Edward Kennedy dies

Massachusetts Senator, Edward Kennedy, the patriarch of the first family of Democratic politics, died late last night at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, after a lengthy battle with brain cancer.



He was 77.



US President Barack Obama in a statement said the US has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States Senator of our time.



Kennedy, nicknamed \"Ted,\" was the younger brother of slain President John F. Kennedy and New York Senator Robert Kennedy, who was gunned down while seeking the White House in 1968.



However, his own presidential aspirations were marred by the controversy around a 1969 auto accident that left a young woman dead, and a 1980 primary challenge to then-President Jimmy Carter that ended in defeat.



Kennedy, who became known as the \"Lion of the Senate,\" played major roles in passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act and the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act.