World

A terrorist group, Ansar al-Sunna, claimed responsibility for a bombing attack that killed at least 46 people at a police recruiting center in the Kurdish city of Arbil, the worst such incident in Iraq in months. Another 150 people were reported hurt. The attack came one day after the swearing-in of a new government that Iraqis are counting on to end violence. The group is believed to be affiliated with Al Qaeda, but its claim could not be verified.

Jubilant security officials in Pakistan said the capture of the key suspect in two assassination attempts against President Pervez Musharraf was yielding "a lot of tips" that had them "on the right track" to Osama bin Laden. Abu Farraj al-Libbi reportedly was seized in the North West Frontier Province, and within hours 11 other terrorist suspects also were in custody, the officials said. Al-Libbi is described as an Al Qaeda "planner" and a member of its hierarchy. In December 2003, Musharraf survived two bomb attacks attributed to his vital role in cooperating with the US counterterrorism fight.

Israel drew the line on handing over more West Bank towns to Palestinian control, saying President Mahmoud Abbas's government has failed in its commitment to collect weapons from militants in those already transferred: Jericho and Tulkarm. In all, five West Bank towns were to be turned over to the Palestinians under the Feb. 8 cease-fire agreed to by both sides.

Amid concerns over possible new violence in the streets, the president of Togo was being inaugurated Wednesday after the nation's constitutional court certified his controversial election victory. The announcement late last month of Faure Gnassingbe's win touched off days of fighting between furious opposition supporters and security forces in which at least 22 people were killed. Gnassingbe has called for his opponents to join a government of national unity, but they have refused.

Despite a vote in parliament last month extending to women in Kuwait the right to run and vote in local elections, they'll be barred from doing so after all, reports said. Islamist opposition legislators in the all-male parliament abstained from a follow-up vote on the suffrage measure Monday, meaning the earliest the polls may be opened to women is 2009.