Sri Lanka's Defense Spending Remains a Cause for Concern

Taylor Dibbert-12/01/2015 

The Sri Lankan government recently released its proposed budget for the coming year. It's been met with an array of responses. Some commentators have questionedthe calculations which the government has made, including over fundamental matters such as tax revenue. Kusal Perera, a Colombo-based journalist, says that "most numbers are fake or arbitrarily inflated." Among other matters, Perera is concerned that this budget will result in increased economic inequality.

On the positive, Maithripala Sirisena, the country's current president, will control far less of the budget than his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa did during the end of his tenure. According to, Verité Research, a think tank in Colombo, Rajapaksa controlled62% of all expenditures in 2014, an incredible centralization of power. For 2016, it appears Sirisena would control approximately 10% of total expenditure.

Unfortunately, defense spending stands out yet again. A Verité infographic also highlighted the fact that 2016 defense expenditures are expected to exceed 2014 defense expenditures by over 20 billion Sri Lankan rupees.

It's worth pointing out that 2014 defense spending actually includes expenditures from the Ministry of Urban Development. Since Rajapaksa's ouster in January, that ministry no longer falls under the purview of the Ministry of Defense. (As an example of both heightened centralization and the military's flagrant foray into civilian affairs, Rajapaksa renamed the defense ministry the Ministry of Defense and Urban Development in 2011.) That fact that that's no longer the case means that the increase in defense spending from 2014 to 2016 would actually be more than it initially appears. Other commentators were quick to highlight this on social media.

Why does defense spending in Sri Lanka continue to climb?

There are no legitimate national security reasons for justifying this. Sri Lanka's brutal civil war is over and the country's continued militarization, especially in the historically Tamil northern and eastern provinces, is quite troubling. The Sirisena administration has yet to address the issue of militarization, but an increase in defense spending sends the wrong message. If the Sirisena administration was willing to speak candidly about militarization and acknowledge that this is an issue that must be dealt with, even a modest reduction in defense expenditures would be welcomed.

While the budget has not yet been finalized, defense expenditures are expected to remain stubbornly high. This looks like another missed opportunity for the Sirisena administration.

Follow Taylor Dibbert on Twitter: www.twitter.com/taylordibbert

A Star Is Born; Abbeyramme Sriharan’s Bharathanatya Arangetram – A Review

By Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah –December 2, 2015

Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah

It was undoubtedly apparent, to everyone, a star was born that day when Abbeyramme Laveniya Sri Haran, only sixteen years old, looking stunning and graceful on stage, danced her way into the hearts and minds of her enraptured audience as they watched her enthralling performance, making her ‘Bharathanatya Arangetram’ (Dance Debut) to a packed Logan Hall, in one of the world’s, arts and cultural capitals, London, on 24th October, 2015.

Abbeyramme, an honour student of Old Palace of John Whitgift School, Croydon and disciple of Sri Prakash Yadagudde of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, brought this ancient and divine art form, Bharathanatyam, to life, like only she knows how. Everyone who came – accomplished Bharathanatya dancers, dance aficionados, friends and family were in awe; even first timers liked and appreciated what they saw – and some who planned to leave during the intermission, stayed the course, captivated by her dance.

Abeyramme’s performance was truly spectacular in both expression and movement. Bringing out with style, energy and aplomb, all the splendour, beauty, grace, skill and precision required of this classical dance discipline, Abbeyramme kept her audience spell bound first of all – with her amazing facial expressions, consisting of a range of emotions and second of all – with her crisp and expressive body movements that involved a combination of animated hand gestures, vibrant footwork and sculpture like poses. There was never a dull moment in her dance; you could see she connected with her audience and they connected with her in a fascinating way through her story telling and dramatisation – Bharathanatyam a dance form, essentially combining Bhavam (expression), Ragam (music), Thalam (rhythm) and Natyam (dance); and actually blending together the three finer elements of Nritta, Nritya and Natya as enunciated in the Natya Shastra by Bharata Muni. Abbeyramme became the personification of the characters she played.

Abbeyramme’s repertoire (Margam), strictly following the traditional structure an Arangetram must conform to, consisted of a set of very fine and carefully selected compositions, I thought, that helped to draw out her versatility and brilliance:Read More

Ratwatte, Paskaralingam and Samarawickrama trio ruining the PM again

Dec 02, 2015

The public servants are up in arms over their permits getting cancelled, the doctors are getting ready for a token strike,  the farmers are getting ready for a death fast, the bank employees union is getting ready to stage a walk out for banning banks from leasing business. Unions are totally against the ETF and EPF amalgamation.  The reduction of the VAT threshold for small businesses has destroyed many of the small businesses and the lower middle class dream of owning a car is now a thing of the past.

