NEW YORK — Air travelers at New York's LaGuardia Airport found themselves in a mess of delays and missed connections yesterday after a homeless man carried a fake bomb into its central terminal, authorities said.

LaGuardia's central terminal was evacuated for several hours after the man entered the building with the phony explosive in a bag, then acted like he was trying to detonate it, police said.

The episode ended with a quick arrest, but it disrupted travel plans for thousands of people as flights were postponed and vehicle traffic to the airport was briefly halted. Delays also rippled across the country as airlines adjusted their schedules.

3 KILLED IN ATTACK ON CENTER FOR GAY TEENS

JERUSALEM — A gunman entered a community center for gay teenagers in Tel Aviv late yesterday and sprayed the room with automatic-rifle fire, killing three people and wounding at least 10 others in what activists called Israel's deadliest crime against homosexuals.

Police launched a citywide search for the assailant, described by some witnesses as masked and dressed in black. Police said they were uncertain of his motive.

QUARANTINE ORDERED AFTER PLAGUE DEATH

BEIJING — Thousands of people have been placed under quarantine in a town in northwest China after a man died of pneumonic plague and 11 others were confirmed infected with the deadly lung infection, authorities said.

The 32-year-old herdsman died in Ziketan in Qinghai province, the provincial health bureau said in a post on its Web site yesterday. It did not say when he died.

Most of the others infected are relatives of the deceased and are in stable condition in a hospital, the bureau said.

Pneumonic plague is spread through the air and can be passed from person to person through coughing, according to the World Health Organization. It is caused by the same bacteria that occurs in bubonic plague — the Black Death that killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe during the Middle Ages.

21 DEAD IN PAKISTAN BUILDING COLLAPSE

KARACHI, Pakistan — A five-story building collapsed in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, killing at least 21 people, mostly women and children, authorities said yesterday.

Local Mayor Mohammad Dilawar said the building caved in late Friday. The building apparently was weakened by heavy monsoon rains, Dilawar said.

4,000 FLEE FOREST FIRE IN CANARY ISLES

LA PALMA, Canary Islands — A forest fire fanned by high winds has forced the evacuation of about 4,000 residents on the Canary Island of La Palma, the Spanish government said yesterday.

Flames raging on steep hillsides southeast of the island's dormant San Antonio volcano have engulfed several houses and could damage wildlife habitats, environmental worker Narciso Lorenzo said by telephone.

The cause of the fire is unknown.