BEIJING, April 3 (Xinhuanet) -- An attorney for
Howard K. Stern withdrew his challenge to block the release of DNA test results
to reveal the father of Anna Nicole Smith's daughter Monday in the face of
skeptical questioning by the Bahamian three-judge Court of Appeal.
All three judges noted Stern
should have raised an objection before the Supreme Court ordered DNA testing in
the paternity challenge filed by Larry Birkhead, a former boyfriend of Smith who
claims to be the father of the infant, Dannielynn.
Justice Emmanuel E. Osadebay said Stern himself
had agreed to DNA testing and waited until a week after the sample was taken to
file the challenge.
Stern is listed on the birth certificate as the
father of Dannielynn, who was born in the Bahamas in September. The child's DNA
was tested March 21 but the results have not been revealed.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hold a
hearing in the paternity case but the lawyers and officials are prohibited by
Bahamian legal rules from discussing the case, even to reveal the nature of the
hearing.
The baby, whose full name is Dannielynn Hope Marshall
Stern, could inherit millions from the estate of Smith's late husband, J. Howard
Marshall II. Smith had been fighting the Texas oil tycoon's family over his
estimated 500 million U.S. dollar fortune since his death in 1995.
(Agencies)