TOKYO (CNN) — Authorities in Japan executed three convicted murderers on
Friday, the Ministry of Justice said.

The following are the men’s names, ages and cities of execution:

– Masahiko Matsubara, 62, executed in Osaka.
– Keishi Nago, 32, executed in Fukuoka.
– Takashi Uchida, 64, executed in Tokyo.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Abu Laith al-Libi, a wanted al Qaeda terrorist, was killed in Pakistan by a CIA airstrike, three U.S. officials told CNN’s Kelli Arena Thursday.

Al-Libi was described as a senior al Qaeda leader believed to have plotted and executed attacks against U.S. and coalition forces, including a February 2007 bombing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney. He was on a “most wanted” list of 12 accused terrorists issued in October by the Combined Joint Task Force-82 — an anti-terror unit in Afghanistan.

Earlier, a knowledgeable Western official and a military source confirmed al-Libi’s death to CNN. The officials said al-Libi was killed by a missile from an airplane.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (CNN) — Democratic presidential frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spent their last debate before next week’s all-important Super Tuesday voting seated side-by-side, debating differences on healthcare, the economy and foreign policy — all while seeming to go out of their way to be cordial to each other.

The exchange was in sharp contrast to previous debates because of the absence of political sniping, yet marked one of the most substantive policy discussions yet in the race for the nomination.

The pair both praised former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who dropped out of the Democratic race this week, and repeatedly pointed out that they agree far more often than they disagree.

The Democratic race remains close going into Super Tuesday, when 13 states, including California and New York will vote.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Abu Laith al-Libi, a wanted al Qaeda terrorist, was killed in Pakistan by a CIA strike, three U.S. officials told CNN Thursday.

Al-Libi was described as a senior al Qaeda leader believed to have plotted and executed attacks against U.S. and coalition forces, including a February 2007 bombing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney. He was on a “most wanted” list of 12 accused terrorists issued in October by the Combined Joint Task Force-82 — an anti-terror unit in Afghanistan.

Earlier, a knowledgeable Western official and a military source confirmed al-Libi’s death to CNN.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Abu Laith al-Libi, a wanted al Qaeda terrorist, was
killed in Pakistan in a CIA strike, three U.S. officials told CNN Thursday.

LAS VEGAS (CNN) — A fire at Las Vegas’ Monte Carlo Resort and Casino last week was likely caused by flying molten metal from a hand-held cutting torch being used by construction crews, the Clark County Fire Department said Thursday.

The Friday fire charred the top of two of the casino’s three wings. It caused no major injuries but triggered the evacuation of visitors and employees.

At the time the blaze began, workers on the roof of the building were cutting corrugated steel products used for a walkway being installed around the interior perimeter of the roof, the fire department said in a statement.

ATLANTA (CNN) — An Army medic has been charged with arson in connection with a fire at an Atlanta strip club, and is linked to four other soldiers charged with plotting to participate in an armed robbery aimed at stealing cocaine from drug dealers, authorities said Thursday.

Sandeo Pablo Dyson, 44, of Gainesville, Ga., was arrested Wednesday in Colorado, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias’ office said in a news release. He is charged with arson and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

Authorities allege Dyson set a January 2007 fire at Atlanta’s Club Onyx. Police analyzing the club’s surveillance system saw that around the time the fire began, a male came out of a bathroom/storage closet area in the rear of the club after it had been locked up. The male fled out an exit door of the club near where the fire was set.

WASHINGTON (CNN) –The Supreme Court has again blocked a scheduled execution, keeping in place a de facto moratorium on capital punishment while it considers the broader constitutional question over how lethal injection is administered.

The justices without comment Thursday delayed indefinitely the execution of James Harvey Callahan, who sits on Alabama’s death row after a 1982 murder. The high court announcement came about an hour before he was scheduled to die at the Holman prison.

A federal appeals court in Atlanta had lifted a previous stay of execution Wednesday, saying Callahan missed crucial deadlines to file briefs challenging the method of execution.

–From CNN Supreme Court Producer Bill Mears

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (CNN) — Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will duel for Super Tuesday votes Thursday night as the Democratic presidential hopefuls face off for the first time without former Sen. John Edwards.

