FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The question of who will inherit Anna Nicole Smith's estate was thrown into confusion Friday with the release of a 2001 will in which the former Playboy centerfold said her fortune should be held in trust for her son - who died last year.

The 19-page will did not say how much Smith was worth, so it is still a mystery how much money those battling over her and her baby daughter could get.

The document said Smith's lawyer and boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, should be her executor and hold her estate in trust for son Daniel Smith. But he died last September at age 20 of apparently drug-related causes, days after the birth of the pinup's daughter, Dannielynn.

And the will explicitly leaves out anything for anyone other than the son.

"I have intentionally omitted to provide for my spouse and other heirs, including future spouses and children and other descendants now living and those hereafter born or adopted," Smith said in the will, which was signed under her legal name, Vickie Lynn Marshall.

Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin ordered the release of the will in the latest round in the tangled legal dispute that broke out after the voluptuous blonde died at a Florida hotel Feb. 8 at age 39. The cause of death is under investigation.

A lawyer for Smith's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, immediately challenged the will. Stephen Tunstall called the document a "phantom will," saying it was not filed in court, so it is not valid.

"They say he is an executor. You are not an executor or a personal representative unless a court appoints you," Tunstall said.

But Stern attorney Ron Rale said: "The judge wanted it produced, but we won't depend on it for our case."

Chris Boyett, a trust and estate lawyer not connected to the Smith case, said that since Smith's son is dead, the court will probably treat her estate as if she had died without a will, meaning her estate would by law go to her baby daughter.

"I don't think the result will be that it goes to no one," Boyett said. "I think the courts are going to find a beneficiary, and I think the beneficiary is going to be the minor child."

But Jeff Baskies, another lawyer who is not involved in the case, said that it was unclear who should get Smith's estate and that it would depend on the laws in the place where she claimed residency when she died. Smith had a home in the Bahamas.

The document was released hours after the judge - who is trying to broker a three-way dispute over the body - gave the OK to embalm Smith's remains.

Stern and Arthur are fighting over where Smith should be buried and who will get custody of the baby. Stern, who is listed as the baby's father on the birth certificate, says Smith wanted to be buried next to her son in the Bahamas. Arthur wants her buried in Smith's home state of Texas.

A third figure in the dispute, photographer Larry Birkhead, claims to have fathered Dannielynn and won permission to take DNA from Smith's body in hopes of proving it. It was Birkhead's DNA request that had held up the embalming.

The will did not say where Smith wanted to be buried. Nor did it mention her mother.

The judge ordered Stern, who was in the Bahamas and did not attend Friday's hearing, to appear in court Tuesday when the case resumes.

"This is a struggle for all of us," the judge said. "Let everyone perspire here."

Smith was the widow of Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, whom she married in 1994 when he was 89 and she was 26. She had been fighting his family over his estimated half-billion-dollar fortune since his death in 1995.

Anna Nicole Smith wanted now-dead son to have her estate, according to 2001 will

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Anna Nicole Smith said in a 2001 will that her estate should be given to her longtime companion to hold in trust for her son, who has died, according to a copy released Friday.

The document said Howard K. Stern should hold the former Playboy playmate's estate should be held in trust for her son, Daniel, who died last year, three days after Smith gave birth to a daughter.

"I have intentionally omitted to provide for my spouse and other heirs, including future spouses and children and other descendants now living and those hereafter born or adopted," Smith said in the will.

Stern and two other men claim to have fathered Smith's daughter, Dannielynn.

The will did not say where Smith wanted to be buried, but named Stern as her executor.

Stephen Tunstall, the attorney for Smith's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, called the document a "phantom will," saying it is not valid because it was not filed in court.

The will was released hours after a judge approved the embalming of Smith's remains and tried to broker an agreement among the three people fighting over her body.

Lengthy legal fights still loomed over where she will be buried and who will get custody of the daughter. A hearing over Smith's final resting place was in its third day when it stopped around noon Friday for the Presidents Day weekend. The hearing was to resume Tuesday.

Stern is trying to get control of Smith's remains, as is Arthur. Photographer Larry Birkhead hopes Smith's DNA will help prove he fathered Dannielynn. Stern is listed as the father on the girl's birth certificate.

Friday's proceedings moved out of Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin's chambers and into a courtroom to accommodate the horde of media and attorneys.

Seidlin warned attorneys he would schedule as many sessions as it takes to resolve the issue. He ordered Stern, who did not attend Friday's hearing, to appear in court Tuesday since he wants control of her body.

"This is a struggle for all of us," the judge said.

Stern, who isn't related to the radio host with a similar name, has said Smith wanted to be buried next to her son in the Bahamas. Arthur wants Smith buried in her home state of Texas.

Smith, 39, died Feb. 8 after collapsing at a Florida hotel. Her cause of death is not known.

In California, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, filed legal documents Thursday seeking a DNA test to determine if he fathered the baby. Von Anhalt, who says he is 59, has said he and Smith had a decade-long affair.

Also in California, the state medical board is investigating a doctor who may have prescribed methadone to Smith through a prescription that contained an alias.

The Medical Board of California began looking at Dr. Sandeep Kapoor after receiving information about possible misconduct, board spokeswoman Candis Cohen said. Cohen declined to give details on the allegation or its source but said it was connected to Smith.

