How the Islamic State Took Turkey Hostage

The 49 Turkish diplomats captured by the jihadist group in Mosul may now be free, but Ankara still has many reasons to think twice about confronting the extremists on its border.

Is Turkey part of the broad coalition against the Islamic State (IS) that President Barack Obama has been trying to fashion, or not? There is certainly reason to think it would be interested in the effort: Turkey shares a long land border with Syria, many of the moderate Syrian opposition leaders have long been based in Turkey, and the Turkish government has been at the forefront of the opposition to the Assad regime, along with many of the other states in the anti-IS coalition.
How the Islamic State Took Turkey Hostage by Thavam

Dalai Lama Says India a Model of Religious Harmony

September 20, 2014

Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama, speaks during an event. (Associated Press) 

NEW DELHI:  The Dalai Lama brought religious leaders together on Saturday to mull some of India’s most pressing problems, from gender violence to widespread poverty, while praising the country’s religious harmony as proof to the world that different communities can live peacefully together.

The Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader has lived for decades in exile in India’s Himalayan foothill city of Dharamsala, after fleeing China following a failed 1959 uprising.

India must show its own example of religious harmony to the rest of the world, the Dalai Lama said in opening the two-day interfaith meeting in New Delhi.

"India is the only country where all major world religions live together, not only in modern time, but over 1,000 years," he said.

The meeting’s agenda included discussions on enormous and seemingly endemic problems in India, including poverty, attacks on women, environmental degradation and communal violence. India has been in a state of soul-searching since national elections stirred up questions about the nation’s identity and ambitions as it pushes for rapid economic growth and 21st century technologies while trying to balance the needs of three-fourths of its 1.2 billion population still living on less than $1.25 a day.

The landslide victory by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which ousted the dominant Congress party from power, left some worried that his association with Hindu hardliners could encourage violence between Muslims and Hindus, who make up 80 percent of the country’s population.

The Dalai Lama stressed there was no justification for people fighting faith.

"If you look at television or in the newspaper, I think this very moment, some people (are) killing in the name of religion," the Dalai Lama said. "For economy reasons or political power, of course it’s very sad but understandable. But killing in the name of faith, for different religious faith, unthinkable."

Story First Published: September 20, 2014 23:39 IST

Afghan leaders sign power-sharing deal

Abdullah Abdullah takes newly created role of chief executive, while Ashraf Ghani will be president, ending months of turmoil

Afghan presidential candidates Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai shake hands after signing a power-sharing agreement at the Presidential Palace in Kabul Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

May Jeong in Kabul-Sunday 21 September 2014 

Afghanistan's rival presidential candidates have ended six months of political deadlock by signing a power-sharing agreement that paves the way for the installation of a new president.

In a televised ceremony at the presidential palace on Sunday, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani signed the deal to create a national unity government. The short ceremony was hosted by the outgoing president, Hamid Karzai, and attended by cabinet members, and other high-level government officials.

The details of the deal, though leaked to the press, has not yet officially been made public. Conspicuously absent from the signing were the US ambassador, James Cunningham, and head of the UN in Afghanistan, Jan Kubis; both had significant mediating roles during the long negotiations.

According to the four-page deal, the winner of the election, Ghani, will be president. The runner-up, Abdullah – or someone he appoints – will become prime minister, or the chief executive officer. The president will run the cabinet and be in charge of strategic functions, while the chief executive will be in charge of daily duties. He will also chair the new council of ministers.

Neither candidate appeared elated or particularly content as Karzai gave a short speech in which he congratulated the two candidates and expressed his readiness to help in "finishing the work that the current administration had started".

Sunday's ceremony came after months of wrangling between the two parties and their supporters. The latest obstacle came last week when Abdullah asked that the results of the UN-run audit not be made public, a process he deems too mired in fraud. Abdullah had previously boycotted the process, citing "industrial-scale fraud". The claim was not proven during the extensive two-month-long audit. His supporters, who do not consider the audit a fair process, have threatened violence.

The results of the audit are due out on Sunday, a move Abdullah supporters have previously tried to block. It remains unclear whether they have been successful to this end; sources say there may be a compromise wherein the percentage of voters is announced without casting them in the light of winners or losers. Preliminary results announced last month have put Ghani in the lead.

Despite Sunday's ceremony, the two campaigns still disagree on so much, and some fear they will not be able to maintain the precarious union for long. The work that awaits the new administration is immense and will require coordination. Nearly all aspects of life in Afghanistan have come to a halt in the past few months. Among the most urgent is the signing of the bilateral security agreement that will allow foreign troops to remain in Afghanistan beyond this year.

During the brief signing ceremony, Ghani and Abdullah remained silent. Anand Gopal, author of No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban and the War Through Afghan Eyes, referred to their morose disposition on Twitter. He quoted the Israeli writer Amos Oz, likening the deal as "a fitting Chekhovian end".

"In the conclusion of the tragedy by Chekohov, everyone is disappointed, disillusioned, embittered, heartbroken, but alive."

Climate change: can the UN break the deadlock?

Tom Clarke on Science

Sunday 21 Sep 2014

Organisers say they are expecting 100,000 people to take to the streets of Manhattan today to call for global action to tackle climate change.

Parallel marches are planned in places like Rio De Janeiro and London and if people appear in the kinds of numbers predicted this will be the largest ever climate change protest in history.

The events have been scheduled to coincide with a meeting of heads of state in New York later this week to try to persuade the world’s biggest emitters to make meaningful pledges to reduce their carbon emissions.

The UN Climate Summit on Tuesday has been called by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a way of breaking the deadlock over a global climate deal. The meeting is happening outside the painfully slow global climate negotiating process that gave rise to the failed Kyoto Protocol and the 2009 Copenhagen climate talks.

The idea is that unconstrained by the line-by-line treaty writing process that will continue in Peru later this year, heads of state will be able to “pre-agree” commitments towards the environment without formal talks.

‘Danger level’

Secretary Ban will take to the streets alongside celebrity campaigners like Leonardo Di Caprio and Al Gore. But the call to arms remains a long way from the realities of getting countries to work together to reduce emissions.

Europe has made some firm commitments to reduce CO2 emissions, recently the US made moves in a similar direction. But the rate of emissions reductions are still way behind what is needed to avoid a scientifically agreed “danger level” of two degrees of global warming.

Above: Beijing smog

China has now surpassed the US and Europe as the world’s largest emitter and its economy continues to grow. India is fast catching up with developing countries as a globally significant polluter.

Paying for green

A key sticking point for fast-growing economies is how much the developed world is willing to pay them to reduce their emissions given that most of the greenhouse gases emitted so far have been by rich countries. Firm commitments to an agreed Green Climate Fund are hoped for at Tuesday’s summit — but in practical terms such a deal is a long way from coming to fruition.

Despite the challenges campaigners say there is a lot of reason for optimism since the failed climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009. Air pollution in China has forced the government there to plan limits on its expansion of coal fired power stations and the country already leads the world in low carbon energy technologies.

A number of businesses will also use the summit in New York to call for a global “carbon price” to be agreed to drive investment towards less carbon intensive economic growth.

Unilateral action by countries like Norway, Mexico and, to a degree, China, is also causing some campaigners to wonder whether the best hope for a true “greening” of the global economy will happen independently of the UN process.

Clearly not something Ban Ki-moon will be heard calling for, but it’s one to watch.

Follow @TomClarkeC4 on Twitter.

- See more at: http://blogs.channel4.com/tom-clarke-on-science/climate-change-break-deadlock/1373#sthash.AA96VOJA.dpuf

Over 2 trillion becquerels of radioactive waste flowed from Fukushima plant into Pacific in just 10 months
Monday, September 15, 2014 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer

(NaturalNews) At least 2 trillion becquerels' worth of radioactive material flowed from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean between August 2013 and May 2014, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has admitted. The rate of release was 10 times higher than TEPCO's pre-meltdown threshold for radioactive material.

A becquerel is a unit for measuring radioactive material that corresponds to one unit of radioactive decay per second. It is a way of describing how much radiation is being emitted by radioactive material, in contrast to measuring the mass or volume of the material itself, the energy carried by the radiation or the biological impact of exposure.

