Sen. Kennedy rushed to Mass. hospital

BOSTON, May 17 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy was rushed to a hospital in Cape Cod, Mass., Saturday morning after falling ill, his office has confirmed.

Cape Cod Hospital spokesman David Reilly told CNN that the 76-year-old Democratic senator from Massachusetts spent nearly an hour in the emergency room before being transferred to Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital.

A statement from his office said the senator was currently "under evaluation" at the Boston hospital.

An unidentified Democratic source in Massachusetts said the outspoken 43-year veteran senator had "symptoms of a stroke" prior to his emergency room visit.

Last October, Kennedy underwent surgery to clear his carotid artery to possibly remove any threat of a stroke and his colleagues said he had been recovering nicely.

CNN reported that U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is hopeful Kennedy would recover and would soon be contacting the senator's wife, Vicky.

"We are going to try to find out as quickly as possible what is going on," said Obama, whose candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination has been supported by Kennedy.

"He is one of my favorite people," Obama added.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International