Judge will bar link to Anna Nicole Smith death

The judge in the trial of Anna Nicole Smith's doctors and lawyer-boyfriend says he will bar all evidence linking the defendants to Smith's fatal drug overdose.

Superior Court Judge Robert Perry said during a pretrial hearing Friday that he fears the defendants cannot get a fair trial if attorneys focus on Smith's cause of death.

The defendants are accused of illegally providing Smith with opiates and sedatives. They are not charged with causing her death.

Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Howard Stern have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to illegally prescribe drugs.

Perry also says he doesn't understand why the case was …

Rotary Digester Operational Realities

Annual meeting of in-vessel composting facility operators included representatives from seven MSW composting plants that utilize the rotary digester technology. Lessons learned regarding equipment wear, inspections and critical maintenance are summarized.

MANY compost facility design engineers believe a rotary digester that processes municipal solid waste, source separated or mixed, followed by a trommel screen, offers an advantage over other technologies in separating inorganic material from compostable organics. This is due to a combination of physical, biological, and chemical degradation that takes place inside the digester drum. A significant reduction in particle size occurs, …

Ganassi Gets Third Straight 24-Hour Win

Chip Ganassi's guys are making this look easy.

The quartet of Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas encountered no serious problems, giving Ganassi an unpredented third straight victory in America's premier sports car race _ the Rolex 24-Hour at Daytona International Speedway.

Other than a minor handling problem for Pruett at the start of the race Saturday afternoon, the team's No. 01 Lexus Riley Daytona Prototype was nearly perfect, racing at or near the lead in an event that was the most competitive in the 46-year history until the waning hours.

At dawn Sunday, with about six hours to go, there were five other prototypes …

Abraham to keep 'open mind' on school

BRISTOL'S new education chief has promised to keep an open mindabout contentious plans for a new school in north Bristol.

Council Conservative group leader Peter Abraham was voted in asexecutive member for education and lifelong learning earlier thisweek.

Now he faces the task of seeing through a new school in northBristol.

His group had favoured a site in Stoke Lodge but Bristol's Labourgroup, which controlled the council until the May local elections,had dismissed the proposal while it was in power and backed a site inRedland instead.

The Labour group, still the largest party on the city council,said it will continue to push for the Redland site. …

For this troupe, poverty is no act

The LAPD is here to inspect Chicago.

Neither a government agency nor a law enforcement unit, the LosAngeles Poverty Department is a group of performance artists led byJohn Malpede.

Cast members come from the ranks of the nation's homeless, whore-create the raw reality of Skid Row for their audiences from whatthey call "Normalville."

On Thursday afternoon, Malpede began scouting sites and makingplans to get Chicago's poor involved in the presentations.

The 43-year-old Wilmette native and Northwestern graduate willopen a six-week residency workshop, "LAPD Inspects Chicago," nextApril at the Cooper Place shelter, 1020 W. Adams.

…

Afghan government says insurgent attack in Kabul has ended, all assailants have been killed

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan government says insurgent …

Gadhafi chastises UN for failing to prevent wars

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is chastising the United Nations for failing to intervene or prevent some 65 wars that have erupted around the world since the organization was founded in 1945.

Gadhafi spoke Wednesday at the opening session of the General Assembly, taking the podium after U.S. President Barack Obama's first speech to the world body.

The U.S. Mission was represented by a couple of low to mid-ranking diplomats, after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice left the chamber before Gadhafi ascended the podium.

Gadhafi welcomed Obama as the leader of the host nation for U.N. Headquarters, and hailed …