Edward Kennedy hospitalised in Boston

BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a leadingDemocrat and patriarch of a prominent American politicaldynasty, was hospitalised on Saturday in Boston after sufferingsymptoms of a stroke.

Kennedy, 76, was rushed from the Kennedy compound atHyannisport, Massachusetts, to Cape Cod Hospital at 9 a.m. (2p.m. British time), before being airlifted to MassachusettsGeneral Hospital in Boston, hospital officials said.

A Democratic Party aide confirmed that the long-servingMassachusetts senator had symptoms of a stroke.

"He is currently under evaluation," Kennedy's office inWashington said in a statement. His office said Kennedy feltill at home and went to Cape Cod Hospital. He was sent toMassachusetts General after consultation with his doctors inBoston.

The Boston Globe reported on its Web site that Kennedyfamily members had been summoned to Boston, quoting a leadingpolitical source.

"He is currently under evaluation," Kennedy's office inWashington said in a statement.

Kennedy is a leading liberal voice in the United States andhas actively campaigned for Barack Obama in his bid for theDemocratic presidential nomination.

Kennedy had preventive surgery at Boston's MassachusettsGeneral Hospital in October to unclog a partially blockedcarotid artery in his neck.

The blockage was discovered during a routine check ofKennedy's back and spine, doctors said. A blocked carotidartery can lead to a stroke and death, they said.

Kennedy has suffered from back problems since a plane crashin 1964 in which the pilot and one of Kennedy's aides werekilled and the senator was pulled from the wreckage with a backinjury, punctured lung, broken ribs and internal bleeding.

The youngest brother of assassinated U.S. President John F.Kennedy, Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1962 andcurrently serves as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health,Education, Labour and Pensions.

He ran for the presidency in 1980, but lost the Democraticnomination to President Jimmy Carter who was seeking a secondterm.

He helped win an increase in the national minimum wage thisyear and worked with Republicans to produce broad immigrationreform, which failed in the Senate after stiff opposition fromconservative Republicans.

Edward Moore Kennedy was the last of four sons and fivedaughters born to millionaire businessman Joseph Kennedy andhis wife Rose.

The oldest, Joseph Jr, died as a World War II flier whenhis bomber exploded over the English Channel. John becameAmerica's first and so far only Roman Catholic president in1960 and was assassinated in 1963. Robert's assassinationduring the 1968 presidential campaign left Edward leader of theclan.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Charles Abbott andDoina Chiacu in Washington. Editing by Jackie Frank)