Among other things, the board is investigating whether it is legal to prescribe drugs for someone using an alias, Cohen said. She described the review as routine and said the board is obligated to review all allegations of physician misconduct.

A woman who answered the telephone at a listing for Kapoor in Los Angeles hung up when The Associated Press called Thursday.

Smith was the widow of Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, whom she married in 1994 when he was 89 and she was 26. She had been fighting his family over his fortune since his death in 1995.

- Associated Press writers Noaki Schwartz and Jeremiah Marquez in Los Angeles and Jason Bronis in Nassau, Bahamas, contributed to this report.

Mexican court clears extradition of TV bounty hunter Duane 'Dog' Chapman from Hawaii

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) - A federal court has cleared the way for TV bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman to be extradited to face charges in Mexico, but the decision can still be appealed.

Norma Jara, a spokeswoman for the second district court in Guadalajara, said Thursday the court rejected Chapman's injunction request, ruling there was no reason not to try him on charges he illegally arrested Max Factor makeup heir and convicted rapist Andrew Luster in 2003.

"We only just heard about the Mexican court's decision to continue with the extradition proceedings, and are still in shock," Chapman and his wife, Beth, said in a statement issued Thursday night in Honolulu.

"Our attorneys have not even been formally informed of the court's decision, as of yet. We are obviously deeply disappointed and fearful of what will happen, and are currently absorbing the news and discussing our options at this time."

Once Chapman has been formally notified of the decision, he has five days to file an appeal that could block his extradition.

Mexican authorities have already asked for Chapman's extradition from Hawaii.

Chapman's lawyers argue he would not be guaranteed a fair trial in Mexico.

The charges against the 53-year-old star of the A&E reality series "Dog the Bounty Hunter" stem from his June 2003 capture of Luster in Puerto Vallarta. Luster had fled to Mexico to avoid trial, and his detention by Chapman led to his return to the U.S. and a 124-year prison term.

Luster's capture shot the Honolulu-based bounty hunter to fame and led to the TV series.

Chapman, who is now free on $300,000 bail, faces up to four years in a Mexican jail if convicted. But his Mexican lawyer, Jorge Huerta, doubts he would get the maximum. Huerta said illegal detention is a relatively minor crime in Mexico, and that if Chapman is convicted, he would likely only have to pay a fine of several hundred dollars.

On the Net:

A&E:

http://www.aetv.com/

Ricky Martin defends obscene gesture made during Puerto Rico show as he sang Bush's name

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Ricky Martin, who was a headliner at the 2001 inauguration ball for President George W. Bush, has a message for the American commander in chief about war.

At a recent concert, the 35-year-old singer stuck up his middle finger when he sang the president's name in his song "Asignatura Pendiente," which includes the words, "a photo with Bush." The gesture last Friday prompted cheers from thousands of fans in the San Juan stadium.

On Thursday, the Puerto Rican heartthrob repeated his criticism of the Iraq war and explained his changed position on Bush.

"My convictions of peace and life go beyond any government and political agenda and as long as I have a voice onstage and offstage, I will always condemn war and those who promulgate it," Martin said about his action in an e-mail statement sent to The Associated Press via a spokesman.

Martin, like other artists, has been highly critical of the war in Iraq.

Best known to international audiences for his smash hit "Livin' la Vida Loca," Martin is a huge star in Puerto Rico, where symbols of national identity - such as the Puerto Rican flag and anthem - are widely adored, and residents have complicated feelings about Washington.

The United States seized Puerto Rico in 1898 at the end of the Spanish-American War.

Puerto Rico's 4 million people are U.S. citizens and can be drafted into the military but cannot vote for president and have no voting representation in Congress. They also do not pay federal taxes.

On the Net:

Ricky Martin:

http://www.rickymartin.com/

Cameron Diaz wins damages from National Enquirer over 'smooching' report

LONDON (AP) - Cameron Diaz accepted "substantial" damages from American Media Inc., publisher of the National Enquirer, on Friday for alleging that she had an affair with a married man, her lawyer said.

Simon Smith, a partner with the London law firm Schillings, told London's High Court that the article alleged that Diaz had a "smooching session" with a married producer who worked on her MTV show, "Trippin."' The article was posted to the magazine's Web site in May 2005.

After Diaz complained, the photographs were removed from the Enquirer's Web site and were not published in editions of the magazine distributed in Britain.

The lawsuit was settled out of court, Smith said, and the terms of the agreement were confidential. In court, he said the damages paid were "substantial."

In a statement read to the high court Friday, the magazine "apologized unreservedly" for any distress caused to the 34-year-old Diaz, her former boyfriend Justin Timberlake, as well as the producer and his wife.

Sam Howard, the Enquirer's lawyer, said the magazine "entirely accepts that the allegations were without foundation and ought never to have been published."

It was the second settlement in the case for Diaz: In July 2005, The Sun paid the actress - star of the "Charlie's Angels" films and "There's Something About Mary" - undisclosed damages after settling out of court over the same story.

Paris Hilton attends Vienna Opera Ball, goes skiing as she prepares to celebrate 26th birthday

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - She could have danced all night. Instead, she stifled yawns.

Hotel heiress/reality TV star Paris Hilton certainly didn't look like she was having a ball Thursday night at the Vienna Opera Ball, Austria's society event of the year.

Live TV coverage repeatedly showed her looking bored as she sat in her luxury box at the State Opera House.

As debutantes in white dresses and their escorts in black tuxedos and tails marched into the ornate ballroom, Hilton was seen resting her head in her hands, absentmindedly flipping through the program and fiddling with her mobile phone.

"Look how excited she is," deadpanned a commentator for public television station ORF, which broadcast the ball live.

Hilton was the guest of Richard Lugner, a 74-year-old married construction magnate who invites a celebrity each year. His previous guests have included Geri Halliwell, Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra.

The annual Opera Ball draws about 4,500 well-heeled Austrian and foreign celebrities, dignitaries and socialites. Tickets often sell out months in advance.

On Friday, Hilton headed to the Tyrolean ski resort of Ischgl to celebrate her 26th birthday - which is Saturday - with a bit of skiing.

The festivities there included a Paris Hilton look-a-like contest and the "Paris Life Show" - photos of her growing up. Hilton planned to shed a white coat to symbolize the passing of another year, organizers said.

"It's great to be back in Ischgl, and I'm looking forward to my birthday," said Hilton, accompanied by her brother, Barron, and cousin Brooke Brinson.

Hilton said the Vienna ball was "great."

"People were so beautifully dressed," she told reporters.

The only hassle: "Too many cameras."

10 Americans ordered to leave Belarus over alleged religious activity

MINSK, Belarus (AP) - Ten Americans left Belarus on Friday after authorities ordered them deported for allegedly singing religious songs and reading spiritual literature, in violation of laws restricting religious activity in the former Soviet republic.

The Americans "preferred to leave Belarus voluntarily" after authorities decided they should be deported, said Interior Ministry spokesman Oleg Slepchenko.

Slepchenko said police raided what was supposed to be a seminar in conversational English at an evangelical Protestant church in the eastern city of Mogilev. He said police found bibles on the tables, and participants were singing religious songs instead of talking.

The Americans, who arrived in Belarus Feb. 5, were fined and warned they were violating the law with their activities, Slepchenko said. But authorities later caught them repeating the alleged violations, he said.

Distrust of foreign missionaries and Protestant churches is strong in many largely Orthodox Christian and Muslim nations of the former Soviet Union.

President Alexander Lukashenko, accused by the West of crushing democracy in Belarus, signed legislation in 2002 that strongly favors the dominant Russian Orthodox church and limits the activities of smaller religious groups.

The United States has criticized the government of Belarus, a nation of 10 million, for discriminating against minority religions.

Lawyer's $15.7 million fee in Nazi-looted art case is too high, Dutch court rules

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A lawyer's $15.7 million fee for negotiating the return of art stolen by the Nazis was too high, a Dutch court ruled Friday.

Lawyer Roelof van Holthe tot Echten submitted the multimillion-dollar bill for arranging the return of hundreds of works that had belonged to a Jewish art dealer who fled the Netherlands at the start of World War II.

Jacques Goudstikker's American heirs contested the bill, so the lawyer sought to block the return of 198 works being held by the Dutch government until he was paid 20 percent of the estimated value.

Goudstikker's daughter-in-law, Marei von Saher, and his granddaughters Charlene and Chantal von Saher, who live in Connecticut, refused, offering to pay an hourly rate instead.

The Hague District Court sided in part with the descendants, allowing them to ship the works to the United States.

It awarded Van Holthe tot Echten at least $2.5 million, or $425 per hour, but suggested that amount should be quadrupled to $10 million to reflect the risk the lawyer took in working on the case for so long with uncertain prospects for payment.

"A multiplication factor of four is not unreasonable, under the given circumstances," the court said in its written ruling. It left it up to both sides to negotiate the exact amount.

The ruling opens the question of what the Goudstikker heirs will be left with in the end. Evidence cited in the ruling suggested another Dutch lawyer might seek up to 20 percent of the value of the collection, U.S. lawyers another 10 percent, and a U.S. art historian who helped research the case yet another 10 percent.

Christie's estimated the collection, which includes masterpieces by Jan Steen and Salomon van Ruysdael, is worth $79 million to $110 million.

Goudstikker, who in the 1930s was the Netherlands' biggest art dealer, fled at the start of the war with his wife and young son, leaving behind an estimated 1,300 artworks.

He died after falling through a trap door on an outbound ship.

After the Nazis invaded, around 800 pieces of artwork were seized by Hitler's right-hand man, Hermann Goering. About 300 of them, mostly by Dutch artists, were returned to the government after the war.

A few were auctioned, but 267 works worth tens of millions of dollars remained in art museums around the Netherlands.

Goudstikker's daughter-in-law began seeking the recovery of the Dutch works in 1996, but the courts upheld a 1952 settlement with Goudstikker's widow, Desiree. She had accepted a bad deal rather than nothing, under protest and not knowing the extent of the Dutch government's holdings.

But after an international debate began in the late 1990s on compensating Jews for stolen Holocaust-era assets, an independent commission recommended the Dutch government return the works.

Hundreds of other works Goering took, including pieces by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Velasquez, Goya, Rubens, Brueghel, Titian and Tintoretto, remain lost.

