The family of Senator Edward Kennedy prepared on Thursday to accompany his body on its final journey, as Americans mourned the end of a dynasty that dominated US politics for a generation.
All government buildings lowered the Stars and Stripes to half-mast, as did private homes in the Massachusetts seaside resort of Hyannis Port, where the veteran US senator died late Tuesday at his family compound aged 77.
US President Barack Obama led tributes from across the US political spectrum and around the world, saying “the outpouring of love, gratitude and fond memories which we have all witnessed is a testimony to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives.”
Family members prepared to begin celebrations of a life touched by tragedy, scandals and ultimately success by escorting his coffin yesterday in a cortege to his home city of Boston following a private mass.
His body was to lie in state at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library ahead of a Catholic funeral mass tomorrow during which Obama will eulogize the lion that roars no more.
Later that day, the Democratic Party giant was to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on a Virginia hillside overlooking Washington, alongside his slain brothers.
The man dubbed the “liberal lion” of the Senate, where he served for 47 years, died after a long battle with brain cancer.
His disappearance ended his family’s half-century-long dominance of the Democratic Party and robbed Obama of a crucial ally in an increasingly uphill battle to reform the US healthcare system.
It was the eldest brother — Joe — that father, millionaire businessman Joseph Kennedy had originally intended for political greatness. But that dream was cut short when he died aged only 29 during a World War II bombing mission.
Many had thought Kennedy destined for the highest office after his brothers were assassinated — first president John F. Kennedy in 1963, then senator Robert F. Kennedy, as he campaigned for the presidency in 1968.
But personal scandal — and a reputation for drinking and womanizing — got in the way of the youngest Kennedy brother’s White House ambitions, chiefly the 1969 death of Mary Jo Kopechne. The campaign worker was ridding in Kennedy’s car when he drove off a bridge at Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts, and fled the scene of the crash.
Yet in the end, the man who often found himself in the crosshairs of conservatives for championing progressive causes earned the respect of former foes.
More than 100 journalists and ranks of trucks with satellite dishes besieged the sprawling beachfront residence that served as Cape Cod headquarters for the Kennedy clan as strong winds whipped through the moored yachts.
An emotional Ana Lages, a chemical engineer from Cambridge, Massachusetts, placed flowers at the police line.
Kennedy, who long fought for immigrants’ rights, had helped her get a green card 30 years ago, she said, sobbing.
“I’m very grateful to him,” she said.
While not sharing his left-leaning politics, she admired “a man who helped so many people.”
Interrupting his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, just across the Nantucket Sound from Hyannis Port, Obama pledged that “the extraordinary good that he did lives on.”
Kennedy would have been a valuable ally to Obama, who owed his meteoric rise to the White House last year in part to the senator’s stunning endorsement.
He was renowned for his legislative skills and just last year described bringing health coverage to the 47 million uninsured Americans as “the cause of my life.”
But there was also praise from political rivals.
Republican Senator Orrin Hatch lamented the loss of a “treasured friend.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS