Dear young women religious, as part of the World Youth Day which we are celebrating in Madrid, I am delighted to have this opportunity to meet you who have consecrated your youth to the Lord, and I thank you for the kind greeting you have given me. I also thank the Archbishop of Madrid, who arranged for this meeting in the evocative setting of the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Its famous library preserves important editions of the sacred Scriptures and the monastic rules of various religious families, yet your own lives of fidelity to the calling you have received is itself a precious means of preserving the word of the Lord, which resounds in your various spiritual traditions.

Dear Sisters, every charism is an evangelical word which the Holy Spirit recalls to the Church’s memory (cf. Jn 14:26). It is not by accident that consecrated life “is born from hearing the word of God and embracing the Gospel as its rule of life. A life devoted to following Christ in his chastity, poverty and obedience becomes a living ‘exegesis’ of God’s word… Every charism and every rule springs from it and seeks to be an expression of it, thus opening up new pathways of Christian living marked by the radicalism of the Gospel” (Verbum Domini, 83).

This Gospel radicalism means being “rooted and built up in Christ, and firm in the faith” (cf. Col 2:7). In the consecrated life, this means going to the very root of the love of Jesus Christ with an undivided heart, putting nothing ahead of this love and being completely devoted to him, the Bridegroom, as were the Saints, like Rose of Lima and Rafael Arnáiz, the young patrons of this World Youth Day. Your lives must testify to the personal encounter with Christ which has nourished your consecration, and to all the transforming power of that encounter. This is all the more important today when “we see a certain ‘eclipse of God’ taking place, a kind of amnesia which, albeit not an outright rejection of Christianity, is nonetheless a denial of the treasure of our faith, a denial that could lead to the loss of our deepest identity” (Message for the 2011 World Youth Day, 1). In a world of relativism and mediocrity, we need that radicalism to which your consecration, as a way of belonging to the God who is loved above all things, bears witness.

This Gospel radicalism proper to the consecrated life finds expression in filial communion with the Church, the home of the children of God, built by Christ: communion with her Pastors who set forth in the Lord’s name the deposit of faith received from the apostles, the ecclesial Magisterium and the Christian tradition; communion with your own religious families as you gratefully preserve their authentic spiritual patrimony while valuing other charisms; and communion with other members of the Church, such as the laity, who are called to make their own specific calling a testimony to the one Gospel of the Lord.

Finally, Gospel radicalism finds expression in the mission God has chosen to entrust to us: from the contemplative life, which welcomes into its cloisters the word of God in eloquent silence and adores his beauty in the solitude which he alone fills, to the different paths of the apostolic life, in whose furrows the seed of the Gospel bears fruit in the education of children and young people, the care of the sick and elderly, the pastoral care of families, commitment to respect for life, witness to the truth and the proclamation of peace and charity, mission work and the new evangelization, and so many other sectors of the Church’s apostolate.

Dear Sisters, this is the witness of holiness to which God is calling you, as you follow Jesus Christ closely and unconditionally in consecration, communion and mission. The Church needs your youthful fidelity, rooted and built up in Christ. Thank you for your generous, total and perpetual “yes” to the call of the Loved One. I pray that the Virgin Mary may sustain and accompany your consecrated youth, with the lively desire that it will challenge, nourish and illumine all young people.

With these sentiments, I ask God to repay abundantly the generous contribution which consecrated life has made to this World Youth Day. In his name, and with great gratitude, I give you my affectionate blessing.
Source:catholicherald

Threats to cut David Letterman's tongue out and assassinate him have been posted on a website frequently used by Al-Qaeda after he gloated about the death of one of Osama Bin Laden's lieutenants.

A frequent online commenter called on Muslims to kill the CBS late night-host after taking offence at jokes he made about the death of Ilyas Kashmiri.

According to the SITE Group, which tracks extremist websites, a poster calling himself Umar al-Basrawi called for U.S. counterparts to assassinate Mr Letterman and 'cut the tongue of the lowly Jew'.
'I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears, one of the lowlifes of the Jews, and one of their pigs, mocking one of the leaders of the mujahedeen,' he wrote.

The talk show host, who is not Jewish, reportedly celebrated the death of the terror leader by joyfully signalling a finger across his neck.