A handful of others were returned to the family by buyers after their origin became known, including the Israel Museum, Germany's Lower Saxony State Museum and one owned by a private American collector.

Russian prosecutors detail charges against imprisoned tycoon Khodorkovsky

MOSCOW (AP) - Prosecutors released more details Friday on new theft and money laundering charges against a jailed former oil tycoon and increased by $2 billion the amount of money they say he and his partner stole from subsidiaries of OAS Yukos.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, was arrested in 2003 in a tax probe that eventually put Yukos into state hands. He is serving an eight-year prison sentence after being convicted of fraud and tax evasion in a politically charged trial widely seen as a Kremlin-driven punishment for challenging President Vladimir Putin.

A statement from the Prosecutor General's Office alleges that from 1998 to 2003, Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev stole property worth nearly 900 billion rubles - the equivalent of $34.3 billion at the current exchange rate - from Yukos subsidiaries.

In a statement a week ago, prosecutors said that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev had stolen oil worth more than $32.3 billion at the current exchange rate from the subsidiaries. Lebedev is also serving an eight-year sentence and was indicted this month on the same new charges.

The latest account gave more precise details of the charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, which center on allegations they organized the illegal acquisition of crude oil from Yukos subsidiaries as "well fluid" and then sold it at a higher price through a web of trading companies.

The prosecutors also said that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev organized the theft in 1998 of shares belonging to the state in the Eastern Oil Co., which enabled them to cement their control of Yukos.

Khodorkovsky's legal team has long insisted that the company's business structure was legal and had been meticulously audited by foreign consultants to meet international standards.

Thailand deems one star's little black dress a little too sexy

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - A young actress' skimpy dress has sparked a national outcry in Thailand, fueling debate in opinion pages and chat rooms and earning her a public reprimand.

The black dress in question was long, body-hugging and split from Chotiros Suriyawong's cleavage to her hip by a 3-inch wide slit held together by thin strips of fabric.

Chotiros, a 22-year-old liberal arts major at Thammasat University, one of the country's most respected academic institutions, wore it at the Feb. 9 Golden Swan awards ceremony, Thailand's equivalent of the Oscars.

The dress is said to have been inspired by Elizabeth Hurley's infamous Versace safety-pin dress, which grabbed the spotlight for the British beauty when she wore it to a London film premiere in 1994.

For Chotiros, a relative unknown with mainly small roles in low-budget films, the little black dress brought unwelcome attention.

She was reprimanded by her production company and ordered by her university to do community service and make a public apology for her attire.

The Culture Ministry also weighed in, calling Chotiros' choice of dress "very inappropriate" and the wrong message for a public role model to send to young Thais.

University officials summoned Chotiros on Thursday to mete out disciplinary action, but determined that suspension or dismissal was too severe.

Instead they ordered her to perform 15 days of community service by reading to the blind.

"Since she repented and acknowledged her wrongdoing, we will have to give her a chance," Thammasat's vice rector, Parinya Thewanarumitkul, said.

Chotiros' film production company has edited out her role in one of its upcoming movies.

"I don't want my actresses to dress that way," Somsak Techaratanaprasert, president of the Sahamongkol film production house, was quoted as saying by the Thai-language Khao Sod newspaper. "We are not a porn production house and it goes against Thai culture."

A teary-eyed Chotiros held a press conference with university deans earlier this week to explain herself.

"I feel very guilty about what happened. I want to apologize," said Chotiros, in a white button-down shirt and cardigan, her hair pulled back demurely into a loose bun. "I didn't know it was going to be such a big deal."

"Society feels this is a disgrace and her actions have affected the reputation of this university," Suraphol Nitikraipot, rector of Thammasat, was quoted as saying by The Nation newspaper.

At least 112 Somalis, Ethiopians die in capsized smuggling boat off Yemen

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) - A boat loaded with more than 200 Somali and Ethiopian migrants capsized in the Gulf of Aden during a treacherous night crossing and at least 112 people drowned, a Yemeni official said Friday.

The boat was among a group of four vessels carrying migrants from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, a U.N. official and a Yemeni human rights activist said.

When the it capsized late Monday, smugglers in the other boats forced their passengers into the sea so they themselves could return quickly to shore, said the human rights activist, whose group helped survivors from the capsizing. The activist spoke on condition his name and organization not be identified because he feared problems with the government.

At least 169 survivors made it to shore in the coastal region of Shabwa province, east of Aden, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said. Bodies also washed ashore in the region and were buried in several mass graves by residents.

"The bodies were in a very bad condition, as many of them were missing limbs or mutilated because they were crashing against stones," Mohammed bin Mubarak, a Shabwa resident who helped bury 10 bodies, told the Associated Press by telephone from the region.

An official in Shabwa's provincial council said between 112 and 115 had been found dead so far. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Many of the survivors said they were fleeing violence in Somalia, where government forces recently battled a radical Islamic movement with the help of troops from neighboring Ethiopia, according to the UNHCR.

The boat sunk far off the Yemeni coast, leaving the migrants drifting in the high seas, said Ron Redmond, spokesman for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees. "The people were in the water for several hours before the Yemeni military came to their rescue," he told reporters in Geneva, where UNHCR has its headquarters.

