Sri Lankan today forces battled to take complete control of the country’s coastline and surround the reeling Tamil Tigers in a final push to destroy the rebel group and end the country’s civil war, the military said.

Westerners fled by land, sea and air as Israel launched waves of bombings that hit south Beirut, the border and the eastern city of Baalbek in the early hours today.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will send three veteran UN officials to the Middle East in a bid to defuse what he called a “major crisis” there, the United Nations said today.