June 19, 2013
The week's top five must-sees,
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The week's top five must-sees,
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Description
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over the territory. The opposite of independence is a dependent territory.
Whether attainment of independence is different from revolution has long been contested, and has often been debated over the question of violence as a legitimate means to achieving sovereignty. While some revolutions seek and achieve national independence, others aim only to redistribute power — with or without an element of emancipation, such as in democratization — within a state, which as such may remain unaltered. Nation-states have been granted independence without any revolutionary acts. The Russian October Revolution, for example, was not intended to seek national independence; the United States Revolutionary War, however, was.
Autonomy refers to a kind of independence which has been granted by an overseeing authority that itself still retains ultimate authority over that territory. A protectorate refers to an autonomous region that depends upon a larger government for its protection as an autonomous region. The dates of established independence, are typically celebrated as a national holiday known as an independence day.
(via Freebase)
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![Thousands of South Sudanese citizens are still stranded in Sudan [Al Jazeera, Qatar]](/images/image_cache/base-311000/311495/thumbnail.width=304,height=171,grow=1,crop=center.jpg?sig=a2c3f4abb6a70ecf7c75e28756e89030 "A man waves South Sudan's national flag as he attends the Independence Day celebrations in the capital Juba, July 9, 2011: REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya")
![Kashmiris observe Indian Independence Day as black day [Press TV, Iran]](/images/image_cache/base-311000/311471/thumbnail.width=304,height=171,grow=1,crop=center.jpg?sig=13199b189301f9d94a99dc46d337947b)
![The revival of the Kurdish independence movement [Alsumaria, Iraq]](/images/image_cache/base-311000/311304/thumbnail.width=304,height=171,grow=1,crop=center.jpg?sig=aa2653cb591ba48efc4030307c913c0b)
