Brazil's Lula discharged from hospital following emergency surgery

"I am here in one piece... returning home," the 79-year-old leftist leader said as he made a surprise appearance at a news conference by his medical team at Hospital Sirio-Libanes. Lula had successful surgery Tuesday in which doctors drilled through his skull to relieve pressure that built up after a blow to the head in October, when he fell in a bathroom in his presidential residence. On Thursday he underwent a follow-up operation to minimize the risk of further bleeding in the affected area of the protective intracranial membranes.