Across Asia: Sri Lanka

Rebels gun down 19

Tamil Tiger rebels gunned down 19 people fleeing Sri Lanka's war zone and the bodies were carried among the more than 1,000 civilians who reported to army-held areas yesterday, the military said.

The rate of people fleeing fighting between Sri Lanka's army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has picked up sharply in the past week, with the separatist rebels now confined to less than 175 sq km.