Pope has surgery after breaking wrist in fall

Surgeons operated on Pope Benedict XVI yesterday after the 82-year-old pontiff fell and broke his right wrist while on holiday in northern Italy.

"Everything went well" in the operation carried out with local anaesthetic in a hospital in Aosta, in the far northwest of Italy, said regional government president Augusto Rollandin.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church was a "friendly and excellent" patient, surgeon Manuel Mancini told reporters, describing the operation to insert two metal pins into the broken bone as "routine." After spending more than six hours at the hospital, the Pope emerged smiling, waving to well-wishers with his left arm as his right arm was in a cast.

The German-born Pope re-turned to his chalet in the hamlet of Les Combes d'Introd where he began a two-week holiday on Monday.

"We carried out a standard check-up on the pope, as for any patient before a surgical operation," hospital spokesman Tiziano Trevisan said.

He added that the hospital would not be involved in follow-up care.

Pope Benedict's personal physician, cardiologist Patrizio Polisca, said the tests found that the pontiff's "general (health) conditions are good," in a communique published by the Vatican.

The Pope slipped and fell in his bedroom during the night, a Vatican statement said, in Pope Benedict's first health scare since he became head of the Roman Catholic Church in April 2005.

The Pope was scheduled to recite the weekly Angelus prayer in Romano Canavese, in the neighbouring Piedmont region, on Sunday.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the event was "neither confirmed nor cancelled pending the doctors' advice."

Pope Benedict, who is right-handed and an avid pianist in his leisure time, had a piano sent to the chalet, media reports said.

Soon after the Pope was spotted entering the hospital accompanied by his personal secretary Monsignor Georg Gaenswein early yesterday, Mr Lombardi said there was "no cause for concern."