Colombo calm after protests

Streets in Sri Lanka's commercial capital Colombo were calm yesterday after the president declared a state of emergency following escalating anti-government protests.

Details of the latest emergency regulations were not yet made public, but previous emergency laws have given greater powers to the president to deploy the military, detain people without charge and break up protests.

There were no initial reports of late-night disturbances following the emergency declaration shortly before midnight.

The announcement - the second time President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has declared emergency law in little over a month - drew condemnation from Sri Lanka's opposition and several western countries.

On Friday police fired tear gas at dozens of demonstrators outside parliament, in the latest in more than a month of sporadically violent anti-government protests amid shortages of imported food, fuel and medicines.

Hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, rising oil prices and government tax cuts, Sri Lanka has been left with as little as $50 million in useable foreign reserves, the finance minister said this week.