The second phase of oil exploration in the Mannar basin will begin next month announced Cairn India.

The company said drilling would be brought forward from June to mid-February, due to early rig availability and excellent logistical preparations.

The drilling of a fourth exploratory off well has been planned, 21km off the coast of Kalpitiya.

India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Ashok K Kantha told The Island that his country trains around 1,400 members of Sri Lanka’s security forces every year, the most it provides to any country.

He was asked whether India would consider increasing the supply of arms and ammunition, to which he smiled and said,

Groups of Sinhala families were resettled in the district of Mullaitivu, amid protest from local inhabitants, reported Lankasri News. 

Reports suggest that military personal have resettled Sinhala fishermen in the Puthumatalan area of Mullativu district, the scene of bloody massacres on the infamous “Killing Fields”.

See below for extracts from a speech made by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State James Moore at a press event in Colombo.

Click here for complete statement in English, Tamil and Sinhala.

The United States has a long friendship with Sri Lanka dating back to its independence. We value this multifaceted relationship and our visit has been undertaken in this spirit.

We [...] have had constructive and candid meetings with the Sri Lankan government, military, political parties, and civil society in both Colombo and Jaffna. Our goal has been to hear from many different voices throughout Sri Lanka. We have met with Secretary of Defense Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and military commanders [...].

Responding to the prospect of another resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Sri Lankan government said that they had already made "substantial progress".

The country's Foreign Secretary Karunathilaka Amunugama said on Tuesday:

A Sri Lankan government Minister has accused the visiting United States State Department Deputy Assistant Secretaries, of being spies.

Addressing an event in the Southern town of Mawathagama, the Housing and Construction Minister, Wimal Weerawasa, said that the US officials were trying to gather information that would indicate to the international community that the law and order situation in the country is facing a breakdown.

Adding to an already burgeoning Cabinet, five new ministers were sworn in before President Mahinda Rajapaksa this morning at the Cabinet reshuffle. (See here).

The grand total now stands at 67 Cabinet ministers, and 97 ministers within a 225 member parliament.