier this month, plan to be introduced into law before the end of this year, the Saenuri Party said in a press release following a meeting with relevant government officials. The current punishment for child abuse is a maximum three-year ban on establishing or working at childcare centers.

WINNIPEG - A Manitoba woman who took care of Phoenix Sinclair for much of the girl's short life spent in and out of foster care set up camp on the lawn of the legislature Wednesday and started a hunger protest. Kim Edwards promised not to eat anything and drink only coffee, soda and water until she gets to talk to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and push for a national royal commission into the province's child welfare.