The head of Sri Lanka's 2018 Commonwealth Games bid committee, suggested that India's shoddy games last year, resulted in Sri Lanka losing out to Australia.

Highlighting India's outstanding debts to contractors, Ajith Nivard Cabraal said,

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha has asked the government of India to assert itself and urge the Sri Lankan government to reign in ‘rogue elements’ in its navy.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh she said:

"I strongly feel the government of India should assert itself with the Sri Lankan government to control the rogue elements in the Sri Lanka Navy who continue to (physically) assault our innocent fishermen."

Cairn Lanka has discovered a second well of natural gas off the shore of Mannar.

The well was drilled to a depth of 3 miles and gas was discovered in three zones.

The company said in a statement that further drilling would be necessary to determine the commercial viability of the discovery.

Cairn Lanka is a subsidiary of Cairn India, of which 52% is owned by British based Cairn Energy.

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The Sri Lankan army assaulted three civilians involved in a road traffic accident following a minor altercation, said Kilinochi MP Sritharan.

The Governor of the Central Bank, Ajith Cabraal, said on Monday that the government is going ahead with the building of a 4,000 roomed sports village and a new athletic stadium.

It was expected that the plans would be scrapped following the defeat of Hambantota’s $8 million bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2018, especially after the debacle of hosting the cricket world cup earlier this year.

However, the government is convinced that Hambantota will become a major hub in South Asia.

Expressing dismay at the “chauvinistic attitude” of the Sri Lankan state, former US Deputy Secretary of State said on Friday the international community was united in its criticism of Sri Lanka’s conduct in the north and east and that President Mahinda Rajapaksa would not be welcomed internationally unless conditions there improved.

Speaking alongside Mr. Armitage at the launch of the Norwegian evaluation of Oslo’s peace process in Sri Lanka, and echoing his message, Norwegian minister for Environment and International Development, and former peace envoy, Erik Solheim also said the question of accountability for the mass killings of civilians in last phase of the war “will not go away”, and that “the only way the Sri Lankan state can reduce the impact of this is to reach out to Tamils and find a way of resolving the Tamil issue.”

They were speaking in Oslo at the formal launch of the evaluation report on Norway’s protracted peace role in Sri Lanka, at which the question of Sri Lanka’s future was also discussed.

Mr Armitage told the audience,

“I don’t think anyone disagrees that the Tamil people have been mistreated and are continuing to lack – across the board – fundamental freedoms, dignity, etc,”

“Much to my dismay the government of Sri Lanka is still caught up in a chauvinistic attitude,”

“I don’t think they’ve been far sighted enough in their approach to the north and east. There has been a somewhat lessening of violence there, somewhat lessening of the abductions and things of this nature, but not sufficient.”

“From the US point of view we are quite dismayed at the lack of progress in human freedoms, human rights, etc, and I made that view known [to President Rajapaksa].”

“But what to do about it is the question."

"[Firstly] the international community is generally coalesced around the fact that the north and the east particularly need protections, and the government of Sri Lanka has to move in that direction. … That is the united message the international community gives.

Below are extracts from US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asian Affairs Robert M. Scher’s speech at Sri Lanka’s maritime security conference on Monday:

“I will discuss [with Sri Lankan government] areas of mutual interest and security cooperation, such as maritime security, and I will make it clear that the United States needs to see continued progress in promoting the rights of all Sri Lankans and in taking concrete steps to bring about reconciliation with the Tamil population,” he said.

International credit rating agency, Moody's Investors Service, slammed the government's expropriation bill on Monday, as "credit negative" and a move that will "increase investor uncertainty".

In a statement Moody's said,

"The government's seizure of assets creates ambiguity around the protection of private property in Sri Lanka,"

"Despite authorities' statement that this is a one-off move, the measure may undermine the predictability of future policies and increase investor uncertainty, which would make it credit negative for Sri Lanka."

“It is unclear, however, whether the assets will be managed by the state or resold to other investors, and how performance will be revived,”

"The use of the fast-track procedure, which we believe limits public scrutiny, largely reflects the tendencies of the current government to exert strong and direct influence over the economy."

The Sri Lankan Government is struggling to revive entities owned by the state, the Sunday Times reports.

23 public companies, which have been underperforming for years, were supposed to be re-structured and handed over to prospective investors.

However, only one agreement with an investor has been finalised, while 19 other companies are still waiting for an evaluation by the State Resources and Enterprise Development Ministry to assess possibilities for investors.