The lawyer for a man convicted of killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl said Sunday he will file an appeal using an al-Qaida lieutenant's recent confession that he beheaded the reporter.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has claimed that he planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, claimed at a U.S. military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that he personally beheaded Pearl for being an Israeli intelligence agent.

"I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan," Mohammed told a military panel, according to a Pentagon transcript released Thursday. "For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head."

In 2002, an anti-terrorism court in Karachi sentenced Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born militant, to death and gave three other men life in prison for involvement in Pearl's killing.

Rai Bashir a lawyer for Sheikh and the other three men said on Sunday that he will study the Pentagon documents on Mohammed's claim and file his confession as evidence to prove Sheikh's innocence.

"He has not abducted Daniel Pearl, and he, along with his co-accused, is innocent ... But now we are happy that this version has been verified by the Pentagon after the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed," Bashir told AP Television News in a separate interview on Saturday.

Pearl was abducted in January 2002 in Karachi while he was researching a story on Islamic militancy. Months after his abduction, the journalist's body, his throat slit, was found in a shallow ditch in a compound on the outskirts of the city.

Sheikh and the three others _ Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem and Sheikh Adil _ are in jail and have appealed their convictions.

"What we were saying for so many years in our trial, in the appeal, (is) that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is innocent and he has not committed that murder," Bashir said in the interview from the eastern city of Lahore.

A press release later in the day confirmed the suit had been filed and that the company wanted its logos to appear on the rear quarter panel of the team's car.

Cingular and AT&T merged earlier this year and the Cingular name currently is being phased out, but NASCAR will not allow the newly merged company to put the AT&T logos on the car because of NASCAR's contract with Nextel to sponsor its premier series.

Cingular was grandfathered in as an existing sponsor when the NASCAR-Nextel contract was negotiated in 2003. The 10-year deal began in 2004, but NASCAR has said that it does not allow grandfathered sponsors to change their name.

Garcia accused the company of seeking out "the sickest of the sick who require the most attention" because these patients would bring in higher Medicare payments. The company would then give these patients little attention, Garcia claimed.

He hopes the lawsuit will force the court to order an independent monitor to oversee the company's centers.

"These nursing homes are supposed to be examined every 15 months, but sometimes it's two or three years between investigations," he said. "So basically these places operate unpoliced even though they're supposed to be policed."

A spokeswoman for Life Care in Cleveland, Tenn., could not be reached Friday.

A national chain of nursing homes with three care centers in Orange County is being accused of systematically neglecting its patients.

A lawsuit filed this week in Orange County Superior Court claims the 13 Southern California nursing homes owned by Life Care Centers of Americafailed to hire enough doctors, nurses and others to adequately care for its acutely ill patients. The suit, which lists the family of a Lake Forest woman, Consuelo Deburger, as its client, is seeking class action status.

Calls to Life Care's headquarters in Cleveland, Tenn., and to the hospitals listed as its Orange County operations, were not returned. The company's attorney was not listed on the complaint.

The suit claims the company owns Orangegrove Rehabilitation Hospital in Garden Grove, La Habra Convalescent Hospital in La Habra and Lake Forest Nursing Center in Lake Forest. Though it's unclear how many patients are in each center, the chain typically runs facilities that serve between 85 and 120 acutely ill patients.

"This is a case where they draw in the sickest of the sick and then fail to take care of them," said Stephen Garcia, a Long Beach attorney who filed the lawsuit. Garcia – who said he has filed "about ten" other cases against Life Care Centers over the years – said in a press release that privately held Life Care owns more than 260 hospitals nationally and generated sales of nearly $1 billion in 2006.

A 2006 report on Medicare cases filed by the U.S. Attorney's office in Atlanta said Life Care Center paid $2.5 million to settle a similar case in Atlanta. That payout was described as the largest settlement ever in a "quality-of-care-based false claims" case.

She's also accused of going online to siphon more than 80-thousand dollars from the attorney's personal bank account. According to the indictment, some of that money was used to pay down the balances on the two fraudulent credit accounts.

Hufner was arrested yesterday on charges of identity theft, access device fraud, bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and mail fraud. She faces up to 102 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

A Long Beach attorney has sued a national nursing home corporation, which owns three Inland area facilities, claiming residents did not receive adequate care as they were promised.

Stephen Garcia said Friday that he filed the lawsuit on behalf of more than a dozen residents of 13 Life Care Centers of America located in Southern California. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of a woman who was a resident at Lake Forest Nursing Center, which is a Life Care Centers facility in Lake Forest.

Garcia said he might ask a judge to certify the lawsuit for class-action status, which could include thousands of Life Care Centers residents.

Life Care Centers of America, based in Cleveland, Tenn., owns more than 260 centers in 28 states, according to its Web site. No one there could be reached Friday.

Mark Krueger, Life Care's regional vice president in Corona, also could not be reached.

Life Care Centers' Inland area facilities are in Barstow, Corona and Sun City. Garcia did not immediately know the names of residents in those facilities who are part of the lawsuit.

Garcia said he wants an independent monitor to be appointed to oversee the nursing homes to make sure residents get appropriate care.

"We'll drop the lawsuit if they agree to get an independent monitor," he said. "We already sent a lengthy letter, and they ignored it."

Garcia claims Life Care Centers facilities provides residents substandard care and violates their rights. The corporation promises specific medical and therapeutic care but does not do so, he said.

Garcia claims the corporation shortchanges residents on care so it can keep more of its profits.

"The problem is the facilities don't have the staff to meet the needs of the residents," he said. "There's nothing wrong with making a fair profit. But this is a moneymaking bonanza."

Garcia said Life Care Centers facilities have been "unpoliced" because the California Department of Health Services, which regulates nursing homes, does not have time to inspect them.

Department spokesman Mike Bowman said he could not comment because he had not seen Garcia's lawsuit.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Web site shows Life Care Center of Corona was last inspected Dec. 23, 2005. Sun City Convalescent Center last was inspected Oct. 5, 2006. Rimrock Villa Convalescent Center in Barstow last was inspected April 13, 2006.

"We need to get someone in there to look after these people," Garcia said. "We're talking about our mothers, fathers, grandfathers and grandmothers."