Action promised over reporter's death

Pakistani authorities say a videotape shows Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl being murdered by the Islamic extremists who kidnapped him a month ago.

Reaction to the announcement was swift.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf ordered security forces to apprehend "each and every one of the gang of terrorists" involved in Pearl's killing.

In Beijing, US President George W Bush said: "All Americans are sad and angry to learn of the murder. May God bless Daniel Pearl."

Mukhtar Ahmad Sheikh, the interior minister of the Sindh province, which includes Karachi, said the videotape "contained scenes showing Mr Pearl in captivity and scenes of his murder by the kidnappers".

Mr Pearl was abducted in the Pakistani port city of Karachi on January 23 after arranging to interview the leader of a radical Muslim faction with purported ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network and British terrorist suspect Richard Reid.

Pakistani police have seized several suspects, including a British extremist who said in court that he engineered Pearl's abduction.

In a statement, Mr Musharraf's office said the president "offered his heart-felt condolences to the wife of Mr Pearl, his family and to the editors and journalists of the Wall Street Journal".

Mr Pearl's wife, Mariane, is seven months pregnant with the couple's first child. A freelance journalist, she had been working with him in Pakistan.

In a statement issued from their home in California, Mr Pearl's parents and two sisters said: "We're shocked and saddened about the confirmation that our worst fears have been realised."