They are not secessionists, like the south Sudanese who want full independence.

ECONOMIST: Sudan

Secessionists argue that there exists an overarching body, even bigger than the city of Los Angeles, that can pull together the interests of the whole metropolitan area.

ECONOMIST: Troubled cities 1

The break-up was triggered when the Front rejected a demand by Congress that one of its partners, which has links to Sri Lanka's Tamil secessionists, be kicked out.

CNN: Rule of Politics

In the nineteenth century, the French helped Southern secessionists and would have recognized their independent Confederacy had timely and decisive Union victories not made it clear which side would prevail.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: False friends

This week the Contact Group of six countries dealing with the Balkans (America, Russia and Western Europe's leading quartet) rewarded Mr Milosevic for opening negotiations with secessionists in Kosovo by rescinding an investment ban.

ECONOMIST: Yugoslavia

There is a basic (and constitutional) difference between seeking more power for all ten provinces, seen as equals with each other, and the French-Canadian view, not confined to secessionists, that today's Canada was born of a compact between two equal peoples, French-speakers and English (a minority until around 1850), which has since been repeatedly upset.

ECONOMIST: The lesson of Quebec