Man guilty of plot to blow up station

A high-school dropout who drew the attention of undercover police with his anti-American rants after Sept. 11 was convicted Wednesday of plotting to blow up one of Manhattan's busiest subway stations in retaliation for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq.

A federal jury in Brooklyn deliberated two days before convicting Shahawar Matin Siraj of conspiracy and other charges in a case that cast a spotlight on how authorities sought to monitor radical Muslims after the 2001 terrorist attacks. He faces up to life in prison.

Siraj, 23, was arrested on the eve of the 2004 Republican National Convention carrying diagrams of his target: the subway station in Herald Square.

Ramming "not an accident"; child dies

A man accused of driving a car that struck two sisters and their three small children outside a McDonald's restaurant hit them intentionally, authorities said. One of the children died later Wednesday at a hospital, a relative said.

"There was clear intent to injure the people," Police Chief Stacey Cotton said. "... This was absolutely not an accident."

Avery Nicole King, 2, who had been in critical condition, died Wednesday afternoon at an Atlanta hospital, said her uncle, Paul Casola.

Lanny Barnes, 46, appeared in court Wednesday. He faces five felony charges of aggravated assault and was ordered held without bail pending a mental-health evaluation. Cotton said Wednesday night that Barnes faces additional charges because of the toddler's death, including murder.

Mine survivor weeps at services

The sole survivor of a coal-mine explosion in southeastern Kentucky wept quietly with his head bowed in the front row of a church Wednesday at the first of five funerals for his friends and co-workers.

Jimmy D. Lee's widow acknowledged Paul Ledford's pain as she remembered her husband before nearly 100 mourners. "Paul, he loved you and I love you, and I'm glad you were spared," Melissa Lee said.

Ledford later attended funerals for two other miners: Paris Thomas Jr., 53, and George Petra, 49. Funerals for Amon Brock, 51, and Roy Middleton, 35, will be today.

Also Wednesday, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration released records that said the mine was given 11 citations just days before the blast. One citation was issued for having combustible materials in sections of the mine in the form of "oil, oil-soaked fine coal and coal dust."

Inmate executed for couple's murder

An inmate was executed Wednesday for the drug-related slayings of a south Texas couple in 1995.

Jesus Ledesma Aguilar was convicted of the execution-style shootings of Leonardo Chavez Sr., 33, and his wife, Annette, 31.

Compiled from The Associated Press

Information in this article, originally posted May 25, was corrected May 25. In an earlier version of this digest, the item on funerals for miners killed in an eastern Kentucky coal mine reported the wrong age for Paris Thomas Jr., who died in the blast. He was 53, not 35.