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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shelly Sterling's attorneys will ask a judge Thursday to order Donald Sterling and his attorneys to not threaten, harass or intimidate his wife's legal team and doctors who determined the Los Angeles Clippers' co-owner was mentally incapacitated.

A person with knowledge of the legal proceedings told The Associated Press that the urgent request seeks protections for witnesses including three doctors who may be witnesses in next month's scheduled trial to determine if Shelly Sterling can sell the Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.

The individual wasn't authorized to comment and spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday night on condition of anonymity.

Donald Sterling's attorney, Maxwell Blecher, said a representative will be in court but wouldn't comment further. Representatives for Shelly Sterling and her attorney, Pierce O'Donnell, declined comment.

It's unclear what or if any specific incidents led to the decision to go to court Thursday. Neither party commented and court papers were not filed.

Shelly Sterling's deal with Ballmer was struck after Donald Sterling's racist remarks to a girlfriend were recorded and publicized. The NBA moved to oust him as team owner, fined him $2.5 million and banned him for life.

O'Donnell said doctors determined the 80-year-old Donald Sterling was mentally "incapacitated" thereby making her sole administrator of the family trust, which owns the team, according to its terms. Donald Sterling is fighting that contention and her authority to sell. The deal would be record breaking if approved by the NBA's owners.

Donald Sterling is also suing the NBA for $1 billion in federal court and alleges the league violated his constitutional rights, committed breach of contract and violated antitrust laws. He has hired four private investigations firms to dig up dirt on the NBA's former and current commissioners and its owners, according to a person familiar with Donald Sterling's legal strategy.

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Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams

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In the key battleground states that will decide control of the Senate this November, President Obama's approval numbers are lower than they are nationally – but not much lower.

That's the key finding in a new poll, conducted by Democrat Stan Greenberg of Democracy Corps and Republican Whit Ayres of Resurgent Republic, that sampled likely voters for NPR.

In the 12 states with competitive Senate races this fall, only 38 percent of likely voters said they approved of the way the president is handling his job. An index of all national polls shows the president's approval rating about four percentage points higher nationwide.

But as NPR's National Political Correspondent Mara Liasson notes, the slightly lower approval is not surprising, considering that eight of the 12 states voted for Mitt Romney over Obama in 2012.

PARIS (AP) — A French court convicted a 76-year-old man Wednesday of ordering a cross-border kidnapping as part of a decades-long mission to avenge his daughter's death but suspended his one-year prison sentence.

The verdict Wednesday in the eastern French city of Mulhouse culminates a protracted and emotional legal saga that began after 15-year-old Kalinka died in Germany in 1982.

Kalinka's father, Andre Bamberski, suspected her stepfather, Dieter Krombach, of giving the girl a dangerous injection so he could rape her — an injection that apparently caused her death.

A French court convicted Krombach in absentia, but a German court said evidence was insufficient to prove his guilt and would not extradite him.

So in 2009, Bamberski took justice into his own hands and hired two men to forcibly bring Krombach to France to face prosecution. Krombach was tied up and dumped near a French courthouse and subsequently re-convicted of "intentional violence that led to unintentional death." Now 79, he is serving a 15-year sentence in a French prison.

On Wednesday, the court in Mulhouse convicted Bamberski of organizing a kidnapping and handed him a one-year suspended prison sentence, according to magistrate Marie-Helene Calvano in Mulhouse. Two other men were convicted of carrying out the kidnapping, each sentenced to a year in prison.

Bamberski had faced up to 10 years in prison in the case, which raised questions about vigilante-style justice and about cross-border prosecution in the 28-nation European Union.

Krombach had been suspended from practicing medicine after a 1997 conviction for drugging and raping a 16-year-old girl in his office. He pleaded guilty.