<p>Sri Lanka has failed to make progress in tackling corruption, maintaining the same score on Transparency International’s 2018 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) as the previous year.</p> <p>The global anti-corruption organisation’s index ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, using a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.</p> <p>Sri Lanka retained its score of 38 from 2017, falling most closely in the range of Transparency International's definition of a 'hybrid regime', showing&nbsp;'elements of autocratic tendencies'</p>

Two India-funded school buildings in the Jaffna district were inaugurated by Indian officials on Monday.

The buildings in Navatkuli Mahavidyalayam and Drieberg College were opened by the Deputy High Commissioner of India for Sri Lanka Shilpak Ambule and the governor of the Northern Province Suren Raghavan.

<p>Sri Lanka's minister for ports and shipping, Sagala Ratnayaka pledged this week that the harbour in Trincomalee, along with Galle, would be operational by the end of this year.&nbsp;</p> <p>According to the minister Trincomalee harbour would commence night time operations by April. However, infrastructure, night navigation systems and radar systems are yet to be estabilished at the site.&nbsp;</p> <p>The project was part funded by Japan, which provided a grant of Japanese Yen 1 billion.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Japan's government this week pledged Rs 100 million for humanitarian demining in the Northern province.&nbsp;</p> <p>The contract was signed by the Japanese ambassador, Akira Sugiyama and the programme manager of Devlon Assistance for Social Harmony (DASH) on January 24.&nbsp;</p> <p>Japan has given over US$ 34.5 million for demining since 2003.&nbsp;</p> <p>Read more <a href="http://www.colombopage.com/archive_19A/Jan29_1548739066CH.php">here</a>.&nbsp;</p>

The Sri Lankan navy arrested a man in Point Pedro, Jaffna on Monday, accusing him of possessing at least 86 kg of cannabis, as the military launched a reported crackdown on illegal drugs.

The navy said that a 50-year-old man was concealing the cannabis on the roof at a home in Point Pedro and has since been handed over to the Sri Lankan police.

Youth in Jaffna protested on Sunday demanding action to curb the widespread availability of illicit drugs. 

The protest, organised by the Youth Movement for Democracy, took place by the main Jaffna bus station. 

Protesters also called for an end to the abuse of women and children, and a salary rise for tea plantation workers. 

 

The hardline Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader, Udaya Gammanpila today accused the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) of not having accepted the unitary state of Sri Lanka. 

"Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said recently that there was no draft Constitution and that the TNA had accepted the concept of a Unitary State. Unfortunately, the PM still attempts to deceive the nation. We pointed out that the phrase 'this Constitution' can be found in the first page of the document tabled by him in the Constitutional Assembly," Gammanpila told a news briefing. 

The Sri Lankan military announced that two soldiers had been killed after a military vehicle lost control and crashed in Mullaitivu last week.

At least four other soldiers were injured in the collision, which happened on the Nedunkeni road in Mullaitivu last Monday.

Yet another group of Tamil pre-schoolchildren were taken on a tour of the Sri Lankan army base located inside the Palaly High Security Zone this week, on land which the military occupies and remains off limits to local Tamils.

Tamil pre-schoolchildren from Jaffna were escorted by informed soldiers around the base, where they showed off aircraft used by the military during the armed conflict in which countless Tamil civilians were massacred.

Sri Lanka’s former president and opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa lashed out against constitutional reform proposals that were present to parliament earlier this month, calling on the Buddhist Maha Sangha in particular to be wary of Sri Lanka becoming a “federal state”.

Rajapaksa, who oversaw the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils in 2009, said the new constitution would weaken the parliament and "immeasurably strengthen provincial legislatures".