Sri Lanka lifts emergency sparked by ethnic violence

Sri Lanka on Sunday lifted an island-wide state of emergency that had been declared to control the spread of ethnic clashes in the country, a spokesman for the president's office said.Emergency was declared on March 6 after mobs from the Sinhala majority community attacked shops and houses belonging to Muslims in the central district of Kandy.The situation was brought under control following the deployment of security forces, the spokesman said.Over 400 people were arrested during the unrest. Clashes first broke out after a Sinhala lorry driver was assaulted by Muslims in a small village outside Kandy and killed.