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PAPAL ‘WING’ AND A PRAYER

AOSTA, Italy — Pope Benedict XVI emerged smiling from the hospital yesterday after undergoing surgery for a broken wrist he suffered in a fall at his Alpine vacation chalet. Doctors said his right arm would be in a cast for a month.

A Vatican statement said the 82-year-old pope fell in his room overnight and, despite the accident, celebrated Mass and had breakfast in the morning before going to the hospital.

After an X-ray showed the fracture, surgeons performed a 20-minute operation under local anesthesia on his right wrist, said Dr. Pierluigi Berti, the director of the Umberto Parini hospital in Aosta.