Curfew lifted from Sri Lankan towns

"There is a marked improvement in law and order situation and therefore we have lifted curfew restrictions," police spokesman Rienzie Perera said. The curfew was lifted early Tuesday. Police imposed the curfew Monday after Tamil demonstrators blocked a main highway leading to Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, obstructed railroad tracks and called for a general strike, forcing businesses to close. The army had deployed on the streets of the northern city of Vavuniya and the port city of Trincomalee, where businesses were also closed Monday in protest against the killing of the 25 Tamil detainees by 3,000 Sinhalese villagers. Government officials in Colombo have said the villagers attacked the camp inmates because they had taken a Sinhalese officer hostage in a demand for early release from the government-run camp. The officer was released unharmed hours before the attack. The inmates were captured or surrendered members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist group fighting a 17-year-old war for a homeland for the country's 3.2 million minority Tamils. The war has left 63,000 people dead. The three towns fall in the proposed Tamil homeland.

(AP)