Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor

Canadian Poet Anne Carson, Who Reinvented the Greek Classics, Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Canadian Poet Anne Carson, Who Reinvented the Greek Classics, Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

STOCKHOLM: Anne Carson, the Canadian poet, essayist and translator whose books fold ancient Greek literature into verse novels, essays, performance pieces and comics, won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday. The Swedish Academy cited Ms. Carson "for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature." The prize, awarded for a writer's entire body of work, carries 12 million Swedish kronor, about $1.2 mill
October 2026
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
Oncologist Wants Health Officials Prosecuted After RTI Order Goes Unheeded

Oncologist Wants Health Officials Prosecuted After RTI Order Goes Unheeded

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: A consultant oncologist has asked Sri Lanka's Right to Information Commission to take legal action against the Ministry of Health and Mass Media after the ministry failed to comply with the commission's order to give him copies of two complaint letters held in a ministry inquiry file, according to people familiar with the matter. Dr. Nadarajah Jeyakumaran, a consultant clinical oncologist at the National Cancer Institute in Maharagama, had not received the documents as of Oc
JM Exclusive October 2026
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
Inside the Terrifying Moments Passengers Fought to Save Flight 1073
Yaniv Hayun, a passenger who helped overpower the co-pilot and briefly took the controls of Flydubai Flight 1073, arrives at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel after the flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia.

Inside the Terrifying Moments Passengers Fought to Save Flight 1073

Yaniv Hayun had just helped drag the co-pilot out of the cockpit. Then he went back in. The captain was on the floor, bleeding from wounds to his head and hands. The Boeing 737 MAX 8, carrying more than 170 people from Dubai to Tel Aviv, was still losing altitude over the Saudi desert. Mr. Hayun, a plumber, grabbed the control column and pulled back. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel later asked him how he knew to do that. "Yes, I watch 'Air Crash Investigation,'" Mr. Hayun said. Th
October 2026
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
Supreme Court Backs Judicial Age Extension, Rejects Independence Challenge

Supreme Court Backs Judicial Age Extension, Rejects Independence Challenge

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has determined that a constitutional amendment raising the retirement age of judges can become law with a two-thirds majority in Parliament and does not require approval by the people at a referendum, the Speaker, Jagath Wickramaratne, told lawmakers on Tuesday. The court also determined that a companion bill amending the Judicature Act, which would extend the tenure of judges in the lower courts, is not inconsistent with the Constitution and may be
JM COURTS September 2026
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
Shanmugam Sathananthan: A Life Spent Giving Quietly

Shanmugam Sathananthan: A Life Spent Giving Quietly

By Niranjan Nadarajah A Life of Substance Over Spectacle The world lost a man of quiet strength, steady optimism and deep humanity when Shanmugam Sathananthan died peacefully on August 22, 2026, after a brief illness. He was 72. Known to his closest friends as “Satha,” and to colleagues, community members and younger people as “Satha Anna,” the Tamil term of respect for an elder brother, he lived a life that spanned four continents, touched thousands of lives and left a quiet legacy that will
Obituary September 2026
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
Gnanasara Thero, the Face of Sinhala-Buddhist Nationalism, Cannot Be Found

Gnanasara Thero, the Face of Sinhala-Buddhist Nationalism, Cannot Be Found

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Prison officers went to a temple on Nawala Road in Rajagiriya on Saturday to take Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero back to jail. The monks who were there told them they did not know where he was. Two days earlier, the Supreme Court had struck down the presidential pardon that released him from Welikada Prison in May 2019, holding that the clemency power had been exercised arbitrarily, in breach of the public trust and beyond the president’s authority. Gnanasara Thero had se
September 2026 JM Exclusive
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
British MP Launches Campaign for Direct London-Jaffna Flights

British MP Launches Campaign for Direct London-Jaffna Flights

LONDON — British Labour lawmaker Gareth Thomas has launched a campaign for direct flights between London and Jaffna, calling on the British and Sri Lankan governments, airlines and airport operators to explore establishing a route aimed largely at serving Britain’s substantial Tamil diaspora. Mr. Thomas, the member of Parliament for Harrow West, has launched a petition titled “Bring Direct Flights to Jaffna,” arguing that the absence of a direct connection places an unnecessary burden on Britis
JM Exclusive September 2026
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
Sri Lanka Is Reopening Its Worst Cases but Not Finishing Them, Human Rights Watch Says

Sri Lanka Is Reopening Its Worst Cases but Not Finishing Them, Human Rights Watch Says

JAFFNA — Almost two years after Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the presidency on a promise to reopen Sri Lanka’s most notorious killings and disappearances, Human Rights Watch has found that his government has pushed a handful of those cases further than any administration before it, and has largely left the rest of the country’s apparatus of impunity untouched. The report, “Not Genuine with Justice,” comes days before the United Nations high commissioner for human rights updates the Human Rights
JM Exclusive August 2026
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor