Spanish king has successful hip operation

MADRID - King Juan Carlos of Spain had a successful operation to implant a prosthetic left hip late on Friday.

It was his third operation after he broke his hip while on a controversial hunting expedition in Botswana in April.

The operation, carried out at the Quiron San Jose hospital in Madrid, was the tenth time the King has needed surgery of one kind or another.

The royal palace has issued a statement confirming that the operation was "very satisfactory." Although the King was kept under observation on Friday night, he will be taken to a normal room during the course of the day, the statement said.

The King said last week during the Ibero-American summit in Cadiz in south-western Spain that he would need the operation on his left hip. But he said he had decided to delay the treatment until after the event, because he had attended all the 21 previous summits.