Radioactive sludge accumulating in bay

In March 2011, the Fukushima plant suffered multiple meltdowns triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami. Since then, TEPCO has struggled to contain the flow of radioactive water away from the plant. Currently, radioactive water is known to be leaking out of reactor buildings and downstream into the ocean. It is also suspected to be leaking into the ground from the plant, and flowing underground to the ocean from there.

TEPCO estimates that this water has been carrying 4.8 billion becquerels of strontium-90 and 2 billion becquerels of cesium-137 every day, based on measurements taken near the water intakes for reactors 1 through 4. This means that in the 10 months from August to May, the plant emitted 1.46 trillion becquerels' worth of strontium-90 and 610 billion becquerels of cesium-137, totaling 2.07 trillion becquerels of radioactivity released into the ocean.

This astonishing amount of radioactivity is actually an improvement over the first two years following the disaster. Between May 2011 and August 2013, 10 trillion becquerels of strontium-90 and 20 trillion becquerels of cesium-137 flowed into the bay, for a total of 30 trillion becquerels. The improvement does not mark an improvement in TEPCO's containment methods, however, but is a result of the concentration of nuclear material at the plant decreasing over time.

Water flowing away from the plant enters the bay, where it can then spread into the open ocean. This bay contains a port that is used by the plant to transport materials and equipment.

So much radioactive material has accumulated along the mud of the sea floor at this port that TEPCO is now pursuing a plan to coat the sea floor with cement, to prevent the material from migrating deeper into the ocean.

This may make it impossible to ever dredge the port and remove the radioactive material.

"The first priority is to keep the material where it is," said a TEPCO official. "No decision has been made on whether to recover the [radioactive] mud at some point in the future."

Radioactive swamp

TEPCO has already coated several other sections of sea floor, near the outlets of tunnels used to release the radioactive water used to cool the plant immediately following the meltdown.

Work has already begun on a project to coat 50,000 square meters of sea floor near the quay with a cement mixture. The remaining 130,000 square meters will also be coated in several smaller segments. Every part will then be re-coated, to ensure durability of the barrier.

Meanwhile, radioactive water continues to accumulate on-site, with both rainwater and groundwater continually seeping into the failed reactors and becoming contaminated. TEPCO has been attempting to pump this water out and store it in tanks all over the site, but numerous leaks have caused so much water to spill out that Kyoto University professor Hiroaki Koide has described the plant as a radioactive swamp.

TEPCO has also attempted to dispose of some of the water by directly discharging it into the Pacific Ocean, violating its own standards for safe radiation exposure levels.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp

http://ajw.asahi.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

https://www.wordnik.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/046881_Fukushima_plant_radioactive_waste_Pacific_Ocean.html##ixzz3DyjufU00

Knee Surgery for Arthritis

Surgery for Knee Osteoarthritis Video

Generally, any knee surgery to alleviate arthritis pain is considered elective surgery, meaning it is up to the patient to decide whether or not to have surgery. Typically, patients who have knee arthritis consider surgery when:

• Quality of life is significantly affected because of pain and functional limitations
• Non-surgical solutions to control pain, such asmedication and physical therapy, have been tried for several months or longer without satisfactory improvement
• An X-ray or MRI confirms knee joint degeneration.

Article continues below

Of course, people differ in what they consider “significant” quality of life changes as well as their tolerance for pain. Some people consider knee arthritis a significant problem if it prevents them from participating in sports or taking extended walks. Other people do not consider knee arthritis to be a significant problem until pain interrupts sleep or affects their ability to do even simple activities, such as household chores.

In This Article:

• Knee Surgery for Arthritis
• Types of Knee Surgery for Arthritis Treatment

When a person is ready to consider knee surgery, his or her doctor may recommend one or two surgical options. The most common surgeries to treat knee arthritis are:

• Total knee replacement (total knee arthroplasty)
• Partial knee replacement (unicompartmental knee arthroplasty)
• Knee osteotomy (tibial osteotomy or femoral osteotomy)
• Knee arthroscopy
• Cartilage repair and restoration

View Video: Is Arthritis Pain an Inevitable Part of Aging?

It is important to note that a surgery that works well for one knee arthritis patient may not work well for another. Knee anatomy and knee joint degeneration can vary considerably from person to person. There is also variability among hospitals and surgeons, both in terms of surgical techniques and experience.

