Photos of Anna Nicole Smith in bed with Bahamas immigration minister revive scandal
By Michael Melia
Associated Press Writer
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) – Photographs of Anna Nicole Smith in bed embracing the Bahamian immigration minister who approved her application for permanent residency here revived a political scandal in the islands Monday.,”Nation:
Photos of Anna Nicole Smith in bed with Bahamas immigration minister revive scandal
By Michael Melia
Associated Press Writer
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) – Photographs of Anna Nicole Smith in bed embracing the Bahamian immigration minister who approved her application for permanent residency here revived a political scandal in the islands Monday.
Also Monday, the son-in-law of the American developer embroiled in an ownership dispute over the Nassau mansion where Smith was living said he found methadone in her bedroom refrigerator when he went to secure the estate following her death in Florida last week.
A private pathologist has said methadone contributed to the death of Smith's 20-year-old son Daniel in the Bahamas in September. Daniel Smith died while visiting his mother and newborn half-sister in a Bahamas hospital and an inquest into his death in the Bahamas is planned.
Two photographs published on the front page of The Tribune of Nassau Monday showed Smith and Immigration Minister Shane Gibson, both fully clothed, embracing on a bed decorated with pink flowers and a white ribbon. In one of the photos, they look into each other's eyes, their faces only a couple of inches apart.
Gibson, an elected member of Parliament from the ruling Progressive Liberal Party, has already been accused of showing Smith preferential treatment by fast-tracking her residency application last year. With general elections due this spring, many said the photographs, taken in Smith's bedroom, could damage the ruling party.
Woodward, Novak testify how Bush officials volunteered information about CIA operative
By Michael J. Sniffen
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) – Three prominent journalists testified Monday that Bush administration officials volunteered leaks about a CIA operative, as I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's attorneys sought to suggest he was not responsible for exposing her.
The jury in Libby's perjury trial heard a 66-second snippet of one of the deep background interviews given to Washington Post editor Bob Woodward for use in one of his books. They also saw a parade of Pulitzer-prize winning journalists discuss who did and did not leak the information that set off a scandal and ultimately brought Libby to trial.
Woodward, who never wrote about Plame, and columnist Robert Novak, who first identified her in print, testified that then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage first told them in the summer of 2003 that the wife of prominent Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame, worked at the CIA.
Another Post reporter, Walter Pincus, testified that then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer "suddenly swerved off" topic during an interview to tell him of her employment.
This contradicted a point in Fleischer's testimony last week.
A major government witness, Fleischer testified Libby told him about Plame earlier than Libby has told investigators he thought he first learned about her from NBC reporter Tim Russert.
On cross-examination, Fleischer also testified that he did not recall telling Pincus about Plame. The reporter's testimony Monday was the most direct hit the defense made on the prosecution's evidence that Libby lied to FBI agents and a grand jury about his talks with reporters about Plame and obstructed an investigation into how her name leaked.
Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is not charged with the actual leak.
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Harley temporarily lays off 440 workers in Wis. because of strike
By Emily Fredrix
MILWAUKEE (AP) – Harley-Davidson Inc. on Monday temporarily laid off 440 employees at plants where key motorcycle parts such as engines and windshields are made as a strike at its largest production plant entered a second week.
Some 240 employees were temporarily laid off at a production plant in the north central Wisconsin community of Tomahawk, said Bob Klein, a spokesman for the Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker. About 200 workers were laid off at plants in southeast Wisconsin as well, he said, and the company could lay off an additional 300 workers in that region.
Some 2,800 union workers in York, Pa., have been striking since Feb. 2 at the plant where top-selling, heavyweight Touring and Softail bikes are made. Harley employs about 7,600 people at plants in the U.S.
The temporary layoffs in Wisconsin were both voluntary and forced, Klein said, though he declined to say how many were forced. He said it's unclear when the employees will return to work at the plants.
"It just depends on how long the strike lasts," he said.
Klein said negotiations over a contract proposal will continue Wednesday in York with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 175. These will not be attended by a federal negotiator, he said. Two federally mediated sessions last week failed to produce a solution.
Harley said last week that the strike would cause it to miss shipment expectations for the first quarter. The company had expected to ship between 82,000 and 84,000 bikes during the first three months of the year. Harley declined to provide updated shipment expectations for the first quarter and would not say whether the strike will affect financial guidance for the full year.
Avery murder trial begins in death of female photographer
By Carrie Antlfinger
Associated Press Writer
CHILTON, Wis. (AP) – Deputies were so convinced Steven Avery was guilty that they planted evidence backing up their assumption that he killed a 25-year-old photographer, and once again they arrested him for a crime he didn't commit, his attorney told jurors Monday.
Avery, 44, is accused of killing Teresa Halbach and burning her body on Halloween 2005. He had been released from prison two years earlier after serving 18 years for a rape that DNA analysis showed another man committed.
But special prosecutor Ken Kratz told jurors he would fit together pieces of a puzzle that prove Avery killed Halbach, including testimony from the same DNA analyst who helped clear Avery in 2003.
Halbach disappeared after going to the Avery family's auto salvage lot to take pictures of a minivan for sale. Her charred remains were found later in a burn pit.
Avery is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, false imprisonment and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Lawyers gave opening statements Monday in a trial that Kratz said could last six weeks.
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