The jihadist posted a photo of the 64-year-old, describing him as 'a sick Jew is defined features'.

SITE analyst Adam Raisman told EW that the threat was made on Shumukh-al-Islam, a site where messages from Al Qaeda frequently first appear online in the U.S.

'It's a clearing house for Al-Qaeda material. It gets the most Al-Qaeda supporters,' he said.

Don Borrelli, former assistant special agent in charge of the FBI-NYPD joint terrorism task force, and senior vice president with security firm the Soufan Group, said the rhetoric is not a joke.

'In general, you cannot write any of these off as a non-viable threat,' he told the New York Post.

'These Internet threats have been a rallying cry to “have the guy's head”.

'If I am the guy targeted in one of those things, I would be taking it seriously and hunker down.'

Mr Letterman's show is currently on its summer hiatus. CBS declined to comment.

Source:dailymail

 One week after officials put out the word that the Obama administration would call for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has repeatedly passed up the opportunity to do just that.

Clinton, speaking alongside Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Tuesday at a forum in Washington, D.C., defended the U.S. response to Syria and Libya. And she suggested the time was not yet ripe to go public with a call for Assad's ouster or resignation.

"I am a big believer in results over rhetoric," Clinton said, when asked whether the administration would call on Assad to relinquish power. She noted that she wants to know that other nations in the region are on board in a uniform response.

"It's not going to be any news if the United States says, 'Assad needs to go.' OK, fine. What's next? If Turkey says it, if King Abdullah says it, if other people say it, there is no way the Assad regime can ignore it."

It's unclear whether the administration is waiting for a particular development in order to outline a firmer public stance on Assad, whose forces have launched an aggressive and deadly campaign since the start of Ramadan that has resulted in dozens of deaths. The four-day death toll in the Syrian city of Latakia reportedly reached 35 on Tuesday.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland suggested Tuesday that the administration wants to see more out of the United Nations. She said that while the U.N. has issued a presidential statement condemning the Assad regime, "we don't have a Security Council resolution because some countries have still not come off the fence."

Though the State Department claims it wants to hear more from other nations, U.S. officials told Fox News last Tuesday that the administration was planning to explicitly call for Assad to go.

President Obama has since set off on a bus tour of rural states to talk about the economy.

Clinton noted the administration is working on other fronts to pressure the regime beyond potentially crafting a new statement. The State Department on Monday suggested that new sanctions could have an impact. Nuland acknowledged that such measures take time to work.

On Monday, Turkey's foreign minister called for an immediate end to the crackdown. And Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain this month recalled their Damascus ambassadors, a step the U.S. has not taken.

Clinton said Tuesday that the response in Syria stands as an example of "smart power." She acknowledged that the "international chorus of condemnation" is growing.

"I talk a lot about smart power, where it's not just brute force, it's not just unilateralism," she said. "It's being smart enough to say, you know what, we want a bunch of people singing out of the same hymn book. And we want them singing a song of universal freedom, human rights, democracy, everything that we have stood for and pioneered over 235 years."

Source:foxnews

A spate of disappointing euro zone news Tuesday, from worse-than-expected growth data to an underwhelming Germany-France summit, nudged Treasurys prices closer to a new round of all-time highs.

Benchmark 10-year notes jumped up, forcing yields, which move inversely to prices, to their lowest level in four days. Yields across the curve followed in almost lock-step. The unprecedented levels are throwing the market into polarization: one camp of investors thinks the dip in yields is too sharp and running out of steam, and another says they'll keep falling because there's simply nothing in the near-future to prop them up.

Meanwhile, one closely-watched weekly Treasurys sentiment survey shows the highest amount of neutral market positions on record.

Speculation had grown in recent days that euro-zone nations need to adopt bolder measures to contain the debt crisis that's moving closer to the shores of the region's biggest economies. One option that gained popularity was a bond guaranteed by the entire euro zone, something that would help cut borrowing costs for fiscally strapped countries.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met Tuesday in Paris, poured cold water on that idea, sending Treasurys yields soaring to session highs. German officials say the euro zone bond idea would foster irresponsible fiscal policies among countries whose fiscal issues ignited the debt crisis in the first place.

