By Aruliniyan Mahalingam In one of Alagu Subramaniam’s stories, a woman named Mrs. Ramasamy is riding home to Atchuvely in a bullock cart. She has just left her daughter, Parvathy, at a girls’ school in Jaffna town, and she will not see her for three months. She is crying. The carter, Subbu, asks her to stop, because anyone who sees her in tears will think he has wronged her. Subramaniam gave her reply in English: “Don’t talk nonsense. You are like a father to me. You are an old man, you woul

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka: M.K. Sivajilingam, a veteran Tamil nationalist politician and chairman of the Valvettithurai Urban Council, was admitted to the intensive care unit of Point Pedro Base Hospital on Monday after his condition suddenly worsened. Mr. Sivajilingam, a former member of Parliament, had a kidney transplant at a private hospital in Colombo on June 11 after both his kidneys were severely damaged. He returned home after several weeks in hospital. When his health declined again, he was ad

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

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