Brazil's Lula leaves intensive care as he recovers from surgeries

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva left intensive care on Friday, Sao Paulo's Sirio-Libanes Hospital said in a medical note, as he recovers from two operations this week to relieve and prevent bleeding in his skull.

The 79-year-old Lula is now in "semi-intensive care," his doctors said in the note, adding that the leftist leader "remains lucid, is eating normally and walked through the hallways."

Doctors operated on Lula for about two hours on Tuesday to drain bleeding between his brain and meningeal membrane, which they said was linked to a fall at his home in late October.

The president underwent a second procedure on Thursday, a middle meningeal artery embolization, aimed at minimizing the risk of future bleeding. He later had a drain removed from his head without complications.