Without increasing the taxes to a reasonable level Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasingha’s incompetent advisors (Ratwatte, Paskaralingam and Samarawickrama) are doing the same thing that they did in 2004, resulting in the then UNP government losing the election. The government is not even 3 months old. With all the benefits getting cut if the local elections are held early next year UNP will get mascaraed.

The trio wont mind because they were jobless anyway, they have nothing to lose. It is the poor supporters who were supporting the UNP for years in the hope of getting something who will get played out again.

Ratwatte got his brother who did no know anything about running an airline appointed as CEO. Paskaralingam is known in all circles as Prabath Nanayakara’s agent and Samarawickrama was doing big road deals with Rajapakse through his agent Jehan Amaratunga, who is now Chairman of People’s Insurance and Director People’s Bank. Samarawickrama is trying to appoint him as the next BOI Chairman. When many UNPers have not been given anything, leave alone a meeting with a minister.

Political Observers say the Prime Minister is on a suicidal mission, despite having spent nearly 12 years in opposition he has still not learnt the art of survival.

Good Governance Group

‘System change’ -The main hope of the masses for good governance blossoms..! people salute welcome changes..!

(Lanka-e-News -02.Dec.2015, 11.00PM) The main hope of the people for good governance who introduced a ‘system change’ , that is a change on the 8th of January and on 17 th of August 2015 , is now blossoming. 

We take pride in announcing this :

The two key aspirations of the pro good governance masses were : abolition of the executive presidency , and the other was , to transfer the country’s public administration , that is the nucleus of administration to the Independent commission.

Currently , in a salutary move ,with a view to totally abolish the executive presidency, a new constitution is being formulated while this via the  19 th amendment has to some extent been accomplished. 

The next move is :  the measures taken to transfer the nucleus of  administration to the independent commissions which too has  by now been finalized.

Already 9 independent commissions responsible to parliament have been established  through the constitution What remains now is , for the people to successfully enforce  their democratic rights through these indpendent commissions. 

The people for government of good governance therefore express their effusive gratitude to the active leaders who committed themselves to achieve this victory on behalf of Democracy.

Noted  below are the 9 independent commissions and their members.

Commission inquiring into allegations of Bribery and corruption 
Justice Titus Bodhipala Weerasuriya –president
Justice W. Lal Ranjith Silva
Chandranath Neville Guruge 

Public service Commission 
Dharmasena Dissanayake
Abdul Salam Abdul Wahid
Ms. Dharani S. Wijetileke
Prathap Ramanujam
Ms. Wijayalakshmi Jegarasasingham
Shanthi Nihal Seneviratne
Sugathadasa Ranugge
Dayantha Laksiri Mendis
S.A.C. Sarath W. Jayathileke 

SL Human Rights Commission
Dr. Nelum Deepika Udagama – president
Saliya Kithsiri Mark Peiris
Hameed Gazzali Hussain
Ms. Ambika Sathkunanathan
Upananda Vidhanapathirane

National police Commission
Professor S. T. Hettige – president
P.H. Manatunge
Ms. Savithri Dharshini Wijesekera
Anton Benedict Jeyanathan
Y.L.M. Zavahir
Don Thilak Padmanabha Collure
Trevor Percival Frank De Silva

Elections Commission
W.W. Mahinda Deshapriya –president
Nalin Jayantha Abeysekera
Professor Samuel Rathnajeewan Hoole

Demarcation  Commission 
Navalingam Kanagarathnam- president
Ms. Anila Dias Bandaranaike
Shahul Hameed Hasbulla 

Financial Commission
Uditha Harilal Palihakkara – president
Velupillai Kanagasabapathy
Hareed Mohomed Safrulla
Arjuna Mahendran – Central bank governor – ex officio member
Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunge –Treasury secretary – ex officio member 

National Reconciliation Commission
Boossa Badhuge Nihal Indunath Fernando Abeysundara Wickremesuriya
Anthony Nihal Fonseka
Ms.Dona Enfeeda Rangani Chitralatha Wedikkara
Pulukutty Arachige Don Christ Raymond Perera
Meyan Vamadevan

Audit service Commission
H.M. Gamini Wijesinghe –president – ex officio
Justice Nihal Sunil Rajapakse
Ilangakonge Gamini Abeyrathne
Velupillai Kandasamy
 Wewela Apppuhamilage Somapala Perera 

