That presents the Big Four with a particular problem: how to identify future stars among the mass of raw recruits.

ECONOMIST: Talent management

Raw recruits for the Royal Navy will be getting a first hand experience of life on board with a new high-tech training base on land.

BBC: Devonport navy training in 'radical change'

Divisions among the allies are ignored, for example the French practice of sending raw recruits to Berlin rather than seasoned soldiers of the sort sent by the British and Americans.

ECONOMIST: New history museums

It thinks the refugees will soon try to break out, and that the Tigers, reduced, it says, to 200 hardened fighters plus some raw recruits, will be unable to stop them.

ECONOMIST: Sri Lanka's war