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| Turkey Bumps Up Outlook Ankara revised up its growth expectations to 6.8% for this year and 4.5% for next year, underscoring the economy's recovery from the financial crisis—though its estimate for the current account deficit more than doubled. online.wsj.com |
Military top brass don uniforms to warn David Cameron about defence cuts Downing Street plays host to heads of Britain's armed services who launch late bid to scale back defence cutsDavid Cameron has seen a lot of guys in military uniform today.First through the door of No 10 was General David Petraeus, the US commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan. Petraeus updated the prime minister on the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Linda Norgrove, the British aid worker.Shortly after Petraeus left Downing Street, Britain's top brass donned their military uniforms to voice concerns about the impending cuts to the defence budget. This was the line up:• Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, first sea lord• Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, chief of the air staff• General Sir Peter Wall, chief of the general staff• Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the outgoing chief of the defence staff. General Sir David Richards, the incoming chief of the defence staff, did not attend the meeting because he is abroad.The top brass time their demarches with care. They are deeply concerned about the scale of the defence cuts.There is also a suggestion that the military are concerned about the appointment of Colonel Jim Morris as the prime minister's personal military adviser. I blogged yesterday that this appointment had shades of Churchill.One source says today:The service chiefs believe the appointment of Col Morris is as welcome as a bucket of cold sick. There is nothing wrong with Col Morris personally. He is a great military figure.But the military are sticklers for hierarchy. Where does this leave the chief of the defence staff who is the prime minister's official military adviser?Ministry of defence sources insist there was nothing unusual about today's uniformed meeting in No 10:The service chiefs wore their uniforms out of respect for the office of the prime minister. It is right they should talk to the prime minister as we put the finishing touches to the strategic defence and security review.Everyone in the MoD is excited by the appointment of Col Morris who is a hugely respected officer. He will not replace the CDS as the prime minister's principle military adviser.But he will advise the prime minister on a day-to-day basis. That should mean we avoid the sort of gaffes made by the previous prime minister.David CameronDefence policyDavid PetraeusNicholas Wattguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Trapped Miners' Bodies Recovered Rescuers on Tuesday recovered the bodies of the last of the 37 coal miners trapped by a gas leak at a Chinese mine over the weekend. online.wsj.com |
Great dynasties of the world: The Kennedys They reached for the moon and paid the priceThe Kennedys are not just a family – they are an industry. There are Kennedy biographies, Kennedy genealogies, and bibliographies, and bio-bibliographies, and essays, and books of photos, and books of reminiscences, and who's whos, and compendiums, and novels, and TV specials, and DVDs, and posters, and mugs, and key-rings, and fridge magnets, and tote bags, and baseball caps. The Kennedy family history is like a palimpsest, made into a collage: JFK in the motorcade; Bobby Kennedy in Los Angeles; Jackie Kennedy in shades; Ted Kennedy shaking the hand of Obama. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." "Ich bin ein Berliner." "Like my brothers before me, I pick up a fallen standard."Where to begin, telling the Kennedy story? One could start with Patrick Kennedy and Bridget Murphy and the potato famine, and the leaving of Ireland in 1849 for the promise of a better life in America. Or one could begin with Patrick and Bridget's fourth child, Patrick Joseph – PJ – Kennedy, who started out working as a stevedore and who became a bar owner and ended up as a wealthy politician in Boston. But probably the best place to begin is with Patrick's son, Joseph.Joseph went to Harvard, became a banker and quickly made his millions on the stock market, in real estate, steel, Hollywood, and through liquor. He became US ambassador to Britain, and the first chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. But, more importantly, in 1914 he married Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald, daughter of the mayor of Boston, and they had nine children. Joseph's ambitions for himself were certainly high, but his ambitions for his children were limitless and gloriously fulfilled: one became US president; one, attorney general; another a senator.In their book The Kennedys: An American Drama (1984), Peter Collier and David Horowitz describe Joseph as a "homegrown Faust". A man of volatile temper, he drove himself and his children forward relentlessly. According to Collier and Horowitz, "the distance the Kennedys had come in half a lifetime was almost incalculable". Joseph's grandparents had fled Ireland, starving. Joseph crossed the Atlantic to England in 1938 as ambassador, wealthy, famous and with eyes on the office of president.But when he died, aged 81, in 1969, Joseph had seen two of his sons assassinated and one killed in the second world war. He had authorised a lobotomy on his eldest daughter, Rose Marie, which left her mentally incapacitated. His next daughter, Kathleen Agnes, died in a plane crash in 1948. He was a philanderer, a bully and, arguably, an antisemite. Ronald Kessler's The Sins of the Father: Joseph P Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded (1996) makes a comprehensive case against. Will Smith, in The Kennedys Amidst the Gathering Storm (2008), paints a more favourable picture. Dozens of books tell all the stories from every perspective.People talk of the Kennedy curse. But the greatest Kennedy curse never happened. During the second world war, Joseph Kennedy was an appeaser. In 1940, he announced that "Democracy is finished in England." Fortunately, he was wrong.The end of the incredible Kennedy story probably comes with the famous speech by Joseph's youngest son, Ted, brother of John and Bobby, at the 2008 Democratic national convention. "We are told that Barack Obama believes too much in an America of high principle and bold endeavor, but when John Kennedy called of going to the moon, he didn't say it's too far to get there ... This is what we do. We reach the moon. We scale the heights. I know it. I've seen it. I've lived it ... The work begins anew. The hope rises again. The dream lives on." The Kennedys reached the moon. And paid the price.Edward KennedyJohn F KennedyJackie OnassisFamilyIan Sansomguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Why Isn't the Vote in One Afghan Province Certified Yet? More than two months after a less than sterling display of democracy, most of Afghanistan's votes have been certified. Except for Ghazni's. Thay may spell trouble. feedproxy.google.com |