SRI LANKA . . . BOMB BLAST KILLS 50; DERAILS ELECTION

Another suicide bomber took the political spotlight today, this time in the tiny Indian Ocean island nation of Sri Lanka, as a blast killed a presidential candidate and about 50 others. Next month's elections were postponed when a bomb apparently carried by a woman terrorist and packed with tiny pellets exploded, killing opposition candidate Gamini Dissanayake and onlookers at a rally. Dissanayake may have been targeted because he was critical of two-month-old peace talks between the ruling government and a guerrilla group, the Tamil Tigers -- at war for 11 years in a struggle that has claimed more than 34,000 lives. The Tigers have been fighting for creation of an independent homeland for the Tamil ethnic minority in Sri Lanka. Today the government suspended the talks, pending a probe. In 1991 the Tigers assassinated India's Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.