---------------------------
by     (2015-12-02 20:46:11)

SAITM and issue of access to professional education in SL

The first batch of MBBS graduates from SAITM is expected to be announced in 2016. However, the Sri Lanka Medical Council had informed the Minster for Health by a letter dated 25 September 2015 that “The degree awarded by SAITM should not be recognised for the purpose of registration under the 
Medical Ordinance”

 Wednesday, 2 December 2015

The SAITM founder was clearly upset when he recently said that those against SAITM would go to hell and burn. His choice of words is unfortunate, but his frustration is understandable.
South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine Ltd. or SAITM has been established under Companies Act No. 07 of 2007 and recognised with the authority to award Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree as of 30 August 2011 by the University Grants Commission.

SAITM and Issue of Access to Professional Education in SL by Thavam Ratna

Doctors, Engineers and Principals to strike tomorrow

Doctors, Engineers and Principals to strike tomorrow

2015-12-02 

The Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) together with 17 other professional trade unions including has decided to launch an island wide strike tomorrow (3), Spokesperson of the Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) Dr. Naveen de Soysa told Ceylon Today Online. The strike will begin at 8.00a.m.

Trade unions of professionals including engineers, principals, architects, surveyors, dental surgeons, veterinary surgeons and ayurvedic medical officers will join the GMOA, Dr. Soysa said.

Medical Mafia, Ethics & Education

By Hilmy Ahamed –December 1, 2015

Hilmy Ahamed

Sri Lanka has exemplary health indicators and is often referred to as a model for other developing nations. This is due to the yeomen service provided by a number of dedicated health professionals. Yet, Sri Lanka is one of the few countries that a large number of mercenary medical professions and industry are allowed to hold the sick to ransom, despite the Hippocratic oath taken by its doctors.

One would hardly find a doctor who would give evidence against his or her own during times of medical neglect. Today, the medical industry has been commercialized to the extent that they hold the patient and their family’s hostage even after the death of a patient.

Medical conditions become emotionally desperate situations where the immediate family is obliged to provide the best to their sick, and in most cases way beyond what is affordable. This leads to situations where they just cannot afford to settle the final medical bills even to discharge the body after a death. The hospitals do not warn the patient’s family of the estimated costs. Even when they do, it probably is too late as the patient’s condition is far too vulnerable to move them out to an affordable facility. Recently, we received the welcome news of a Colombo court ordering the management of a private hospital to release the body of a deceased immediately to his close relatives, which was reportedly detained for several days until the hospital’s exorbitant bill was settled.

Further, the sky rocketing cost of the doctor’s fees is settled through a “chit” plundering the patient and defrauding the state of its taxes. This has been an accepted practice and the authorities are fully aware of this scam, yet no action has been taken against this unscrupulous practice, fearing incarceration by the industry and the wrath of the medical profession. There are no safeguards through the consumer protection authority or any other state institutions on the health industry due to the fear of trade union action by these shylocks, who want their pound of flesh. Their trade union action or holding patients to ransom is totally against the Hippocratic oath they take and are as hypocritical as their practice. The state should intervene firmly and ensure that the citizens are provided quality private medical facilities at an affordable cost because the majority of them have studied for “FREE” in our state universities and schools.

The health industry has become lucrative global ventures and there is high demand for medical education, which our state universities are unable to cope with. We now see a large number of students who pass the GCE A’ Level examination with above average results and are unable to enter local medical universities. They are leaving to study abroad at exorbitant costs and several other negative outcome. Parents who dream of a medical education for their children use their meager saving and sometimes sell or mortgage their valuable assets to provide this education abroad, eventually to lose them to some foreign nation. Very few countries offer full or partial scholarships for medical education. Sri Lanka Medical Council that has thwarted private medical education locally has no qualms about allowing these foreign graduates to work in Sri Lanka if they pass the Examination for Registration to Practice Medicine (ERPM) formerly know as act 16 examinations.

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MS alleges secret  MR-Diaspora link... displays photos of former prez meeting Tamil Diaspora in parliament 

By Saman Indrajith-December 2, 2015

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera brought in some photographs of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Chamber yesterday as evidence to prove his allegation that the previous regime had secret deals with the LTTE and Tamil Diaspora.

