JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A prisoner sentenced to death in the high-profile 2015 murder of Pungudutivu schoolgirl Sivaloganathan Vithiya died by suicide inside the Jaffna Prison, prison authorities said Monday. The Department of Prisons said the inmate, Poobalasingham Jeyakumar, 46, was found hanging inside the prison on Monday morning. Authorities said an investigation into the death was underway. Jeyakumar was among seven men sentenced to death by the Jaffna High Court in 2017 over the rape and mu

MAYILIDDY, Sri Lanka — The chairman of a local government body in Sri Lanka's Northern Province said Sunday that there was "absolutely no justification" for the military to continue occupying civilian lands in the region, speaking at a protest demanding the return of privately owned property still under military control more than a decade and a half after the end of the country's civil war. The demonstration, organized by the Valikamam North Resettlement Development Committee, drew residents fr

KILINOCHCHI — A Tamil journalist based in Kilinochchi has alleged that police attempted to pressure him into revealing a confidential journalistic source after he published CCTV footage related to an incident involving a senior medical specialist at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital. In a detailed statement posted on Facebook, journalist Murukaiya Thamilselvan said he was summoned to the Jaffna Police Station following a complaint lodged by Dr. Selvaganesh Sellakkuddy, a plastic surgeon attached to