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.