Iraqis rush to the site of a bomb attack in Baghdad, Feb. 1.

BAGHDAD, Iraq. Feb. 1--Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up Friday in separate attacks on Baghdad pet bazaars, killing at least 64 people and wounding dozens, police said.
According to AP, the attacks were the deadliest in the Iraqi capital since 30,000 more American troops flooded into the center of the country last spring.
In the first attack, a woman detonated explosives hidden under her traditional black Islamic robe at about 10:20 a.m. in the central Al-Ghazl market.
The weekly bazaar has been bombed several times since the war started but has recently re-emerged as a popular shopping venue as Baghdad security improved and a Friday ban on driving was lifted.
Police said at least 46 people were killed and 82 wounded. Firefighters scooped up debris scattered among pools of blood, clothing and pigeon carcasses.
About 20 minutes later, a second female suicide bomber struck a bird market in a predominantly Shiite area in southeastern Baghdad.
That blast killed as many as 18 people and wounded 25, police said.
The attacks shortly before the weekly Islamic call to prayer resounded across the capital were the latest in a series of violent incidents that have been chipping away at Iraqi confidence in the permanence of recent security gains.
Police initially said the bomb was hidden in a box of birds but determined it was a suicide attack after finding the woman’s head, an officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.

Abu Laith Al-Libi

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 1--A missile from a US Predator drone struck a suspected terrorist safehouse in Pakistan and killed a top Al-Qaeda commander believed responsible for attacks on US forces and the brazen bombing during a visit last year by US Vice President Dick Cheney to Afghanistan, a US official said late Thursday.
The strike that killed Abu Laith Al-Libi was conducted Monday night or early Tuesday against a facility in Pakistan’s north Waziristan region, the lawless tribal area bordering Afghanistan. His death was reported by postings on two Islamist Web sites and confirmed by a US official on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the strike publicly, AP reported.
Although a Pakistani government spokesman in Islamabad said he had no information to prove that Al-Libi was dead, intelligence officials in Miran Shah, a main town in North Waziristan, said on Friday there were strong indications that he had been killed.
The killing of such a major Al-Qaeda figure on Pakistani soil is likely to embarrass Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who has repeatedly said he would not sanction US military action against Al-Qaeda members believed to be regrouping in the wild borderlands near Afghanistan.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton participate in the televised CNN debate at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, Jan. 31.

HOLLYWOOD, USA, Feb. 1--Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama struck a rare note of civility in their White House battle Thursday, uniting to observe that history was in the air as the Democrats vie to seize back the presidency.
A star-studded audience at the Kodak Theatre--home of the Oscars--was on hand for their first one-on-one debate, but the drama and backbiting seen in previous encounters was replaced by a polite exchange of policy priorities, AFP said.
Elsewhere, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed Arizona Senator John McCain, giving the Republican front-runner another key boost before the upcoming “Super Tuesday“ battles in 22 states.
Clinton said that while she and Obama may differ on healthcare, economic remedies and how to handle unsavory foreign regimes, what united them was far greater--a shared desire to boot the Republicans out of the White House.
“Just by looking at us, you can tell we are not more of the same,“ she said, noting the extraordinary prospect of the first African-American, or first woman, becoming commander-in-chief of the world’s sole superpower.
Illinois Senator Obama--emphasizing his campaign theme of breaking with the old order of politics--described the election as a choice between “the past and the future.“
Hillary Clinton, the wife of former president Bill Clinton, returned to her theme of experience--indirectly highlighting Obama’s perceived lack of it.
She said that on inauguration day next January 20, either herself or Obama would be sworn in as the successor to President George W. Bush.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 1--US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has urged Germany to send more troops to Afghanistan.
He has warned that without reinforcements the NATO-led force could lose credibility in the country, BBC reported on Friday.
Gate’s letter to the German defense minister has been described as “unusually stern“ by a German newspaper which has seen the correspondence.
The German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, is reported to have issued an equally stern response.
The NATO-led force has almost 37,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Gates’s letter asks for Germany to consider a new mandate which could allow thousands more troops to be sent to Afghanistan with some deployed to the more dangerous south.
This harsh exchange of letters comes amid growing concern that the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan is failing.
It also comes amid growing signs of a strain in the NATO alliance itself.
Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper has issued both US President George W Bush and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown with an ultimatum--that Canada will end its military mission in Afghanistan if NATO does not put more soldiers in the dangerous south of the country.
The US has already promised to send an extra 3,000 US marines--but is urging other NATO countries including France and Germany to do more.
So far most NATO members have refused to send significant numbers to southern Afghanistan.

ISMAILIA, Egypt, Feb. 1--Egypt called in police reinforcements and sealed gaps at the breached border with the Gaza Strip late Thursday.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal met Egyptian officials in Cairo for talks centered on the “facilitation of movement“ and the entry of Palestinians on the border.
A senior Hamas official said no agreement had been reached but progress had been made, reported Reuters.
A senior Egyptian security official said Egypt had given orders to security men to start taking more restrictive measures and was hoping to minimize friction with Palestinians by implementing an incremental closure of the border.
The official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said there was still no official word on when the border would be completely sealed.
Egyptian forces brought cement and sandbags to seal gaps in the border just over a week after Hamas militants blasted it open to let tens of thousands of Gazans cross to Egypt in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade, witnesses said.
One security source said around 50,000 Palestinians had crossed into Egypt on Thursday, and another 20,000 were staying with relatives in Rafah and nearby towns.
Egypt was silent on the talks with Meshaal, who Arab media had said was expected to meet Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to discuss restoring order at the Gaza-Egypt frontier.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1--Poland would like to host a major NATO military installation on its soil as part of a deeper security relationship with the United States, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told Reuters.
Sikorski is in Washington to discuss with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and others the conditions under which Poland would agree to host a defensive missile shield, a US proposal which has angered Moscow, Poland’s eastern neighbor.
“We’ve been a NATO member since ’99, but we don’t have any hard NATO facilities on our territory,“ he said in the interview with Reuters. “The only thing we have is a conference center. And we are a border country of NATO.“
Poland’s Defense Minister Bogdan Klich, who visited Washington earlier this month, has already suggested that Washington should bolster Polish air defenses with new short-and medium-range systems like the Patriot missile in exchange for Warsaw’s missile shield cooperation.
Sikorski raised the prospect of a NATO base in Poland as another item on Poland’s wish list, while adding that “We’re not wedded to any particular technical solution.“
“We believe that NATO infrastructure, defense infrastructure, should be more or less evenly spread over its territory. And at the moment it certainly is not,“ Sikorski told Reuters.