US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that Sudan’s “history” of backsliding on commitments means that sanction pressure must be maintained, despite its acceptance of a planned larger peacekeeping force for Darfur.

Lebanon linked a bomb attack that killed six UN peacekeepers in the south of the country to a deadly standoff between Al Qaeda-inspired gunmen and the army in the north where two more soldiers were shot dead on Monday.

A suicide bomber killed six Iraqi tribal leaders opposed to Al Qaeda when he blew himself up at a busy Baghdad hotel, in one of four attacks on Monday that killed 50 people in all, police said.