You may have heard the story about single dad Chris Savoie, whose former Japanese wife abducted the children to Japan. Savoie, who has been awarded full custody of the children here in the U.S., tried to bring his children back to their home, but was detained by Japanese authorities. He is now back home in Tennessee, without his children.

CBS had a chance to interview Savoie and talked to him about the experience he made and the painful return, leaving his children behind. There is another interview with Savoie’s lawyer that discusses Savoie’s imprisonment and the legal path ahead of him.

Eight countries have officially asked Japan to join an international child abduction treaty signed by 81 countries around the globe in 1980. Japan has been known as a haven for child abduction in cases where one parent has Japanese citizenship. Japanese law does not provide any room for international parents to get their children back home, if a child is brought to Japan.

Japans new justice minister Keiko Chiba met with representatives envoys from Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and the United States late last week to discuss the child custody issue. According to a report published by AFP, a foreign parent is not denied access to the child in international divorce cases.

There is an interesting case currently being heard by the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. Jose Padilla, a Honduran-born immigrant faces deportation after pleading guilty to felony marijuana trafficking, but he claims that he received bad advice from his lawyer and wants the court to void his guilty plea.

The case is not only interesting for the almost 13 million legal immigrants living in the U.S., but also to many other cases that may have been impacted by bad advice from lawyers, including those that meant a loss of child custody.

Parental Rights has a fascinating two-part article on PAS, or Parental Alienation Syndrome. Forensic psychologist Deirde Rand takes a very scientific approach to the topic and if you were ever concerned about PAS and the difference to general parental alienation, then this is a great read for single parents.

Rand’s articles shed some light on Richard Gardner’s work, who first has come up with the term of Parental Alienation Syndrome and examines its significance in legal proceedings as well as their connection to child abuse reports. Deirde states that “there seems to be an increase in PAS type cases of accusations by the alienating parent that it is the alienated parent who is practicing PAS.”

MrCustodyCoach posted an interesting number about child abductions the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, between 300,000 and 400,000 children are abducted by parents each year. And no, the majority of these “kidnappings” do not happen during the divorce battle.

The writer concludes that the patterns of behavior ”are indicative of the reality that mothers are overwhelmingly the primary or sole custodial parent.” So, what do you do to protect your kid and yourself from parental abductions? MrCustodyCoach has a few simple tips what you can do. A useful read if you believe your former spouse could “kidnap your child”.