Ted Kennedy, the late US senator and youngest of the three brothers who lit up Washington in the 1960s, rented an entire brothel for a night during a South American junket, it has emerged.

The FBI's file on Mr Kennedy states that he "made arrangements" to hire a bordello in Santiago, Chile, while visiting the region in 1961 - toward the end of his brother John's first year as US president.

Mr Kennedy, then a 29-year-old district attorney in Massachussets, also "invited one of the [US] Embassy chauffeurs to participate in the night's activities", according to a memo sent to Washington. At the time, he had been married to his first wife, Joan, for three years.

Mr Kennedy's older brother, Robert, was the US Attorney General, making his actions potentially even more embarrassing....