The deaths highlight the plight of thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians who try to escape to the Arabian peninsula each year, many hoping to eventually reach Europe. UNHCR says more than 27,000 fled last year and several hundred died making the perilous crossing.

Conditions on the smugglers' vessels are notoriously poor. Witnesses have previously reported people being thrown overboard.

Yemen has recently increased coastal patrols, forcing smugglers to make the journey across the Gulf of Aden by night, making it more dangerous.

Pause to remember the man behind the remote, Robert Adler, dead at 93

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Hit the mute button for a moment of silence: The co-inventor of the TV remote has died. - Robert Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made couch potatoship possible, died Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp. said Friday.

In his six-decade career with Zenith, Adler was a prolific inventor, earning more than 180 U.S. patents. He was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime.

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Adler and co-inventor Polley, another Zenith engineer, an Emmy in 1997 for the landmark invention.

Adler joined Zenith's research division in 1941 after earning a doctorate in physics from the University of Vienna. He retired as research vice president in 1979, and served as a technical consultant until 1999, when Zenith merged with LG Electronics Inc.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published his most recent patent application, for advances in touch screen technology, on Feb. 1.

Adler is survived by his wife, Ingrid.

Yoko Ono's former driver pleads guilty to attempted grand larceny

NEW YORK (AP) - Yoko Ono's former driver, accused of trying to blackmail the widow of John Lennon for $2 million, pleaded guilty Friday to reduced charges and was sentenced to 60 days in jail. - Koral Karsan, 50, pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny in the third degree, admitting he threatened to embarrass Ono unless she gave him "more than $3,000."

His attorneys said that since the illegal immigrant already has been in jail 60 days, he can be transferred from a city jail cell to federal immigration custody.

Assistant District Attorney Anne Schwartz told the judge that prosecutors could have won a conviction on the original charge, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. She said they accepted the plea to protect the privacy of Ono, her family and friends, and residents of the Dakota, the apartment building where Ono lives.

Eliot Mintz, a spokesman for Ono, said she told him she feels "vindicated because this man has admitted his guilt."

Karsan was charged initially with first-degree attempted grand larceny for allegedly threatening to release embarrassing recordings and photos of Lennon's 73-year-old widow unless she paid him $2 million.

As part of the plea deal, Karsan read a statement in court in which he admitted he gave Ono a letter on Dec. 8, 2006, telling her "if you want all of these recordings, e-mails, conversations and memories to vanish from the face of the earth and never hear from me again, all you have to do is send me an amount more than $3,000." Any defendant pleading guilty to third-degree attempted grand larceny must admit trying to steal at least that much.

Soon after Karsan's arrest in December, Schwartz said the defendant had told Ono he "had people on standby waiting to kill her" if she didn't pay him.

Outside court Friday, defense attorney Robert C. Gottlieb said Karsan took the plea deal because he would have been in jail months longer waiting for a trial. He said his client was an aggrieved employee "who was sexually harassed" and otherwise mistreated by Ono and was demanding compensation, not blackmailing her.

"What happened in that letter goes on between lawyers every day," Gottlieb said, calling the letter "inartfully" drafted. "His mistake was in not hiring a lawyer to be his mouthpiece."

Karsan now faces deportation to his native Turkey. His immigration lawyer, Jonathan E. Avirom, said the defendant will be handed over to immigration officials whenever they want to pick him up from Rikers Island.

On the night of Dec. 8, 1980, 26 years to the day before Karsan gave Ono his written demands, Lennon and Ono were returning to the Dakota where they lived, and where she still lives, when a gunman shot the ex-Beatle four times, killing him.

Suspect sleeps through 4-hour SWAT 'standoff'

WALHALLA, S.C. (AP) - A Walhalla man might have had a good reason for not responding to officers who surrounded his home: He was asleep in a recliner when the SWAT team found him after a four-hour standoff, authorities said. - "He did not know we were there until we put our hands on him," Oconee County Sheriff's Capt. Steve Jenkins said.

The 26-year-old had run his mother from their home Tuesday night by firing several shots, deputies said.

Officers surrounding the home first heard breaking glass and other noise, but then heard nothing from the man, despite making calls on a telephone they were able to get into the house and talking to him over a patrol car's loudspeaker, authorities said.

A second SWAT team went around the back of the house after about four hours and saw him asleep in a chair, Jenkins said.

Officers entered stealthily and woke the man up to arrest him. He's been charged with discharging a firearm into a residence, but could face additional charges, Jenkins said.

No one was injured, but the home had bullet holes in the walls and ceiling, he said. Deputies said they recovered about 15 guns in the house.

Fire erupts at west Texas refinery; at least 3 injured

DUMAS, Texas (AP) - A fire broke out at a West Texas refinery Friday, injuring at least three people and sending a huge black cloud billowing into the sky. - The blaze at Valero McKee Refinery began after an explosion, a sheriff's dispatcher in Moore County said. No other information was immediately available.

A nursing supervisor at University Medical Center in Lubbock said two patients were flying in, but their status wasn't known. Another injured person was taken to an Amarillo hospital, officials said.

Valero Energy Corp. operates 17 refineries - 16 in North America and one in Aruba. The McKee refinery, one of six in Texas, has a capacity of 170,000 barrels per day.

Dumas, population 14,000, is located about 50 miles north of Amarillo.

