Italy's PM in hospital after attack

ITALY: A man with a history of mental health problems attacked Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Sunday, knocking out two of his teeth and forcing him to be rushed to hospital with a blood-splattered face.

Television pictures showed the 73-year-old prime minister in the midst of a crowd following a political rally in his native Milan, when suddenly a man lunged and took a swing at Berlusconi's face.

Blood splattered across his face, aides bundled Berlusconi into a car and rushed him from the scene in the northern industrial city.

Police later charged a 42-year-old man with aggravated assault for hurling a miniature replica of Milan's gothic cathedral at Berlusconi, the ANSA news agency said.

The prime minister was examined and treated at the emergency room at the San Raffaele Hospital, where a hospital spokesman said he had two teeth knocked out, a small fracture to his nose, cuts on the inside and outside of his upper lip and bruises to his face.

"From a clinical point of view, everything's fine, but there's a need for an observation period of one or two days," said Dr Alberto Zangrillo, head of the emergency room at the San Raffaele Hospital here.

Berlusconi would probably not require any operation, he added."I'm fine, I'm fine," the billionaire prime minister was quoted as saying by ANSA as he left the emergency room.

The suspected assailant, Massimo Tartaglia, had a 10-year history of mental health problems, ANSA said.

Milan,Bonday, AFP