Sri Lanka ends censorship as security improves

The Sri Lankan government, recovering from ethnic violence that swept the island in July, Sunday lifted press censorship but extended a nationwide state of emergency for another month.

A curfew, imposed to quell riots in which the majority Sinhalese attacked minority Tamils, was lifted Thursday.

Officials say the lifting of the curfew and of press censorship indicates that security is now satisfactory. But the emergency, they say, was extended as a precaution. More than 385 people were killed in the violence and hundreds of houses, shops, and factories were destroyed or damaged.