And as a Kennedy, he had a natural flair for old-school politics, a strange blend of chumminess and full-contact aggression.

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Much is made these days of the chumminess of Federer and Nadal.

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There are, though, plenty who worry about the consequences of Franco-German chumminess.

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At the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) on security in Bangkok, the North's first appearance elicited audible sighs of relief and largely unrestrained chumminess.

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An Iranian official laments that America's new chumminess with Afghan warlords may preclude a serious effort to crush the trade on which they depend.

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Still, despite the open chumminess between Mr Karimov and Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, a Western diplomat suspects underlying tensions, for instance over gas sales and trade.

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For all their outward chumminess, the course of true love has not run smoothly between Sandy Weill and John Reed, the co-chairmen and co-chief executives of the financial-services giant since it was formed in April 1998 by the merger of Citibank and Travelers.

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