Elective knee surgery can be scheduled for a time that is convenient for the patient. Patients can plan around life events such as retirements, weddings, and vacations, to make sure that they can put 100% effort into rest and rehabilitation in the weeks following surgery.

There are several different types of surgery offered to treat knee arthritis. Which surgery, if any, is recommended will depend on several factors, such as the patient’s age, anatomy, general health, lifestyle, and personal preferences, as well as the surgeon’s experience and preferences.

Total Knee Replacement Surgery (Total Knee Arthroplasty)

Patients with moderate to severe knee arthritis who have exhausted non-surgical treatment options might consider replacing the entire knee joint. The surgery involves cutting the arthritically damaged ends of the tibia (shin bone) and femur (thighbone) and capping both with prostheses (like capping teeth).

View Knee Replacement Surgery Video

The two prosthetic pieces are made of either metal or a durable plastic called polyethylene. These new surfaces move smoothly against one another, creating a functional knee joint. Partial recovery typically takes 4 to 6 weeks¹ and full recovery may take a few months to an entire year.

Total knee replacement surgery provides most patients with pain relief and improved knee joint function. However, a replacement knee is not as strong and durable as a healthy knee, and patients are strongly advised not to engage in high-impact activities (such as jogging) that may speed up the wear-and-tear of the new joint.

• Read more: Total Knee Replacement for Knee Arthritis andMinimally Invasive Knee Replacement Surgery

Article continues below

Partial Knee Replacement Surgery (Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty)

Partial knee replacement, often called unicompartmental knee replacement, involves replacing only one of the knee’s three “compartments”:

• The medial compartment refers to the inner knee (where a person’s knees touch when the legs are together).
• The lateral compartment refers to the outer knee.
• The patellofemoral compartment is at the front of the knee, where the patella (kneecap) meets the femur (thighbone).

Partial knee replacement surgery treats the arthritically damaged compartment of the knee joint (typically the lateral or medial compartment) while preserving healthy areas. This surgery is appropriate for only a small number of people, and patients may be ineligible if their knees are not well aligned (e.g. bowlegged or knock-kneed), have severe knee stiffness, have ligament damage, or if they suffer from inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Compared to total knee replacement, partial knee replacement is less invasive, so it is usually less painful and requires less recovery time. However, partial knee replacement is not as reliable as total knee replacement for alleviating pain.

In This Article:

• Knee Surgery for Arthritis
• Types of Knee Surgery for Arthritis Treatment

Knee Osteotomy (Tibial Osteotomy or Femoral Osteotomy)

This surgery is appropriate for a limited number of younger (under age 60 or so), physically active people whose poor knee alignment has caused a great deal of wear-and-tear on just one side of the knee joint, a condition called unilateral knee arthritis or asymmetrical knee arthritis.

During knee osteotomy the surgeon cuts into the femur (thigh bone) or tibia (shin bone) and either:

• Removes a small wedge of bone, or
• Adds a small wedge of natural bone graft or artificial bone material.

View Knee Osteoarthritis Video

Knee osteotomy re-aligns the joint to shift more pressure onto the “good” side of the knee joint and reduce wear and tear on the bad side. The goal is to reduce pain and perhaps slow down the progression of knee osteoarthritis. A successful knee osteotomy surgery can postpone the need for total knee replacement surgery up to 10 years.²

Unlike after total knee replacement, recovered knee osteotomy patients may participate in high-impact sports.³ This is a major surgery with potential risks and complications, and patients must be committed to extensive post-surgical physical therapy. A full recovery may take months or even an entire year.⁴

• Read more about the procedure, risks, and recovery timeline for:Knee Osteotomy Surgery

Knee Arthroscopy

Arthroscopic surgery requires only small incisions through which the surgeon inserts a very small video camera and surgical tools. During knee arthroscopy, a surgeon can make an assessment of joint degeneration due to arthritis.

