Kennedy to quit Congress

US Representative Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, decided not to seek re-election to Congress, saying his life is "taking a new direction".

Mr Kennedy taped a message to be aired on television in his state of Rhode Island on Sunday night.

The decision by the eight-term congressman comes less than a month after a stunning Republican upset in the race for the Massachusetts Senate seat his father held for almost half a century.

Patrick Kennedy has been in and out of treatment for substance abuse since crashing his car outside the US Capitol in 2006. Still, he has been comfortably re-elected twice since then, after making mental health care his signature issue.