The debate — sponsored by CNN, the Los Angeles Times and Politico — starts at 8 p.m. ET Thursday on CNN and CNN.com. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer is the moderator.

The forum at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood comes hours after the Obama campaign revealed it had raised $32 million in January from roughly 170,000 new donors. That amount will allow Obama to expand his television ad buys greatly in the 20-plus states holding primaries or caucuses Tuesday.

The Clinton campaign would not indicate how much money it had raised in the same time period.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Bush administration defended its strategy in Afghanistan Thursday to skeptical lawmakers who warned the campaign against the Taliban is losing steam.

Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher painted an optimistic picture of the situation in the country, saying there has been a “profound change” since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

But both Democratic and Republican senators called Boucher’s assessment overly optimistic.

“After more than six years and more than $6 billion, the most we can claim is that life of ordinary Afghans isn’t as bad as it was under the Taliban,” said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., the committee chairman and a former presidential contender. “We’ve got to aim much higher, I think, and we have to deliver much more.”

–From CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (CNN) — Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will duel for Super Tuesday votes Thursday night as the Democratic presidential hopefuls face off for the first time without former Sen. John Edwards.

The debate — sponsored by CNN, the Los Angeles Times and Politico — starts at 8 p.m. ET Thursday on CNN and CNN.com. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer is the moderator.

The event is the first Democratic debate since Obama’s convincing victory Saturday in South Carolina. On Tuesday, Clinton won the Florida primary, a contest her campaign said helped the senator regain momentum even though it awarded no delegates.

(CNN) — A 61-year-old man pleaded guilty Thursday to the murder of a young woman he met hiking in the north Georgia mountains, and a judge sentenced him to life in prison, Hall County (Ga.) District Attorney Lee Darragh said.

Gary Michael Hilton, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and bulletproof vest, sat somberly through the sentencing.

“The most appropriate course was to have this defendant take responsibility for the death of Meredith Emerson through his guilty plea today and be sentenced in such a way that he will likely die in prison and most certainly never see the light of day again,” Darragh said at a news conference.  Hilton will not be eligible for parole until 2038, Darragh said.

ATLANTA (CNN)– Home Depot announced Thursday it is cutting its Atlanta headquarters workforce by 10 percent or 500 jobs.

A spokesman for the world’s largest home improvement retailer declined to identify what types of jobs are being cut, but said they are across all functional areas. The employees will be paid through April 4, he said.

Home Depot employs more than 345,000 workers at more than 2,000 stores worldwide, according to its Web site.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A wanted al Qaeda terrorist who sources said plotted and executed attacks against U.S. and coalition forces, including a February 2007 bombing at Bagram Air Base during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, was killed in Pakistan, a knowledgeable Western official and a military source told CNN Thursday.

He was identified as Abu Laith al-Libi, who was on the military’s most wanted list.

Radical Islamist Web sites announced al-Libi’s death. “May God have mercy on Sheikh Abu Laith al-Libi and accept him with his brothers, with the martyrs,” said a eulogy posted on a main Islamist site, Al-Ekhlaas.

The knowledgeable Western official said al-Libi is “not far below the importance of the top two al Qaeda leaders” — Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Senate will take up the economic stimulus measure as early as Monday but possibly not until Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.

The delay would allow the three senators who are also presidential candidates to clear Super Tuesday before returning to Washington for any votes.

The plan is for the full Senate to vote on five amendments to the House bill that passed Tuesday, aides said.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush will propose a 19 percent increase in funding to protect the borders and enforce immigration laws in fiscal year 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.

Chertoff said he was releasing the figures in advance of Monday’s budget announcement because of the public’s high interest in border security and because, he said, the figures demonstrate “real progress” in getting control of the borders.

“I wanted to tell the public early that the president is continuing to stay on course with his promise to move towards border security and we’re backing it up with real money and real assets,” Chertoff said.

–From CNN Producer Mike M. Ahlers

(CNN) — A series of armed attacks in the eastern Chad town of Guereda has forced the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to pull most of its staff out of two nearby refugee camps that house refugees from Darfur.

