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The Bush family saga

By NICHOLAS M. HORROCK and RICHARD TOMKINS

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- A Texas court has been asked to order the younger brother of President George W. Bush to give a new sample for DNA testing in a paternity-related defamation suit, sources told United Press International Wednesday.

The request for the new sample from Neil Bush, filed on behalf of Sharon Bush, was slated to be heard in Houston's Harris County Civil Court on Dec. 9.

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"We require he be forced to give a sample under court supervision," David Berg, attorney for Sharon Bush, told United Press International. "He voluntarily did it before we got to court but not under court supervision. It was a good first step, but we want it under court supervised conditions."

Sharon Bush is being sued for defamation by Robert Andrews, a business associate of Neil Bush, who claims she defamed his 2-year-old son by publicly saying the boy was fathered by Neil Bush.

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Maria Andrews, now divorced from her husband, is currently living in Paris with the child. Bush has said he intends to marry the woman following his divorce from Sharon Bush last spring. It was unclear if Neil would join her for the Thanksgiving holiday or remain in the United States.

Neil Bush did not return UPI's calls for comment by publication time Wednesday.

In a deposition given in the divorce case in March, a month before his divorce from Sharon, the president's 48-year-old sibling detailed financial relationships with firms in Taiwan and China and admitted to having had sex on several occasions in years past with unidentified women who simply came to his hotel door in Thailand and Hong Kong.

"It is dead on," said a source who read the leaked transcript, which has not been made public record.

Under the divorce settlement with Sharon, Bush reportedly pays about $1,500 per month in child support payments to Sharon and gives her $30,000 a year in alimony for four years.

The Bushes have three children.

Sharon bought the family home, valued at $850,000, from Neil the exact sum Andrews is suing her for.

The same day she closed on the house, Andrews sued her. In addition to the money for questioning the child's lineage, he also asked for any royalties she may earn from any book about the case.

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Sharon had earlier been reported as saying she intended to write a tell-all book about her marriage and the Bush family.

"We consider it (the suit) vindictive and an attempt to shut her up," Berg said. "You'd have to be blind not to understand the message when they sued her on the same day that she closed on the house for the same amount of money, an identical amount.

"They are sending a message ... It sounds like Andrews is a stalking horse for Bush."

In 1990, Neil Bush paid a $50,000 fine and was banned from banking activities for his role in the mismanagement of Silverado Savings and Loan in Denver. The management of the Silverado was sued in the savings and loan scandal by the Resolution Trust Corporation.

Neil Bush met Sharon in 1980 in New Hampshire during his father's unsuccessful bid to capture the Republican nomination for the presidency. They had three children together and were married 23 years.

The Andrews were married 14 years and divorced in October 2002. Neil and Maria are reported to have met several years ago while she was working as a volunteer for his mother, Barbara Bush.

Another area of the transcript deals with Bush's contract with one of China's major semiconductor firms, Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. of Shanghai. The giant conglomerate, one of mainland China's major firms, is backed by Jiang Mianheng, the son of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin. The contract is expected to bring Bush $2 million in stock over five years.

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Brown seemed incredulous as to why Grace would retain Bush. "You have absolutely no educational background in semiconductors do you?" he asked in the March 4 deposition.

"That's correct, " Bush responded.

"And you have absolutely over the last 10, 15, 20 years not a lot of demonstrable business experience that would bring about a company investing $2 million in you, " Brown asked.

"I personally would object to the assumption that they're investing $2 million in me, " Bush answered.

Earlier this month, Taiwan's leader Chen Shui-bian denied reports that he paid $1 million for a 30-minute meeting with Neil Bush in New York. The two did meet, according to Taiwanese officials.

Bush signed the deal with Grace in August 2002. He said he had not received any stock from the company. Bush said he was invited to join Grace by Winston Wong, a co-founder of the company, the son of Wang Yung-ching, the chairman of Taiwan's largest business group, Formosa Plastics Corp. Bush never mentioned in the deposition that Grace had backers from both Taiwan and the Republic of China.

Bush said that Wong was an investor in Ignite! Learning, an educational firm based in Austin, Texas that Bush formed in 2000. The company provides Internet-based learning programs for schools and other groups.

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Sharon, in a July interview with KHOU television in Texas, said she had never expected a divorce from her husband. "It was totally out of the blue," she said.

She said she learned that her husband wanted to end their marriage in an e-mail he sent her.

"Our marriage has been broken. It's loveless. And there is nothing left to it," he said in a court deposition.

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