World Briefs

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. The military denied the accusation.

Government forces say they rescued thousands of civilians on Monday after they broke through a barrier built by the rebels to protect their territory. By Tuesday evening, the military said 52,000 had escaped.

KWANXAMALALA, South Africa – South African voters are projected to give an overwhelming majority to the long-governing African National Congress party and hand the presidency to the ANC's leader, Jacob Zuma after elections Wednesday.

The 67-year-old head of the former liberation movement's feared intelligence unit is beloved by the poor, who feel his deprived childhood gives him insight into their painful poverty. His opponents warn that his populism is dangerous for democracy.

LIMA, Peru – A Peruvian lawyer says Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales has requested political asylum in Peru.

Rosales is a leading opponent of President Hugo Chavez and has been charged with corruption in Venezuela. Rosales says his trial there would not be fair.

Rosales went into hiding last month and has since stepped down as mayor of Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-largest city.

HAVANA – A leading rights activist says most of Cuba's 200 or more political prisoners would rather serve out long terms on the island than be part of an exchange for five communist agents imprisoned in the US, as Cuban President Raul Castro has suggested.

President Barack Obama has said Cuba should make the next move as both leaders try to thaw relations — and that releasing political prisoners would be a significant step.

Castro responded in part by suggesting a prisoner swap.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama left the door open Tuesday to prosecuting Bush administration officials who devised the legal authority for gruesome terror-suspect interrogations, saying the US lost "our moral bearings" with use of the tactics.

The question of whether to bring charges against those who devised justification for the methods "is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the parameters of various laws and I don't want to prejudge that," Obama said. The president discussed the issue of terrorism-era interrogation tactics with reporters.

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