Top Asian News at 12:00 p.m. GMT

Top Asian News at 12:00 p.m. GMT

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Tamil rebels said Tuesday that 1,000 civilians died in a government raid on their territory that the military says freed thousands of noncombatants from the war zone. On Monday, Sri Lankan soldiers broke through a barrier that the Tamil Tiger rebels had erected to defend their ever-shrinking slice of territory. Some 35,000 civilians then poured out of the area and the exodus continued Tuesday. The government said more than 50,000 have fled thus far, and the figure was expected to rise.