Holding up the photographs during his speech at the second reading debate on budget proposals the Minister said: "I would like to give these photographs to my friend in the opposition, MEP leader Dinesh Gunawardena. I have heard that Dinesh Gunawardena has a Rajapaksa shrine at his home and he is worshipping the Rajapaksa’s pictures. So, Dinesh can take these, too, and put them up there in that shrine."

Minister Samaraweera showed a picture of former president with a group of expatriates and said that others in the photograph were senior leaders of Tamil diaspora organisations. "Look at this photograph taken on Dec. 17, 2014. The one next to President Rajapaksa is Dharmalingam Yogeswaran. Then I have another picture of Rajapaksa hugging KP," the minister said.

Minister Samaraweera tabled printouts of online news stories alleging that former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had met the members of the Tamil Diaspora. "They met all the members of Tamil Diaspora in secret now finding fault with us when we try to usher in peace. We are accused of being sympathetic to the LTTE."

He said that the foreign policy under the present government could be taken to the correct path. "Now, we take care to be equally friendly with both China and the US; Russia and the EU and India and Pakistan. The country’s foreign policy is moving forward in the right track," the Minister said.

Say ‘No’ to the alugosuwa!

Featured image courtesy the Huffington Post

• by Reeza Hameed 
• - on 12/02/2015 

There has been an organised move to bring back the hangman and implement the death penalty in Sri Lanka.

Several weeks ago, Colombo District MP Hirunika Premachandra presented in Parliament an adjournment motion for the revival of capital punishment in Sri Lanka. She said that once the motion went through Parliament she would request President Maithripala Sirisena and the government to consider bringing back capital punishment. The motion seems to have been grounded in the member’s belief that capital punishment is the solution tothe increasing anti-social and violent activities. An adjournment motion does not end in a vote but some members of the government supported the motion while others spoke against it.

Say ‘No’ to the Alugosuwa! by Thavam Ratna

Avant Garde payments to Navy goes to welfare project fund?

( December 2, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Although the Sri Lanka Navy had stated that all monies they receive from Avant Garde Maritime Services (AGMS) go to the Consolidated Fund, it is not so, unemployed Avant-garde employees charge.

At a media briefing held yesterday (01), convener of the collective – Kamal Gamage said that Nov. 26, thirteen days since the Navy took over AGMS operations on Nov. 13, the AGMS has received a letter from the Navy urging to make a payment in return for the services rendered by them.

The letter urges that the a total outstanding amount of Rs. 579,435,095.25 at Nov. 13, 2015 is due from the AGMS to the SLN and that the payment should be made by a cheque in favour of the Sri Lanka Navy Welfare Project Fund, he added.

The letter is shown below:

Rev. Muruththattuwe Ananda ready to protest for Gota

Dec 02, 2015

Rev. Muruththatuwe Ananda said if there are judicial actions taken against the former defense secretary that he would protest against it. A media announcement was issued today by a Buddhist organization called the Pevidi Handa with the signature of Rev. Ananda.

The presidential commission which investigates serious crimes and frauds announced last week that it is ready to file case against Gotabaya Rajapaksa and few others. Rev. Muruththattuwe Ananda said that the presidential commission is fabricating false charges and file case in the courts.

 

He said Gotabaya Rajapaksa has saved our country from the terrorists to end the war and he was brave enough at a time when others were in fear. Therefore if the government is planning to take action against a national hero that he would mobilize a protest with other monks.

 

It is regrettable to say that Rev. Ananda has forgotten the same war hero left to the USA in fear of the war and came to the country when his brother won the presidential election in 2005. 

Old woman kept locked in toilet

2015-12-03
A feeble 71 year-old woman -- the mother of two daughters -- was taken into custody by the Meetiyagoda Police yesterday after it was discovered that she was kept locked up in a toilet in her eldest daughter’s home in Diddeliya, Meetiyagoda.

Her eldest daughter was working abroad; and the woman, Ranasinghe Arachchige Karunawathie was being looked after by her son-in-law and two of her granddaughters.

The residents of the house had said she was kept locked up as she was of unsound mind and in the habit of wandering away.

Police had found her locked in a toilet. She was taken into custody and sent for a medical test.

Police had also recorded a statement from her younger daughter who was living in Yakkatuwa in Elpitiya.

