MIAMI — Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant, was convicted Thursday of helping Islamic extremists and plotting overseas attacks in a case that came to symbolize the Bush administration's zeal to clamp down on terrorism.

Padilla, wearing a dark suit and wire-rimmed glasses, showed no emotion and stared straight ahead as he heard the verdict that could bring him a life sentence in prison. One person in the family section started to sob.

But it was hardly a complete victory for the government. When Padilla was arrested in the months following the 2001 terrorist attacks, authorities touted him as a key al-Qaida operative who planned to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city. That allegation never made it to court.

Instead, after a three-month trial and only a day and a half of deliberations, the 36-year-old Padilla and his foreign-born co-defendants were convicted of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas and two counts of providing material support to terrorists.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke set a Dec. 5 sentencing date.

Death toll rises to 450 after strong quake in Peru desert region crumbles houses and churches

ICA, Peru — The death toll rose to 450 on Thursday in the magnitude-8 earthquake that devastated cities of adobe and brick in Peru's southern desert. Survivors wearing blankets against the winter cold walked like ghosts through the ruins.

Dust-covered dead were pulled out and laid in rows in the streets, or beneath bloodstained sheets at damaged hospitals and morgues. Doctors struggled to help more than 1,500 injured, including hundreds who waited on cots in the open air, fearing more aftershocks would send the structures crashing down.

Destruction was centered in Peru's southern desert, at the oasis city of Ica and the nearby port of Pisco, about 125 miles southeast of the capital, Lima.

The United Nations said the death toll was expected to rise beyond the 450 reported by Peru.

"It is quite likely that the numbers will continue to go up since the destruction of the houses in this area is quite total," said U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Margareta Wahlstrom.

Rescuers searching for six trapped coal miners drill yet another hole

HUNTINGTON, Utah — Rescuers searching for six coal miners trapped for 10 days were drilling yet another hole into mine Thursday, this time aiming for a location where they had detected mysterious vibrations in the mountain. Officials said Thursday that the latest of three holes previously drilled reached an intact chamber with potentially breathable air.

Video images were obscured by water running down that bore hole, but officials said they could see beyond it to an undamaged chamber in the rear of the mine. It yielded no sign the miners had been there.

The drill holes can be used to pump air and send food down the mine, but the rescue effort is taking place underground, where miners have advanced to only 826 feet in nine days. They still have 1,200 feet to go to reach the area where the men were working.

The digging was most recently set back Wednesday night, when a coal excavating machine was half buried by rubble by seismic shaking. Another so-called "mountain bump" interrupted work briefly Thursday morning.

"The seismic activity underground has just been relentless. The mountain is still alive, the mountain is still moving and we cannot endanger the rescue workers as we drive toward these trapped miners," Bob Murray, chief of Murray Energy Corp., the co-owner and operator of the Crandall Canyon Mine, said Thursday.

Temporary jump in U.S. troop levels expected in Iraq in fall, will be highest yet

WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. troops in Iraq could jump to 171,000 this fall _ a record high for the war — as military leaders expect stepped-up insurgent attacks timed to a progress report from American commanders in Baghdad.

Army Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director for operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday the planned rotations of five brigades moving out of Iraq and their replacements coming in will create the temporary increase in U.S. forces.

Once the transitions are complete, Ham said the troop level will drop back down to about 162,000, which is where it is today. He said current plans are to stay about at that number into early next year, unless commanders recommend in their report next month a reduction in forces.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are expected to provide a progress report to President Bush and Congress before Sept. 15. They, as well as Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, are likely to testify before Congress on the report and any recommendations on troop levels.

Congress has pressed the administration to begin drawing troops out of Iraq.

Giuliani tells New Hampshire questioner 'leave my family alone' when asked about voter loyalty

DERRY, N.H. — Republican Rudy Giuliani said Thursday that people should "leave my family alone" when asked by a New Hampshire woman why the presidential candidate should expect loyalty from voters when he doesn't get it from his children.

Giuliani has a daughter who has indicated support for Democrat Barack Obama and a son who said he didn't speak to his father for some time. His ugly divorce from their mother, Donna Hanover, was waged publicly while Giuliani was mayor of New York. Giuliani has since remarried.