The surgeon can also perform knee debridement and lavage, which includes the following process:

• Remove loose pieces of cartilage or bone (loose osteophytes) suspected of causing irritation
• Trim or smooth out cartilage that has grown irregular and bumpy
• Remove inflamed synovial tissue
• Flush the joint with a saline solution, a process called lavage, to clean out materials known to cause irritation and swelling

Experts’ opinions differ on whether knee arthroscopy is a worthwhile treatment option for knee osteoarthritis. Some experts point to clinical studies that suggest knee arthroscopy does not provide benefit to knee osteoarthritis patients.^5,6 Others reason that because knee arthroscopy is less invasive and carries fewer risks it is worth trying before embarking on a more invasive surgery, such as total knee arthroplasty.⁷ (Most experts do agree arthroscopy is useful for treating other knee problems, such as repairing meniscal tears.) Knee arthroscopy is an outpatient procedure, but it is still surgery and it can take 6 to 8 weeks for the joint to fully recover.

Cartilage Repair and Cartilage Restoration

Once damaged, cartilage does not heal well. Even if the joint is able to grow new cartilage, it tends to be rough and bumpy and therefore less able to facilitate smooth movement at the joint. There are a handful of surgeries that attempt to repair or encourage the growth of healthy cartilage:

• Bone marrow stimulation, which stimulates cartilage growth by making precise microfractures in the surrounding bone
• Osteochondral transplantation techniques (OATS), also referred to as “mosaicplasty,” which involves transplanting cartilage from one site to another
• Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI), which requires two surgeries. In the first, cartilage cells are harvested and then grown in a laboratory for several weeks. During the second surgery the cartilage cells are re-implanted.

These procedures may be appropriate for patients who have a relatively small and very isolated area of articular cartilage damage. Typically, these patients are younger and have damaged their cartilage through trauma (e.g. a sports injury) rather than over years of gradual wear and tear. Therefore, these surgeries are usually more appropriate for people trying to slow or prevent severe arthritis rather than alleviate it.

This article focuses on the most common types of knee surgery for arthritis. New types of surgery, less invasive surgical techniques, and new implant designs and materials are the subjects of ongoing research.

People suffering from knee arthritis should make a concerted effort to alleviate symptoms with non-surgical treatments. If non-surgical treatments do not provide satisfactory pain relief and improved knee function, then an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in knee surgery can determine whether surgery is an appropriate option.

• Learn more about how doctors such as orthopedic surgeons treat arthritis in Arthritis Treatment Specialists

In addition to recommending a specific surgery or set of surgeries, the surgeon will explain the surgery’s potential benefits, expected recovery period, and potential risks and side effects, as well as alternatives to the surgery. Once fully informed, the patient can decide whether or not to have the surgery.

References:

1. Mayo Clinic. “Knee Replacement” Results. Accessed April 25, 2013. www.mayoclinic.com
2. MedLine Plus, US National Library of Medicine / National Institutes of Health 2011 “Osteotomy of the Knee.” Accessed December 31, 2011. http://www.nlm.nih.gov
See Full References

Solving Tamil question the Scottish way! 

மீடியா பிளேயர்

'அதிகாரங்கள் பகிரப்பட்டால் பிரிவினையை தடுக்கலாம் என்ற பாடம்' - சம்பந்தர் - BBC Tamil - இலங்கை

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

அதிகாரங்கள் உரிய வகையில் பகிரப்பட்டால், ஒரு நாடு பிரிவதை தடுத்து, ஒன்றுபட்ட நாட்டுக்குள் அனைத்து இனங்களும் இணைந்து வாழலாம் என்பதற்கு ஸ்காட்லாந்து ஒரு பாடம் என்று இரா. சம்பந்தர் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

By Manekshaw- September 20, 2014

The iconic 007 James Bond actor Sir Thomas Sean Connery, who is a die –hard campaigner for the independence of Scotland, once said that he would not return to his homeland Scotland, until the region gains independence from the United Kingdom.
Sean Connery, who had succeeded in campaigning for the creation of a Scottish Parliament in 1999, through his Scottish National Party, now seems to be rejected by Scotland forever with a majority of Scottish people rejecting his call for an Independent Scotland, at a referendum held on 18 September.
 
The entire world was closely monitoring the Scottish referendum and the International political observers even said that if the Yes votes were cast in favor of a separate Scotland State it would be an inspiration for several separatist movements throughout the world.
 