Queen Elizabeth II possibly coming to Kentucky Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Queen Elizabeth II might attend the Kentucky Derby. - The U.S. Secret Service is preparing for a "probable" visit from the queen around the first weekend in May. The Derby is Saturday, May 5.

"Our expectation is that the queen will be in the commonwealth," special agent Paul Johnson said. "A lot of her itinerary is very sketchy. We're in the preliminary stages."

The British government has already announced the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are planning to visit the United States in May to mark the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, Va., but would not elaborate on her itinerary.

"We're of course aware of the speculation regarding the Queen's visit," a spokesman for the Royal Palace said Friday, on condition of anonymity in line with palace policy. "These things take a little while to finalize."

Churchill Downs spokesman John Asher said the track is "aware of the possibility" of a visit by the queen, but would not confirm whether she will attend the Derby.

The queen has visited Kentucky several times, but has never attended the Derby. British royalty has attended the Derby in the past: Princess Margaret, sister of the queen, attended the 1974 Derby with her husband, Lord Snowdon.

The queen wouldn't be the only foreign dignitary to attend the Derby this year. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the president of Latvia, may also be attending.

South Florida water board says cleaning Lake Okeechobee could cost $1.1 billion

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Cleaning Lake Okeechobee could cost $1.1 billion and involve creating reservoirs and marshes and possibly dredging the polluted lake bottom, water officials said. - The estimate, about triple one made in 2004, includes more strategies to handle the greater pollution in the lake due to recent active hurricane seasons, the South Florida Water Management District said.

The plan also includes expenses for helping farmers curb runoff containing manure and fertilizer.

"If we don't do this, our lake's going to die and our estuaries are going to die," said Paul Gray, of the environmental organization Audubon of Florida.

The district's board voted Thursday to send the cleanup plan to the Legislature, which must decide how to pay for it.

The lake sits in the heart of the Everglades, and its polluted waters can be sent through canals into the fragile wetlands when lake levels rise. The Okeechobee cleanup cost is separate from the estimated $10.5 billion federal and state Everglades restoration plan.

Man gets 25 years in prison for road rage that caused fatal crash

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) - A man whose road rage scared another driver into a crash that killed a teenager was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

A jury decided that Bruce Eric Payton, 49, was responsible for the crash that happened, witnesses said, after he chased and fired gunshots at a truck that cut him off on a highway on May 27, 2005.

When the truck ran through a red light, it crashed into a vehicle carrying Elizabeth Naomi Toribio, 14, who died. Her brother, sister and a family friend were critically hurt.

Payton was convicted and sentenced Thursday on charges of manslaughter, leaving the scene of a fatal accident and aggravated assault with a firearm. The driver of the truck was not charged.

Defense attorneys argued Payton brandished a cell phone, not a gun, as he chased the truck, and that he didn't know a crash had occurred. The weapon was never found.

Before the sentencing, Payton, who said his mother had known the girl, apologized to her family.

"She was a sweet young lady," he said. "All I can say is I'm sorry. I'm very sorry."

Some of the girl's family previously said they were angered that prosecutors declined to charge the driver of the pest control truck, but her father said that's no longer the case.

"This is the only time we've heard the facts," Pedro Toribio Sr. told the Bradenton Herald. "Now we know what really happened."

Florida teen tries everything to shake 3-week-old case of hiccups

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - For more than three weeks, despite medical tests and home remedies, a teenager has been hiccuping. A lot.

In fact, Jennifer Mee is hiccuping close to 50 times a minute, stopping only when she's sleeping.

The 15-year-old has had blood tests, a CT scan and an MRI since the fits started Jan. 23. Drugs haven't worked. Neither has holding her breath, putting sugar under her tongue, sipping pickle juice, breathing into a paper bag and drinking from the wrong side of a glass.

And, yes, people have tried to scare them out of her.

According to the National Institutes of Health, hiccups can be triggered by anything from spicy foods to stress, and they can start for no reason at all. They're caused by involuntary contractions of the diaphragm, which causes the vocal cords to close briefly, making that distinctive sound.

It's painful, Jennifer told NBC's "Today" show Friday, trying to talk through her hiccups. She said the rapid contractions hurt in her back and chest.

Jennifer's mother, Rachel Robidoux, turned to a newspaper for help, but the suggestions of hundreds of readers have failed.

"I'm just looking for some answers where somebody's gone through this," Robidoux told the St. Petersburg Times. "At this point, we're willing to do anything."

Parents convicted of killing 8-year-old said to have been beaten, locked in box

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) - A suburban Atlanta couple was convicted of murder Friday in the beating death of their 8-year-old son, a case that prompted authorities to raid the parents' church because it supports corporal punishment.

Prosecutors said Joseph and Sonya Smith beat their son Josef, locked him in a wooden box and confined him to a closet for hours at a time before he died in October 2003.

They could receive up to life in prison at sentencing, set for March 27. Their attorney said he was considering an appeal.

The Cobb County medical examiner concluded that Josef died from blows to the head, and firefighters who responded to the family's 911 calls said his body was covered with bruises.

The couple's attorneys contended that Josef did not die from the injuries, and that the medical examiner failed to perform crucial tests that would have found the actual cause of his death.