Answering questions at a town-hall meeting, Giuliani was asked why he should expect loyalty from GOP voters when his children aren't backing him.

"I love my family very, very much and will do anything for them. There are complexities in every family in America," Giuliani said calmly and quietly. "The best thing I can say is kind of, 'Leave my family alone, just like I'll leave your family alone.'"

His comments were greeted with a smattering of applause from the audience of about 120 people. Giuliani urged them to judge him based on his performance as mayor and a federal prosecutor, and he launched into a list of his successes such as reducing crime and welfare and prosecuting organized crime figures and drug dealers.

Erin brings torrential rain to flood-weary parts of Texas as Hurricane Dean builds in Atlantic

HOUSTON — Tropical Storm Erin's remnants soaked a rain-weary state Thursday, inundating intersections and shutting down freeway ramps ahead of rush hour and killing at least one person as the thunderstorms moved into soggy central Texas.

In the Atlantic, Hurricane Dean strengthened to a Category 2 storm as it moved closer to islands in the eastern Caribbean, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane warnings were issued for some islands, and a tropical storm watch was issued for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

At 5 p.m. EDT, the Atlantic season's first hurricane had top sustained winds of 100 mph, up from 90 mph earlier in the day. Dean's center should be near the Lesser Antilles early Friday, forecasters said.

Wildlife groups create ID cards for wild elephants in India to help track effects of poaching

NEW DELHI — Wildlife groups have created individual photo identification cards for wild elephants in southern India to help track the effects of poaching, conservationists said Thursday.

By being able to specifically identify animals, researchers get a better idea of elephant numbers and movements in an area. It can also help law enforcement in the event that an elephant carcass is discovered, said the New-York based Wildlife Conservation Society, which is working with several Indian groups on the effort.

The project focused on male elephants because "unlike African elephants, where both males and females have tusks, only male Asian elephants have valuable tusks, so they are specifically targeted by poachers," said WCS researcher Varun Goswami, the main author of the study.

Goswami said the researchers recently took more than 2,400 photographs of 134 elephants in reserves in the Indian state of Karnataka.

Using the pictures, scientists recorded data such as tusk length, thickness, angle, arrangement, as well as other characteristics like ear shape, shoulder height, tail length, and scars, the statement said.

Gwen Stefani says she wants more children and more No Doubt, in magazine interview

NEW YORK — Gwen Stefani says she wants more children — but not while she's on tour and not until she's done another No Doubt record. Her 1-year-old son, Kingston, has been traveling with the 37-year-old singer on her "The Sweet Escape" tour.

"I go from the tour bus to the hotel room to the concert venue — all while carrying my baby," Stefani tells InStyle in its September issue, on newsstands Friday.

"He's just getting into music. He does the whole head-bouncing thing," she says. "I love him so much. He's the best thing that has ever happened to me."

Kingston is the first child for Stefani and her rocker husband, Gavin Rossdale, 39, who were married in 2002.

"Obviously I'm in a race to have another, but I don't want to do it while on tour," Stefani says. "And I want to do another No Doubt record."

Wall Street pulls off late turnaround to end mixed, but uncertainty and jitters remain

NEW YORK — Wall Street pulled off a dramatic late-session turnaround to close mixed Thursday after bargain hunters lured by weeks of massive declines came back to the stock market. The Dow Jones industrials, down more than 340 points in afternoon trading, ended the day with a loss of just 13.

The market appeared to be on an almost relentless downward spiral after problems at Countrywide Financial Corp. confirmed investors' fears that credit problems are spreading. Moreover, for much of the day, investors shrugged off the Federal Reserve's injection of $17 billion into the banking system.

The revival showed that investors want to turn stocks around. The market clawed back with a bounce in blue chip stocks, with a leadership role going to the downtrodden financial sector.

But in spite of the big comeback, Wall Street is still an uncertain place, having been pounded by weeks of losses including triple-digit slides in the Dow. All three of the market's big indexes reached levels Thursday where they were down 10 percent from their mid-July highs — the definition of a stock market correction.