Sri Lanka Lifts State of Emergency

Sri Lanka’s president announced he has lifted the nationwide state of emergency that was imposed after communal clashes resulted in the deaths of three people.  The latest series of violence began on March 4, after a Buddhist Sinhalese man was beaten to death by a group of Muslim men following a traffic accident in Teledeniya town in Kandy, Al Jazeera reported. Several dozen people were wounded in the riots, in which mobs vandalized mosques and scores of Muslim homes and businesses. “Upon assessing the public safety situation, I instructed to revoke the State of Emergency from midnight yesterday,” President Maithripala Sirisena said on Twitter.  The measure was imposed on March 6 after police failed to control the riots and the military was deployed. Internet access was also blocked across the country. Police have arrested the suspected instigators of the riots.