Reported from United press international:
It had the makings of a mystery movie -- the prime minister drops from public view for nearly 10 days during the holiday season. When the media asked pointedly why he had failed to visit his country's troops in Iraq, the government's terse reply was that he was at his villa on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.

Then in early January, an Italian plastic surgeon revealed to a newspaper that 67-year-old Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had undergone minor plastic surgery -- and then holed up in Sardinia until the scars healed. The doctor described the operation as nothing more than a nip and tuck.

Berlusconi himself, back in circulation by then, made no comment. One news report said the plastic surgery was in preparation for intensive campaigning for forthcoming European parliamentary elections in May, and possibly national elections at about the same time.