The World : Sri Lanka Bomb Kills 38

A car bomb exploded near a shopping arcade in northeastern Sri Lanka, killing at least 38 people and wounding 56. The military blamed Tamil extremists for the blast in the port of Trincomalee, 147 miles northeast of Colombo. It shattered the second day of a weeklong cease-fire offered by the government. One official said the bomb was intended to drive Sinhalese from Trincomalee, which is part of a region claimed by separatists as a Tamil homeland. Tamil militants, charging discrimination by the Sinhalese majority, have conducted a six-year insurgency that has claimed more than 12,000 lives.