htaccess + php = HTTP 500 Internal Error

[Derek Maciel]

I wrote a simple htaccess and php script for my CMS, and it works
great in XAMPP on Windows. However, I moved it to an Ubuntu Minimal
10.10 with apache, php, mysql, etc. installed.

I enabled the rewrite plugin and allowed htaccess override. However,
when I point my browser to that folder, I get a 500 Internal Error.

Even deleting that .htaccess file gives me a 500 error. The only thing
I can do to get it to change is to put an echo before I initialize my
class, but it doesn't initialize the class after the echo like it
should. Deleting the echo just gives an HTTP 500.

http://pastebin.com/WvjEVGXE <-- My index.php file


Is there something I forgot to enable when I installed PHP or Apache?
This hasn't happened to me before.