Police are conducting further investigations. (Janath de Silva & Ravi Liyanage)

Police are conducting further investigations. (Janath de Silva & Ravi Liyanage)

Mark Zuckerberg Vows to Donate 99% of His Facebook Shares for Charity

In a video released by Facebook, the company’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, explained why they have decided to devote nearly all their wealth to charity. By FACEBOOK HANDOUT on Publish Date December 2, 2015. Photo by Facebook. Watch in Times Video »

San Francisco General Hospital was renamed for Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan after they donated $75 million. CreditEric Risberg/Associated Press

By VINDU GOEL and NICK WINGFIELDDEC. 1, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO — Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and chief executive of Facebook,announced on Tuesday that he and his wife would give 99 percent of their Facebookshares “during our lives” — holdings currently worth more than $45 billion — to charitable purposes.

The pledge was made in an open letter to their newborn daughter, Max, who was born about a week ago.

Mr. Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, said they were forming a new organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, to manage the money, through an unusual limited liability corporate structure. “Our initial areas of focus will be personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities,” they wrote.

Mr. Zuckerberg’s charitable plans are the latest indication of a growing interest in philanthropy among Silicon Valley’s young billionaires, who unlike previous generations of business tycoons, appear eager to spread their wealth while they are still young. Mr. Zuckerberg is 31, and Dr. Chan is 30.

Yet they are entering largely uncharted waters with a charity effort of such scale. They have not yet detailed how the money will be spent and the pace at which the money will be given out indicates they plan to take their time.

The couple have had mixed results in earlier charitable efforts.

In 2010, Mr. Zuckerberg and Dr. Chan gave $100 million to improve the public schools in Newark. The money expanded high-performing charter schoolsbut encountered fierce resistance from many parents, community activists and unions. Mr. Zuckerberg has said he learned a lot from the experience.

Still, Larry Brilliant, who works on philanthropic issues with many Silicon Valley figures including Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce.com, and Jeff Skoll, the co-founder of eBay, said that both the scale and timing of Mr. Zuckerberg’s commitment, coming so early in his career, were rare.

“I hope this will be a model for Mark’s generation,” said Dr. Brilliant, a physician who also previously ran Google’s charitable arm, Google.org.           FULL STORY>>>

Focussing On Just ‘Jihadism’; Missing The Woods For The Trees

By Lukman Harees –December 1, 2015

Lukman Harees

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” – Krishnamurti, the philosopher

The Paris massacre was certainly a shocking tragedy. However, it should not be turned into an act of war. For , it is being repeatedly stressed that the potency of terror lies not in the act but in the aftermath. The act is death and destruction, horrendous in itself. The response is what gives it political traction. All what ISIS wants the world is to go berserk, declare emergencies, tear up freedoms, persecute moderate Muslims and bomb Muslim cities. By capitulating to these desires, the west has vastly increased the power of the terror – and the likelihood of imitation. Sure words of wisdom, aren’t they?

Robert Frisk , in the Independent UK, underlines the true intentions of this murderous outfit , posing off as Islamic State : He says in an incisive article: ‘What Isis intends to do is to persuade us to destroy ourselves. Isis wants us to hate our Muslim minorities. It wants civil war in France between the elite and its disenfranchised Muslims, most of them of Algerian origin. It wants the Belgians to hate their Muslims. It wants us Brits to hate our Muslims. Isis must have been outraged by the thousands of fine Europeans who welcomed with love the million Muslim refugees who reached Germany. The Muslims should have been heading towards the new Caliphate – not running away from it. So now it wishes to turn us against the refugees… To achieve this, it must implicate hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslim refugees in its atrocities. It must force our EU nations to introduce States of Emergency, suspend civil liberties, raid the homes of Muslims’.

From another different viewpoint, although the Paris attacks have been described as a representation of an “escalation” in the fight between western civilization and Jihadists by Western leaders, there are many who also argue that those attacks appear to have all the hallmarks of another false flag operation by Western powers to secure their strategic interests in the ME region. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, a prominent American journalist says; ‘The Western media has avoided many interesting aspects of the Paris attacks. For example, what did the directors of the CIA and French intelligence discuss at their meeting a few days prior to the Paris attacks. Why were fake passports used to identify attackers? Why did the attacks occur on the same day as a multi-site simulation of a terrorist attack involving first responders, police, emergency services and medical personnel? Why has there been no media investigation of the report that French police were blinded by a sophisticated cyber attack on their mobile data tracking system? Does anyone really believe that ISIL has such capability?. The Western media serves merely as an amplifier of the government’s propaganda. Even the non-Western media follows this pattern because of the titillating effect. It is a good story for the media, and it requires no effort’

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Taliban leader Mullah Mansour wounded in shootout - sources

Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, Taliban militants' new leader, is seen in this undated handout photograph by the Taliban.-REUTERS/TALIBAN HANDOUT/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

BY JIBRAN AHMED-Wed Dec 2, 2015

Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour has been seriously wounded in Pakistan in a shootout between senior members of the Islamist movement, Taliban sources said on Wednesday, but the group's main spokesman dismissed their report as "baseless".

