The World : Sri Lanka Braces for Vote

Security forces on full alert for Sri Lanka’s first general election since 1977 killed four rebels as they fled after setting fire to a bus northwest of the capital of Colombo, police said. About 40,000 police and troops were deployed across the Indian Ocean island-nation as full security went into effect after four weeks of campaigning in which 13 candidates and more than 300 political activists were killed. President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s ruling United National Party blamed the opposition People’s Liberation Front for most of the killings. The front has described Wednesday’s election as a fraud and threatened voters and election officials if they disregard a call to boycott the polls.