A police witness said Joseph Smith's father acknowledged hitting the boy "four or five times," and told officers his son frequently needed discipline because the child carved death threats on the walls and claimed to be a "soldier of the devil."

The boys' parents told authorities Josef passed out and never regained consciousness after the family gathered in the kitchen to participate in a prayer session with their church via the Internet.

The Smiths are members of the Franklin, Tenn.-based Remnant Fellowship Church, which grew out of church leader Gwen Shamblin's Weigh Down Workshop, a Christian diet program she created in 1986.

Authorities raided the church in June 2004 as part of the investigation of Josef Smith's death. Officers testified that they never established a solid link between the church and the boy's death.

Several members of the church attended the court session, but declined to comment.

Josef would have been 12 Friday, prosecutor Eleanor Dixon said. In her closing argument Wednesday, she sang "Happy Birthday" to the dead boy, leaving the defendants in tears.

The Smiths were also convicted of involuntary manslaughter, cruelty, aggravated assault, reckless conduct and false imprisonment.

Long Island community houses sex offenders in trailers

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) - A Long Island county is dealing with the not-in-my-backyard problem by housing sex offenders in trailers away from residential areas. - The program, which began this month, calls for the trailers to be shuttled to various locations on county-owned land from time to time.

Suffolk County officials settled on the idea after getting complaints about otherwise-homeless sex offenders living in motels near residential communities.

"We are seeking to be sensitive to communities that feel that a disproportionately large number of sex offenders have gravitated to their neighborhoods," said Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy.

Under state law, social service agencies must help find housing for homeless people, including sex offenders. The county decided to place the sex offenders in 500-square-foot trailers at a cost of $85 a night - cheaper than the $100 to $200 a night it had been paying for the motel rooms.

Citing privacy laws, county officials are not saying where the trailers are going - only that they will not be in residential areas.

The no-frills trailers have bathrooms and beds aligned in a barracks-type configuration. There are no TVs, telephones or kitchen facilities. Security guards will monitor the offenders, who will be kept inside from 8 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.

"This is exactly what we asked for," said Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan's Law, a Stony Brook-based group. "We're seeing an enhanced level of supervision in a very unique and pro-active approach."

Richard Hamill, president of the New York State Alliance of Sex Offender Service Providers, called the trailers a "terrible idea."

He said offenders leaving prison require a stable environment where they can find a job and receive the treatment. By moving the trailers, he said, officials "are now playing a shell game with the community."

Woman gives birth in hospital parking lot

CONNELLSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - A woman gave birth to a boy outside a western Pennsylvania hospital - a delivery that happened so quickly that the newborn wound up in his mother's sweatpants. - "It happened so fast," Rebecca Johnson, 24, told the Daily Courier in Connellsville. "I didn't know what happened until he was in my pant leg."

Johnson had just gotten out of the car at Highlands Hospital in Connellsville and was still in the parking lot when her 5-pound, 15-ounce son, Mason Matthew Parkinson, arrived Wednesday.

An emergency room physician cut the umbilical cord in the parking lot, and doctors attended to Johnson until she could be taken to Uniontown Hospital, which has a maternity unit.

Mason, Johnson's fourth child, was doing well.

Nine shot - 2 fatally - as Mardi Gras celebrations start in struggling New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - With tourists streaming into town for Mardi Gras celebrations, a spasm of gun violence left two people dead and seven wounded - more bad news for a city struggling to rebuild itself and its tourism industry. - Officials noted the bloodshed did not occur near any of the parades Thursday night to celebrate Carnival, which culminates Tuesday in Mardi Gras.

The two unrelated shootings were not random or part of a robbery, and the victims were all targeted, Sgt. Joe Narcisse said.

In the first shooting Thursday evening, three people were shot, two fatally, in a car parked in the Ninth Ward, far from the heart of the party. The survivor - the car's driver - told police he knew and had given a ride to the man who shot them, Narcisse said.

Another shooting wounded six people, one critically, early Friday at a Mid-City nightclub. The gunman escaped in a stampede that followed.

"Once again it's a situation where violent crimes are taking place in inner-city neighborhoods and traditional hot spots," said Mary Beth Romig, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau. "The truth is, Mardi Gras continues to be one of the safest times for tourist to be here."

In January, the Convention and Visitors Bureau unveiled an aggressive advertising campaign to attract tourists to the city 18 months after Hurricane Katrina.

In the French Quarter, some tourists seemed unconcerned by the violence.

"A lot of people back home told us not to come," Lisa Pencak said. "But we have crime in Pittsburgh as well, it's really no big deal. You have to be careful anywhere you go."

Texas man who saved children from fire sent to prison for starting it

ABILENE, Texas (AP) - A man once hailed for rescuing youngsters from a burning apartment was sentenced to 20 years in prison for starting the blaze by tossing a lit marijuana cigar into a nearby trash bin. - Kristopher Leija, 26, received the maximum sentence from a judge Thursday, two months after he was convicted of felony vehicular arson for the 2003 fire in this West Texas city.

Leija had told authorities that he tossed the cigar into the contractor's bin after spotting a police car. The flames spread from the trash bin to the apartment complex, leaving about 70 families homeless. No one was hurt.

Leija was lauded after he was videotaped helping four children escape. But the resulting TV coverage led to his arrest the next day after sheriff's deputies recognized him as a probation violator for a burglary conviction.

