*Britney Spears loses custody of children*

 From correspondents in Los Angeles

October 02, 2007 07:46am
Article from: Agence France-Presse

POP star Britney Spears has temporarily lost custody of her two sons
after a court battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline.

Federline "is to retain physical custody of the minor children on
Wednesday October 3, 2007 at 12pm until further order of the court,''
the official court documents said today.

The divorce between Spears, 25, and Federline, 29, became final at the
end of July, but their temporary shared custody arrangement for their
sons began to unravel amid allegations from Federline's camp that Spears
was an unfit mother.

A judge on September 18 ordered Spears to undergo random drug testing in
the latest twist in the bitter custody battle over Sean Preston, 2, and
Jayden James, 1.

Los Angeles Superior Court judge Scott Gordon said at the time that,
according to evidence presented in closed door hearings, Spears was a
"habitual, frequent, and continuous'' user of "controlled substances and
alcohol,'' court documents showed.

Her testing for the use of controlled substances and alcohol was to be
"conducted twice per week on random dates and times".