Washington: Overland Park soldier dies in Qatar road accident

The Pentagon on Tuesday identified the U.S. Army National Guard soldier who was killed in a road accident in Qatar last Saturday as Sgt. Michael C. Barry, 29, of Overland Park, Kan.

Barry died as a result of injuries sustained as a passenger in a vehicle that was struck by another vehicle in Doha, the capital of Qatar. The accident is under investigation.

Barry was assigned to the 205th Medical Battalion of the Missouri Army National Guard in Kansas City, Mo.

The accident occurred Saturday evening as Barry and three others in the vehicle were returning to Camp As Sayliyah, a military post where a Central Command headquarters has been established for possible war against Iraq.

Barry’s widow, Jennifer, also serves in the 205th Area Support Medical Battalion, but she had not been sent overseas. The couple did not have children, a Guard spokeswoman said.

New Jersey: Defendant who sold IDs to 9-11 hijackers freed

A man who sold fake identification to two of the 9-11 hijackers tearfully accepted a plea bargain Tuesday and was freed after declaring he was not a terrorist.

Mohamed el-Atriss, 46, pleaded guilty to a single state count of selling simulated documents. He had been charged with racketeering and numerous counts of selling false documents following his arrest last summer.

He admitted selling fake documents to Khalid Almihdhar, who was on the airliner that crashed into the Pentagon, and Abdulaziz Alomari, who was aboard one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center. And he said selling bogus documents constituted “a substantial amount” of the business at his All Service Plus office.

The FBI said it investigated el-Atriss, but found no terrorist connections.

Texas: Convicted killer executed despite British citizenship

A man convicted of beating a woman to death with a motorcycle chain after raping her while he was free on probation for another killing was executed Tuesday by injection.

John Elliott, 42, had maintained his innocence in the June 13, 1986, attack.

Defense lawyers had sought to delay the execution, the seventh this year in Texas, with appeals seeking additional DNA tests.

Because Elliott held dual U.S.-British citizenship, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and more than 100 ministers of Parliament had asked for clemency, which the state parole board rejected Tuesday.