Despite the turbulent political issues, with regard to Northern Ireland, which had remained a huge challenge for the United Kingdom, politically as well as militarily, for several decades, the British leaders had succeeded in maintaining the integrity of the United Kingdom by successfully overcoming the North Ireland conflict situation democratically, through negotiations in 1998.
 
Mother of all Parliaments
With the success in defeating the Scottish separatists at the 'Yes' or 'No' referendum , the leaders from Westminster Abbey have proved that Britain could still be proud of being 'the Mother of all Parliaments ' by upholding the great democratic values in dealing with critical political issues.
 
At a photographic exhibition held in Colombo, last year, the British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka John Rankin, who is of Scottish origin, responding to a local journalist on the Scottish separatist issue, very rightly predicted that Scotland will remain part of the United Kingdom and the hardliners will not succeed in their campaign to separate the region from rest of the UK.
The United Kingdom, which comprises England, Wales and the Northern Ireland regions, with significant devolution of powers, will continue to accommodate Scotland under the Union Jack with Thursday's 'Big NO' for separation from the Empire.

Since Sri Lanka, being a country that had been ruled by the British Empire for more than a century, with Governors even being of Scottish origin, the Lankan leaders of all ethnicities who fought for the independence from the British stood firm on upholding the integrity when the island nation gained independence in 1948.
 
However, the post-independence era had failed badly in maintaining the unity and integrity of the ethnicities in the island with harsh political differences which had even led to the disintegration of the island ethnically.
 
Westminster system
The leaders of the very first Parliament of the independent Sri Lanka, who followed the best of Westminster traditions, believed that a federal system of administration could be the right solution to fulfil the political aspirations of the minorities and two treaties (Banda –Chelva pact and Dudley –Chelva pact ) were even brought out to nip the ethnic crisis in the bud.
The two treaties, which were the outcome of greater understanding between the leaders of Sinhalese and Tamils, who had the farsightedness to settle the ethnic differences through the federal system, didn't posses the courage to ensure the integrity of the island by curbing the chauvinist elements which had succeeded in defeating the attempts put forward in recognizing the legitimate rights of the minorities in the island.
 
As the referendum was held to decide whether Scotland should remain part of the United Kingdom, with Thursday's 'Yes' or 'No' voting, fifteen years ago the Tony Blair Government in Britain had successfully negotiated with the Irish Republican Army's political wing, Sinn Fein to bring an end to the IRA militancy and settling the Northern Ireland issue.
As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, the island nation had adopted the Westminster system of governance for three decades from 1948 to 1978. But the country had failed miserably in following the finer aspects of the Westminster system in settling the conflict situations through democratic means.
 
The introduction of the Executive Presidency in 1978 in the island with the new Constitution had undermined the Westminster system completely further complicating the political situation with regard to ethnic issues.
Apart from the hardcore attitude of the chauvinist forces in the southern part of the island, the collapse of the Westminster system had also led to the emergence of extremism among the Tamil minorities in the North and East of the island crippling all efforts towards finding a constructive solution to the ethnic crisis.
 
During Thursday's referendum on Scottish independence, it was interesting to note the manner in which all political Parties in Westminster shed their political differences to defeat the Scottish National Party's demands for separatism.
The political parties from Westminster came forward to devolve more powers to Scotland in order to prevent the region disintegrating from the rest of the United Kingdom.
 
The leaders from Westminster were not arrogant but were accommodative by coming forward to devolve more powers to overcome the separatist ideas of the Scottish.
The Scottish referendum has also led to the Westminster considering more devolution of power to other autonomies such as Wales, England and Northern Ireland in the UK.
 
One year of NPC
The Scottish referendum occurred at a time the Northern Provincial Council in the island had completed one year.
Since the formation of the Tamil National Alliance-led Provincial Council in September last year, the provincial political body is still clamoring for greater devolution of power from the Central Government in Colombo.
 
The Illankai Tamil Arasu katchchi (ITAK), which is the flagship of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which had secured an overwhelming victory at the Northern Provincial Council polls in September last year, has even cautioned that it would spearhead the political agitations from the beginning of next year, emphasizing on greater devolution to the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Since Sri Lanka was ruled by the British for more than a century, the finer aspects of being democratic could be learnt from the Westminster leadership, which showed how to avoid the disintegration of the Empire.