JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The Sangupiddy Bridge, which carries the A32 highway across the Jaffna Lagoon and links the Jaffna Peninsula with Mannar, will be closed to all traffic for five days from Wednesday morning for emergency repairs, the Road Development Authority said. The bridge will close at 8 a.m. on Oct. 7 and reopen at 8 a.m. on Oct. 12, according to a notice issued by the authority's Northern Province office in Vavuniya. All vehicles will be barred from the bridge during the repairs, the

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka: The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) member whose lawsuit prevented the party’s elected president from taking office said Sunday that he would withdraw the case if ITAK held a new leadership election in accordance with its constitution. Para Chandrasekaram, an ITAK member from Trincomalee District considered close to M.A. Sumanthiran and often identified within the party with the Sumanthiran camp, made the offer at a news conference. “Conduct the election according to the l

STOCKHOLM — Can Xue, the Chinese avant-garde novelist whose experimental fiction has made her a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, has emerged as the bookmakers’ favorite to win this year’s award, according to odds offered by the British betting company Ladbrokes. Can Xue is listed at 10/1, ahead of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami at 14/1. Australian writer Gerald Murnane and the American novelist Thomas Pynchon are among the other writers near the top of the market.