The conflicting accounts deepen the confusion over the already opaque leadership situation in the Taliban following the death of the movement's founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and cloud prospects for any resumption of stalled peace talks.

Two Taliban commanders said Mansour, whose authority is disputed by rival factions in the Islamist movement, was wounded when fighting broke out over strategic issues in the house of a senior Taliban leader called Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi outside Quetta in western Pakistan.

"During the discussion, some senior people developed differences and they opened fire on each other," one of the commanders said.

He said five senior Taliban members had died on the spot and more than a dozen, including Mullah Mansour, had suffered serious bullet injuries. Mansour was being treated in a private hospital after being hit four times by bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle, the Taliban commander said.

However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied the incident ever took place and said Mansour was in Afghanistan.

"This is a rumour which is completely baseless. Akthar Mohammad Mansour is totally fine and nothing has happened to him," he told Reuters.

"This is the act of Afghan intelligence agencies. They spread these rumours about a clash between Taliban leaders. Nothing happened like this even in that area".

The Taliban has faced serious internal divisions since it was confirmed in July that Mullah Omar had actually died two years earlier.

Mansour, Mullah Omar's longtime deputy, was immediately named leader but some sections of the Islamist group quickly rejected his claim, accusing him of covering up Omar's death and saying that Pakistan had steered his appointment.

His grip on the leadership appeared to have been tightened by the capture of the northern city of Kunduz in late September, which insurgents held for several days before government forces could regain control.

UNCERTAINTY

What the latest incident may mean for the Afghan peace process remains unclear for now.

There were varying accounts of exactly what may have happened in the incident, with some sources saying it took place in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar near the border with Pakistan's Balochistan province.

According to the first Taliban commander, the meeting on Tuesday was to discuss the future of any peace talks with the United States and the Kabul government as well as the strategy for dealing with a rival splinter group headed by Mullah Mohammad Rasool Akhund, which rejects Mansour's authority.

A second source said the dispute had broken out over ways of dealing with the rival faction, following heavy fighting in the southeastern province of Zabul last month in which dozens of people were killed.

"We have no access to Mullah Mansour after the incident last night. We have been hearing that he had succumbed to his injuries but we can neither confirm nor deny it," said the second Taliban commander, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said this week that he was ready to talk to Taliban members but he cautioned that since the death of Mullah Omar there was "no such thing as the Taliban There are groups of Taliban..."

According to some officials in the Kabul government, Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, a senior commander in the group that opposes Mansour, was killed in last month's fighting, although the claim has been denied by a spokesman for his faction.

(Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi in Kabul; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Gareth Jones)

At least 100 Boko Haram militants killed by Cameroon army

Regional taskforce conducts sweep along border with Nigeria, freeing 900 captives, army says

 Members of a local militia set up to fight Boko Haram in Cameroon, pictured in February. The far north of the country has suffered regular cross-border attacks in recent weeks. Photograph: Reinnier Kaze/AFP/Getty

Associated Press in Yaounde-Wednesday 2 December 2015

Cameroon’s army, backed by a regional taskforce, has killed at least 100 members of the militant Islamist Boko Haram group and freed 900 people it had held hostage, the west African country’s defence ministry has said.

Cameroon is part of an 8,700-strong regional group, also comprising troops from Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Benin, that aims to destroy Boko Haram, which, though based mainly in Nigeria, has become a major threat to wider regional security.

An army spokesman, Col Didier Badjeck, said on Wednesday that troops had conducted a sweep operation between 26-28 November along Cameroon’s long border with its western neighbour, Nigeria. Both Badjeck and the defence ministry, which gave a brief statement on state television, cited the same figures of militant deaths and the number of people freed.

Other military sources in Cameroon confirmed that a military operation had taken place, although one expressed surprise at its scale.

It was not immediately clear where the clashes with the militants had taken place or where Boko Haram’s captives had been held. It was also not known whether those freed included any of the 276 schoolgirls seized by the militants in their dormitories in Chibok, Nigeria last year.

Cameroon has suffered regular cross-border attacks in its far north in recent weeks, including twin suicide blasts overnight that killed at least three people. Suicide bombings, often carried out by young women recruited by the militant group in Nigeria, have become almost daily occurrences in the region.