JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A senior surgeon at the University of Jaffna has given tree-planting machinery and protective gear to the Nallur Pradeshiya Sabha. The local council has been planting trees in its area under a campaign it calls “Green Nallur.” Prof. Balasingam Balagobi heads the University Surgical Unit at Teaching Hospital Jaffna. He handed over earth augers, the machines used to drill planting holes, along with other tools and protective clothing for the council workers who do the planting

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka: A former mayor of Jaffna told the city’s municipal council on Monday to disregard a letter from the district’s top police officer asking it to remove a structure from the memorial to Thileepan, the Tamil Tiger political leader who died on hunger strike in 1987. “Had I been the mayor, I would have torn that letter up and thrown it into the dustbin,” said the former mayor, Visvalingam Manivannan. “The Deputy Inspector General of Police has no legal grounds to issue orders to th

KAYTS, Sri Lanka: A court released a Jaffna bus driver on bail on Tuesday. He was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of cannabis, and his lawyer told the court that the drug detected in his system came from Ayurvedic medicine he had been taking. The driver was arrested last Friday while operating a passenger bus from Jaffna to Kayts. The police produced him before the Kayts Magistrate’s Court on Saturday, and the court remanded him until Tuesday. When the case was taken up on

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: A Tamil opposition lawmaker pressed the government in Parliament on Tuesday over the pay and promotion grievances of Sri Lanka’s development officers, whose unions have called a nationwide sick-leave strike for Nov. 9. “Must development officers remain in the same post until they die? Is there no promotion?” asked Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, a member of Parliament for Batticaloa District from the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi. Chandana Abeyratne, the minister of public administ