KEY POINTS:
Ted Kennedy, the 76-year-old patriarch of the most potent dynasty in Democrat politics, underwent surgery on a malignant brain tumour yesterday.
The senator issued an upbeat statement before going into Duke University medical centre in North Carolina for an operation to remove as much of the tumour as possible and to improve the prospects for subsequent treatments.
"After completing treatment, I look forward to returning to the US Senate and to doing everything I can to help elect Barack Obama as our next president," he said.
As the last surviving brother of the assassinated president John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy, the Massachusetts senator, he has carried the torch for the clan's liberal politics for almost all his life, entering the Senate as soon as he was able to, at 30.
Diagnosis of a malignant glioma last month spurred tributes from political allies and foes alike.
He was expected to remain in hospital for a week if the six-hour operation was successful.
- INDEPENDENT
