Bahamian Immigration Minister Shane Gibson resigned on Sunday night in a flap over his relationship with Anna Nicole Smith, apologizing to the Bahamian people for any embarrassment he may have caused the country.
Photos recently appeared in a Bahamas newspaper showing Gibson in bed and embracing the former Playboy Playmate, who died on Feb. 8 in Hollywood, Florida. They were fully clothed, but the pictures stoked a controversy because Gibson had fast-tracked Smith's application for permanent residency on the island chain.
"I want to apologize to all persons who may in any way have been offended by anything that I have said, done, or perceived to have said or done," Gibson said on state TV, declared he was resigning.
"To the extent that my beloved country has in any way suffered ... I want to apologize to the Bahamian people as a whole," he said.
However, Gibson denied any wrongdoing and said he did not have a sexual relationship with Smith.
Smith based her residency application upon her claimed ownership of a waterfront mansion in the Bahamas, but the property's ownership is disputed.
Prime Minister Perry Christie said that he accepted Gibbon's resignation.
"However sad Shane's decision to resign may be, I also believe, as does he, that it is the correct course of action for him to take in all of the circumstances," Christie said on TV.
Gibson stated emphatically during the special broadcast on the national TV station that although he was stepping down, he was not admitting to any accusations against him, calling them "vicious and wicked lies."
"I unconditionally deny that I ever abused my ministerial office by granting Anna Nicole Smith any permit of which she was undeserving or for which she was not qualified under the laws of the Bahamas," he said.
The Tribune of Nassau on Feb. 12 published two photographs on its front page showing Smith and Gibson embracing on a bed decorated with pink flowers and a white ribbon.
The newspaper said the photos were taken in Smith's bedroom and that it obtained them from an unidentified source.
South Carolina developer Ben Thompson, who once dated Smith, has said he did not give Smith the Bahamas house as a gift as her lawyers have asserted.
Thompson is attempting to reclaim the US$900,000 waterfront mansion.
Howard Stern, Smith's companion, has been living in the house with Smith's daughter, Dannielynn, who was born in September in a Bahamas hospital.
Several men claim to have fathered the baby girl, who could potentially inherit a multimillion-dollar fortune.
Since the death in 1995 of her 90-year-old Texas oil tycoon husband, Smith had been waging a court battle over his estate.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of