BELFAST - The Irish Republican Army, on the eve of fresh talks on Thursday aimed at putting Northern Ireland‘s faltering peace process back on track, angrily blamed Britain for the province‘s political crisis.

OTIS AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE - America‘s most famous political family prepared to bury John F. Kennedy Jr. at sea on Thursday a day after the body of the son of the former president was retrieved from the depths of the Atlantic.

CAPE CANAVERAL - The space shuttle Columbia‘s historic mission with the first woman commander at the helm was called off on Thursday because of bad weather, the second postponement in 48 hours.

LONDON - The momentum for Middle East Peace gathered pace on Wednesday, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak saying swift progress was possible and some radical Palestinian leaders adopting a new conciliatory stand.

UNITED NATIONS - Responding to U.S. charges the United Nations was moving too slowly in Kosovo, a senior U.N. adviser said it was up to NATO to restore law and order and public safety.

BEIJING - China banned on Thursday a popular quasi-religious sect that held protests across the country this week, saying it was an illegal organisation that cheats people and threatens social chaos.

BONN - Left-wingers from Germany‘s ruling Social Democrats hit out on Thursday at party leader Gerhard Schroeder‘s plans to pare back the welfare state.

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations said on Wednesday an international chemical arms team detected no contamination in a U.N. arms laboratory in Iraq, the subject of considerable controversy among Security Council members.

RIYADH - The tiny Gulf state of Qatar, eager to prevent its young men from wedding foreigners, has appealed to Saudi Arabia to ban Qataris from marrying without government consent, a Saudi newspaper reported on Thursday.

MANAGUA - Twelve people remained missing on Wednesday, two days after a commercial lobster boat sank off Nicaragua‘s Caribbean coast, but 60 fishermen and crew had been rescued.

NEW YORK - An international panel trying to resolve claims that Europe‘s insurers withheld payments from Holocaust survivors set a one-week deadline on Wednesday for agreement on valuing prewar policies.