Wall Street reporter 'dead'

Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was taken hostage by Islamic extremists in Pakistan, is now believed to be dead, the newspaper said in New York tonight.

‘‘We now believe, based on reports from the US State Department and police officials of the Pakistani province of Sind, that Danny Pearl was killed by his captors. We are heartbroken at his death,’’ Peter Kann, publisher of the Journal, said in a statement.