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WORLD BRIEFING / SRI LANKA

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TIMES WIRE REPORTS

Sri Lanka’s Parliament voted to extend the island nation’s state of emergency for another month as the government tries to root out any Tamil Tiger rebels remaining after the end of the civil war.

The state of emergency gives the military and police wide-ranging powers to arrest terrorist suspects and detain them indefinitely. It has been in place for most of the last 30 years while the government fought Tamil separatists in a bloody civil war that ended last month.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said authorities were able to send 2,120 civilians displaced by the war back to their hometowns.

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About 300,000 people were displaced in the final phase of the war and are being held in camps. The government has promised to resettle the majority of the people in six months.

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