The United States Tuesday refused to return to Guatemala a girl illegally adopted by a US couple in 2006 because at the time the South American nation had not yet signed onto an international treaty.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has asked the 193-member world body to extend the term of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay for a further two years, his press office said on Monday. Pillay's four-year term was due to end later this year. Ban gave no details on why he had asked Pillay - a former South African high court judge - to stay on. "The Secretary-General trusts the General Assembly will approve this extension," Ban's office said in a statement. ...

Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago.

The earliest known Mayan calendar has been found in an ancient house in Guatemala and it offers no hint that the world's end is imminent, researchers said Thursday.

The oldest-known version of the ancient Maya calendar has been discovered adorning a lavishly painted wall in the ruins of a city deep in the Guatemalan rainforest.

The number of international adoptions has fallen to its lowest point in 15 years, a steep decline attributed largely to crackdowns against baby-selling, a sputtering world economy and efforts by countries to place more children with domestic families.