Photos Show Smith In Bed With Official

Model In Romantic Pose With Bahamian Immigration Minister

(AP)  A newspaper published two photographs on its front page Monday showing Anna Nicole Smith lying in bed fully clothed in a romantic embrace with the Bahamian immigration minister, who approved her application for permanent residency.

Immigration Minister Shane Gibson has come under criticism from the political opposition for giving the former Playboy playmate special treatment in granting Smith — who died under mysterious circumstances Thursday in Florida — residency in the Bahamas last year.

The residency application was based on Smith's purported ownership of a waterfront mansion. But G. Ben Thompson, a South Carolina developer who once dated Smith, has said he had not given Smith the house as a gift as her lawyers have asserted. Thompson is attempting to reclaim the house.

A representative of Anna Nicole Smith's companion, Howard K. Stern, scrambled on Monday to control dissemination of items he said were stolen from the mansion over the weekend before he returned from Florida, including images from a computer taken from the house.

Ron Rale, Stern's spokesman, said in a statement Monday that anyone who disseminates any of the items without his prior written consent "will be held liable to the fullest extent of the law." Rale said police have recovered all the missing property.

Two photographs published on the front page of The Tribune of Nassau show Smith and Gibson looking into each other's eyes with their faces only a couple inches apart while lying on a bed decorated with pink flowers and a white ribbon. The newspaper said the photographs were taken in Smith's bedroom and that it obtained the pictures Sunday from an unidentified source.

Opposition leader Hubert Ingraham said he was looking into the matter.

"I'm making some inquiries," Ingraham told The Associated Press.

All of Smith's personal items, including the birth certificate of her 5-month-old daughter, whose paternity is being disputed by three men, had been taken from the house, Rale said.

Stern over the weekend reclaimed the mansion along with Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern. They had lived in the gated waterfront estate, known as "Horizons," before Smith died last week.