About 3,000 Tamil civilians braved flooded, mine-laden jungle paths to flee from separatist fighting into government-held areas in eastern Sri Lanka today, officials and witnesses said.

A boat transporting ethnic Tamil refugees capsized off eastern Sri Lanka today, leaving four dead and two missing, police said.

The United Nations today said it was “deeply concerned” about indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas in Sri Lanka’s east where tens of thousands of civilians, most Tamils, are caught in fighting.

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels have not quit a truce despite calling it “defunct,” European ceasefire monitors said today, as the government called for renewed peace talks.