World

Suspicions that Al Qaeda was responsible for the two-pronged attack on Israelis in Kenya late last week were growing, although local authorities said no such proof had been found yet. Sixteen people died in a resort favored by Israeli tourists when a vehicle occupied by suicide bombers smashed into its lobby and exploded Thursday. In the other incident, two missiles launched from the ground narrowly missed a chartered jet carrying tourists and crew members home to Israel. Kenyan officials warned of future attacks on their soil as long as the Israeli-Palestinian crisis remains unresolved.

UN inspectors in Iraq said they are "far from reaching a conclusion" in their search for banned weapons and asked for patience as they collect samples from sites they've visited for later analysis. On Sunday, the UN experts kept the employee in charge of an agricultural complex from accompanying them as they made their rounds. Iraq says the facility is used for pesticide-spraying on local croplands.

Senior leaders of the political party allied with the Irish Republican Army ridiculed newspaper reports that the IRA has all but decided to disband and give up its weapons. The reports in The Times (London) and The Guardian appeared to grow out of a meeting between the prime ministers of Britain and the Republic of Ireland. The papers said such IRA moves would be aimed at restoring Northern Ireland's Protestant/Catholic self-rule government. But Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein called the reports "unfounded speculation."

One by one, right-wing paramilitary groups in Colombia said they'll join a unilateral cease-fire called to facilitate peace negotiations with leftist rebels. The move is believed to be the first time the paramilitaries have been willing to pursue peace talks without a parallel truce by the rebels. The paramilitaries are blamed for atrocities similar in scope to those committed by the leftists.

Forty-seven people died and 12 others were hurt when fire erupted in an overcrowded Caracas, Venezuela, nightclub. Authorities said there were too few exits for the estimated 400 patrons. The incident took place amid growing political tensions in the city, which is at the center of a nationwide general strike called for today by opponents of President Hugo Chávez. Chávez predicted it would last only hours at most.