On Thursday, four UNHCR staff members and 28 local and international staff members of UNHCR’s implementing partners were relocated to Abeche, about 300 miles to the southwest. Local authorities do not have the necessary means to protect them, UNHCR said.

Speaking from Abeche, UNHCR spokeswoman Annette Rehl described Guereda as “a place without law and order (where) people act with impunity.” She cited carjacking as the most pressing security concern there: “They need cars and telecommunications equipment.”

(CNN) — A Web site used by radical Islamist groups announced Thursday the death of al Qaeda terrorist Abu Laith al-Libi, who two sources told CNN was killed in Pakistan.

“We congratulate the Islamic nation on the martyrdom of our lion Sheikh Abu Laith al-Libi may God accept him,” the Web site announcement said.

– From CNN Senior Arab Affairs Editor Octavia Nasr

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A senior al Qaeda terrorist who has been active in operational planning and training has been killed in Pakistan, a knowledgeable Western official and an unnamed military source told CNN Thursday. They identified the terrorist as Abu Laith al-Libi.

The knowledgeable Western official said al-Libi is “not far below the importance of the top two al Qaeda leaders” — Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. He is of Libyan descent and was believed to have been in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region, according to the U.S. military.

A U.S. military official with Combined Joint Task Force-82 — the anti-terror unit responsible for searching for al-Libi in Afghanistan — said they have no information on al-Libi’s death. But he added that the unit does not collect information from outside of Afghanistan, and would be informed of targeted operations only “if the Pakistani military share(s) that with us.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Senate Democrats met Thursday in a special caucus to decide how to move forward on an economic stimulus bill passed Wednesday by the Finance Committee that adds some $39 billion to the House version.

The Senate bill contains a higher income cap for rebates, an extension of unemployment benefits and a handful of other items, including tax consideration for alternative energy and an obscure provision that would have the government pay back money to coal companies caught in a legal dispute with the federal government.

Most Republicans oppose the Finance Committee bill — totaling nearly $200 billion over two years — as too expensive and want the Senate to simply pass the House-passed bill — of nearly $161 billion — and quickly send it to the president.

MOSCOW (CNN) — Russian authorities are investigating the recent killing of a model-turned-bodyguard.

Anna Loginova, a 29-year-old former successful model, ran a private security firm of female bodyguards, highly trained in martial arts, demanding high prices to protect Russian billionaires. One notable client was Russian boxer Kostya Tszyu.

A carjacker pulled Loginova out of her Porsche Cayenne on Sunday in Moscow. Loginova grabbed onto the door handle as the car picked up speed and she was dragged along the street before letting go as the car sped away.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A senior al Qaeda terrorist who has been active in operational planning and training has been killed, a knowledgeable Western official said Thursday. He identified the terrorist as Abu Laith al-Libi.

The official said al-Libi is “not far below the importance of the top two al Qaeda leaders” — Osama bin Laden and Ayman al -Zawahiri.

He is of Libyan descent and has been in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region.

–From CNN’s Pam Benson and Michael Holmes

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Thursday urged the Senate to reject the economic stimulus package approved Wednesday by the Senate Finance Committee and pass instead the less-expensive version passed Tuesday by the House.

“I’m concerned that the bill that has come out of the Senate Finance Committee is already too complex, and once it gets to the Senate floor it’s in danger of looking like a Christmas tree,” he told reporters.

Paulson said he has been speaking with senators of both parties. “I again have expressed the view that the House bill does work,” he said. “There, I think, the leaders were very wise in simplifying it and resisting the temptation to make it look like a Christmas tree.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) —- A senior U.S. military official in Baghdad confirms to CNN that “there will be a pause” in U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq after the current reductions are completed in July.

The official said Gen. David Petraeus feels strongly there should be a period of review before he makes any decisions about additional troop withdrawals.

The official, who is directly familiar with Petraeus’ thinking, specifically chose to use the word “pause” in his discussion with CNN to describe what top commanders want to do now.

The official said there is “no determined length” of the pause, but Petraeus wants to “let the dust settle” from the first round of reductions so he can assess the security situation. The already announced reductions will result in about 22,000 troops returning to their home bases.

–From CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr