Berlusconi forgives New Year's Eve attacker

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi telephoned the man who struck at him in a busy Rome piazza on New Year’s Eve, ensuring him of forgiveness and reassuring the his worried mother that he would not press charges, a report said today.

Italian bricklayer, Roberto Dal Bosco, 28, hit Mr Berlusconi in the head with a camera tripod in the Piazza Navona, bruising his neck. Dal Bosco insisted at his hearing that he only meant to poke the tripod in the premier’s direction to impress some young women with him, news reports have said.