SEOUL - SOUTH KOREAN police said on Sunday they arrested 457 union activists who clashed with riot police during a rally against the government's labor policies at which about 150 people were hurt.

On Saturday evening, about 7,000 labor activists rallied in Daejeon, a city about 100 miles (160 kilometres) south of Seoul, and clashed with riot police trying to stop them from marching into unauthorized areas, according to the Metropolitan Police Agency.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - The Tamil Tiger rebels admitted defeat in their 25-year-old war with the Sri Lankan government on Sunday, offering to lay down their guns as government forces swept across their last strongholds in the northeast.

The government rejected the last-ditch call for a cease-fire, saying the thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone all have escaped to safety and there was no longer any reason to stop the battle.

ISLAMABAD - A RECENT Pakistani military offensive against Taliban fighters in the northwest has killed more than 1,000 suspected insurgents, a top official said on Sunday after visiting a relief camp hosting thousands of people displaced by the battle.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik gave no time frame for how much longer the operation would proceed, except that it 'will continue till last Taliban are flushed out.'