ACCIDENTAL OVERDOSE KILLED ANNA NICOLE, AUTOPSY FINDS

Accidental overdose killedAnna Nicole, autopsy finds
DANIA BEACH, Fla. -- Anna Nicole Smith accidentally overdosed on at least nine prescription drugs -- including a powerful sleep syrup she was known to drink right out of the bottle -- after a miserable last few days in which she endured stomach flu, a 105-degree fever, pungent sweating and an infection on her buttocks from repeated injections. In a detailed autopsy report released Monday, a medical examiner noted that the former Playboy playmate refused to go to a hospital three days before her Feb. 8 death. She chose to ride out her illness in a hotel suite littered with pill bottles, soda cans, SlimFast, nicotine gum and an open box of Tamiflu tablets. Broward County Medical Examiner Dr. Joshua Perper found that in the days leading up to her death, the 39-year-old Smith had been taking large amounts of the seldom-prescribed sedative chloral hydrate, which also contributed to the 1962 overdose death of Smith's idol, Marilyn Monroe. Police found no apparent signs of foul play, and the medical examiner also ruled Smith's death probably was not a suicide because people who take their own lives typically use much more lethal drugs than chloral hydrate. Rather, he said, Smith might have been simply unaware that the sedative could be fatal in combination with multiple other prescriptions she was taking in normal doses for anxiety, depression and insomnia.
Suspect at Guantanamopleads guilty to charge
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- An Australian terror suspect pleaded guilty Monday to a war-crime charge of providing material support to terrorism. David Hicks was the first detainee to face prosecution under revised military tribunals set up after the Supreme Court found the Pentagon's previous system for trying Guantanamo prisoners unconstitutional. He is accused of fighting alongside al-Qaida in Afghanistan. At the pretrial hearing, the 31-year-old Hicks entered the plea before a military judge in a courtroom on this U.S. naval base. Hicks, a Muslim convert, is one of some 385 prisoners being held by the United States at Guantanamo. Officials have said they plan to prosecute as many as 80 Guantanamo prisoners, and some could face the death penalty.
Iran questioning Britons
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said Monday it was questioning 15 British sailors and marines to determine if their alleged entry into Iranian waters was "intentional or unintentional" before deciding what to do with them -- the first sign it could be seeking a way out of the standoff. The two countries continued to disagree about where the military personnel were seized Friday, with Britain insisting they were in Iraqi waters after searching a civilian cargo vessel, and the Tehran regime saying it had proof they were in Iranian territory. Britain's Defense Ministry said they were seized in the Shatt al-Arab, a waterway flowing into the Persian Gulf that marks the border between Iran and Iraq. But the dividing line in the waterway, known in Iran as the Arvand river, has long been disputed. The Iranian emphasis Monday on the detainees' intent was a noticeable pullback from the certainty expressed Saturday by Iran's military chief, Gen. Ali Reza Afshar. Afshar said then that the 15 confessed to "aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran's waters." Other Iranian officials suggested afterward that the Britons might be charged with a crime -- presumably espionage or trespassing -- for knowingly entering Iran's territorial waters.
Associated Press