Marine is convicted in death of Iraqi

CAMP PENDLETON -- A military jury yesterday convicted a Marine of kidnapping and conspiring to murder an Iraqi man in April 2006 in a bungled attempt to abduct and kill a suspected insurgent in Hamdania. Corporal Trent Thomas was acquitted of premeditated murder, making a false official statement, housebreaking, and larceny. Thomas, 25, was the first of seven Marines and a Navy corpsman to go to trial in the killing, which squad members tried to cover up by planting a gun near the victim after he was gunned down in a ditch. (AP)

NEW YORK

NEW YORK -- The widow of Daniel Pearl has sued more than a dozen reputed terrorists and Pakistan's largest bank, blaming them for the torture and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter in 2002. A complaint filed yesterday in Brooklyn federal court by Mariane Pearl and her husband's estate says Habib Bank Limited of Karachi knowingly provided financial services for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Backed by the bank, terrorists "carried out the kidnapping, ransom, torture, execution, and dismemberment of Daniel Pearl and broadcast those images nationwide," the lawsuit said. The suit also named Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the imprisoned number three Al Qaeda leader and mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and an outlawed Islamic charity . (AP)

FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE -- Governor Charlie Crist signed his first death warrant yesterday, ending a temporary halt on lethal injections that had been imposed after a botched execution last year. Mark Dean Schwab, a convicted child killer, is scheduled to be executed Nov. 15, Crist said. (AP)