Muslim sentenced for Myanmar violence

Naypyidaw -- A Muslim man has been sentenced to 26 years in prison in Myanmar for an attack on a Buddhist woman that triggered a bout of religious violence last month. The man, who was described by state media as a 48-year-old drug addict, was convicted in a court in Lashio of intent to kill, assault and drug use, a police source told the AFP news agency on Wednesday. The 24-year-old victim, a petrol vendor, suffered burns in the attack, which provoked Buddhist-Muslim riots in the town that left at least one person dead and saw a mosque and orphanage burned. The violence last month followed a serious spate of attacks in March, where dozens of people were killed in central Myanmar, and thousands of homes were set ablaze. Ten Muslims have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 28 years in connection with the March violence in the central town of Meiktila. No Buddhists are yet known to have been convicted. Communal unrest last year in the western state of Rakhine left about 200 people dead and 140,000 displaced, mainly Rohingya Muslims. Agencies