A CONVICTED killer from North Carolina is today set to become the 1,000th person executed in the US since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, barring an unlikely intervention from the federal courts or the state governor.

DEMOCRATS cleaned up in off-year elections from New Jersey to California, sinking the candidate who embraced US President George W Bush in the final days of the Virginia governor’s campaign.

Investigators hunting a sniper responsible for 10 attacks in the Washington area prepared to release their first wanted poster – a drawing of a white box truck – after it was confirmed today that an eighth death had been linked to the killer.