Berlusconi leaves hospital after attack

ITALIAN prime minister Silvio Berlusconi pledged to work with “more force and more determination” after leaving hospital yesterday, four days after an attack which left him with a broken nose and teeth.

Television images showed a stony-faced Berlusconi, his nose and left cheek bandaged, waving to reporters from a limousine as his motorcade left the Milan hospital where he was taken after last Sunday’s attack.

The conservative premier, attacked at a rally by a man with a history of mental illness, was driven to his mansion in the Milanese suburb of Arcore. Doctors have ordered the 73-year-old to limit his work schedule for up to two weeks.