World in brief: 43 rebels die in attack on base

Sri Lankan forces attacked rebel fortifications by ground and staged an airstrike on a Tamil Tiger naval base in a wave of fighting that killed 43 rebels and six government soldiers, the military said Monday.

The heavy fighting came amid an offensive against the rebels’ de facto state in parts of this South Asian island state’s north. Top government officials have vowed to destroy the Tamil Tigers by the end of the year.

In fighting Monday, soldiers attacked a rebel position in the northern Welioya region, killing seven guerrillas, the military spokesman, Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara, said. One soldier died and three suffered wounds, he said.

On Sunday, government troops launched a series of raids on rebel bunkers along the front lines in the Mannar region, Nanayakkara said. That fighting killed 17 rebels and five soldiers, he said.

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar

Cyclone leaves 44 dead

The death toll has risen to 44 and the number of homeless is up to 145,000 more than a week after a cyclone tore through this island in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar’s government said Monday.

Areas on the eastern side of the island remained cut off by floodwaters. Seven major roads were impassable and bridges have been destroyed, hampering attempts to deliver relief, according to the Ministry of Transport.

Cyclone Ivan lashed Madagascar on Feb. 17 with torrential rain and winds of up to 140 miles per hour.

Madagascar now faces food shortages after 37,000 acres of rice fields were flooded in the region of Alaotra Mangoro, which provides nearly a third of the island’s staple food.

LIMA, Peru

Unearthed plaza could be oldest city

An ancient stone plaza unearthed in Peru dates back more than five millennia and is the oldest known urban settlement in the Americas, according to experts here.

Archaeologists say the site, uncovered in a complex of ruins known as Sechin Bajo, is a major find that could help reshape their understanding of the continent’s pre-Columbian history.

Carbon dating by a German- Peruvian excavation team indicates the circular plaza is at least 5,500 years old, dating to about 3,500 B.C., said Cesar Perez, an archaeologist at Peru’s National Institute of Culture who supervised the dig. That would make it older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

Sechin Bajo thus eclipses the ancient Peruvian citadel of Caral, approximately 5,000 years old, as the New World’s oldest known settlement.

BEIJING

Man kills former schoolmates, self

A former student broke into a school in southern China and killed two schoolmates before stabbing himself in the abdomen and jumping from the fifth story of the building, a government news agency reported today.

The young man, Chen Wenzhen, died after the attack Monday evening at the Leizhou No. 2 Middle School in Guangdong province, the Xinhua News Agency reported, citing headmaster Zheng Jiu. Three students and a teacher were wounded while trying to stop him.

Chen had been a student in “senior two” – the equivalent of 11th grade – but dropped out half a year ago because he suffered from headaches and could not concentrate on his studies, Zheng was reported as saying.

Chen fatally stabbed two students in senior two, a boy and a girl, before killing himself, Xinhua said. Police did not identify the victims or say whether Chen had specifically targeted his victims.