Investigators identified Leija as a suspect in the fire early on, but he was not charged until 2005.

At Thursday's hearing, he repeated that he had not meant to start a fire but took responsibility for it and apologzied.

Man controls robot snow plow by remote

MIDDLEBURG, Pa. (AP) - The wintry blast was a perfect opportunity for Bill Lauver to put his robot plow through its paces.

For three years, Lauver has often done snow clearing from the comfort of his living room, watching from the window as the converted golf cart with plow attachment plies the drive while he operates the remote control.

"It's funny, we'll see people look at it really strange, and my husband will be standing in the window," said Lauver's wife, Sue.

Lauver said the plow is a converted 4 horsepower electric golf cart, geared down for a slower speed and more power to shove snow.

The plow can handle 6 to 8 inches of snow, Lauver said. "This snow is a bit hard on it because there was freezing rain last night. It's a bit crusty," he said Wednesday.

Lauver tosses around ideas for some other projects, possibly a remote-control lawn mower or snowblower, but he had little encouragement from his wife.

"I want him to get some exercise," she said. "He's always controlling everything by remote."

Year of Pig will bring more epidemics, disasters and unrest, Chinese fortunetellers say

HONG KONG - Sunday marks the start of the Chinese New Year and it's a lucky one for those starting out in life. But the rest of us are in for a rough ride. - Expect epidemics, disasters and violence in much of the world.

"The Year of the Pig will not be very peaceful," said Hong Kong feng shui master Raymond Lo.

Feng shui is the ancient Chinese practice of trying to achieve health, harmony and prosperity by using specific dates, numbers, building design and the placement of objects.

The pig is one of 12 animals (or mythical animals in the case of the dragon) on the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac, which follows the lunar calendar. According to Chinese astrology, people born in pig years are polite, honest, hardworking and loyal. They are also lucky, which is why many Chinese like to have babies in a pig year.

"Any children born in The Year of Pig will receive help from others throughout their lives," Lo said.

Ronald Reagan was a pig. So are Arnold Schwarzenegger, Woody Allen and Elton John. Not to mention Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But a word of caution to the presidential candidate.

The pig finished last in the race that determined the zodiac's order, behind the dog.

Other animals in the zodiac are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey and rooster. The zodiac runs on a 12-year cycle, and each year is associated with the five elements that Chinese mystics make up the universe: metal, water, wood, fire and earth.

Therein lies the trouble.

Pig years can be turbulent because they are dominated by fire and water, conflicting elements that tend to cause havoc, Lo said.

"Fire sitting on water is a symbol of conflict and skirmish," he said. "We'll also see more fire disasters and bombings."

He noted that the Russian AK-47 rifle, a weapon of choice among insurgents around the world, was invented during a pig year.

"So it will not be surprising to see more gunbattles, murder with guns and bombing attacks in 2007," he said.

Malaysian feng shui master Lillian Too agreed.

"I wish I could say that there won't be natural disasters, but I am afraid it could be as bad as last year," she said.

"There could be epidemics," she said. "I am very worried about bird flu. Eat healthy foods and take care of your health."

Few Chinese seemed to be worried about the warnings, though, as they prepared for their biggest bash of the year - Saturday's Lunar New Year's Eve - celebrated by one-fifth of the world's population.

It's an occasion to have family feasts, buy new clothes and exchange red envelopes stuffed with gift money.

Not everything about the future looks bleak.

Most soothsayers said the world economy will continue to boom, though they advise people to be cautious about their investments.

"Because of the water element in the Year of the Pig, the economy will continue to grow, which also paves the way for another round of interest rate hikes," said Peter So, a celebrity fortuneteller in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong soothsayer Alion Yeo is predicting North Korea will undergo a power struggle that will bring leadership changes around May. Last year, the Year of the Dog, Yeo warned that the North Korean nuclear crisis would worsen.

The North conducted a nuclear test in October.

Singapore fortuneteller John Lok predicted the situation in Iraq will not settle and President Bush will have a bad year.

He also said the next president of France may be a woman - no surprise there since one of the main candidates is a woman, Segolene Royal of the Socialist party.

While the pig is beloved by the Chinese, the animal is offensive to Muslims, who consider it unclean. For that reason, Chinese New Year celebrations have to be handled with care in Malaysia and Indonesia, mainly Muslim countries with large ethnic Chinese minorities.

For the first time in its history, Indonesia introduced a special set of postal stamps to mark the Lunar New Year. But concerns over Muslim sensitivities led the postal service to drop plans to put a large pig on the stamps. It chose a Chinese temple instead.

"We took the middle path," said Hana Suryana, director of the Indonesian postal service.

Still, that was progress for a country where ethnic Chinese, who make up 5 percent of the population and have long faced discrimination, once were not allowed to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

"That has changed now, but we still feel uncomfortable celebrating the day in a large way because there are some people who cannot accept that Chinese culture is a part of Indonesian culture," said Jhony Tan, a trader in Jakarta's bustling Chinatown.

Yusri Mohammad, president of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia, said he had no problem with the Chinese celebrating the pig year in his country. He said decorative pictures of pigs in shopping malls are fine - as long as Chinese don't start using live pigs or eat pork in public.