"No mention of euro bonds means that the region's debt problem is being addressed in a passive fashion at a time where aggressive action may be required," said Kevin Giddis, president of fixed income capital markets at Morgan Keegan Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee. "This has caused yet another flight to quality situation."

Alan De Rose, head Treasury trader at Oppenheimer and Co. in New York, said the Treasurys rally reflected the thought that "more indecision amongst European political leaders was going to lead to more market turmoil and slower growth."

Indeed, earlier data showed Germany's economy barely grew in the second quarter, with gross domestic product rising only 0.1% from the previous quarter. Spanish growth was also worse-than-expected, along with overall euro zone growth. That data overrode the better-than-expected US industrial production data.

In late-afternoon trade, the benchmark 10-year note was 16/32 higher to yield 2.228%. The 30-year bond was 1 11/32 higher to yield 3.674%. The 10-year yield hit a record low of 2.033% last week and has tumbled from this year's peak of 3.77% set in February.

The bull run is pushing some investors to revise their yield forecasts lower, with Goldman Sachs cutting its 10-year forecast to 2.75% by the end of December from a previous call of 3.5%. Others think the yield fall has been too sharp, that the market has priced in plenty of bad news and that any better-than forecast data will spark a round of profit-taking.

JPMorgan's closely watched weekly client Treasurys survey, meanwhile, shows 85% of participants as having "neutral" sentiment on the future direction of the market. That's the highest level since the survey started in 1991.

"Investors are reluctant to jump into lower yields," said Srini Ramaswamy, head of JPMorgan's liquid-markets strategy, the team that conducts the survey.

US Swap Spreads Mixed

U.S. two-year swap spread, which measures the differential between the two-year swap rate and two-year Treasury yield and is a main gauge of credit risk, was unchanged at 25.5 basis points. The 10-year swap spread was 1.25 basis points tighter to 13 basis points.

COUPON ISSUE PRICE CHANGE YIELD CHANGE
3/8% 2-year 100 11/32 flat 0.187% flat
5/8% 3-Year 100 16/32 up 2/32 0.329% -1.9BP
1 1/2% 5-year 102 24/32 up 7/32 0.932% -4.7BP
2 3/8% 7-Year 104 25/32 up 12/32 1.520% -5.9BP
3 1/8% 10-year 99 2/32 up 16/32 2.228% -5.9BP
4 3/8% 30-year 101 12/32 up 1 11/32 3.674% -7.4BP

2-10-Yr Yield Spread: +204.1 BPS Vs +209.2 BPS

Source: Tradeweb

Texas governor, Tea Party favourite and serial election winner ready to enter Republican field on a ticket of small government


There is much that infuriates Democrats about the stridently rightwing governor of Texas, Rick Perry.

Some are still smarting at the betrayal of the man who chaired Al Gore's 1988 election campaign in Texas and then jumped ship to the Republicans. Others are bitter at his embrace of the Tea Party's anti-government animus and the cuts to his state's education and health services it has wrought.

Many dismiss Perry as a "dumb ass" so driven by ideology that he recently vetoed a bill banning text messaging while driving on the grounds that it amounted to "government micromanagement" of people's lives.

But what really sticks in the Democrats craw is how Texas's longest-serving governor has gone on winning elections even as one of the most divisive leaders in the state's history. What they cannot agree on is whether it is through a masterly grasp of politics or an astonishing run of good luck.

Now Perry, 61, is about to wade in to next year's presidential race as a crusader against a government in Washington he portrays as an anti-American conspiracy – a position that has already won him the heart of the Tea Party movement.

After weeks of increasingly strong hints that he will seek the Republican nomination, including last Saturday's prayer rally at a Houston stadium, Perry is expected to seize on the fear that the US economy is headed back to recession by announcing his intention to run this weekend.

He is likely to move towards the front of a lacklustre field of Republican contenders by contrasting Barack Obama's economic management with his claim as Texas governor to have hit on a winning formula of creating jobs and balancing the state budget. It also helps that he is a handsome, religious, social conservative who is not Sarah Palin.

The prospect of a Perry candidacy delights and rattles Democrats. They say he is too extreme to win the middle ground he needs to beat Obama. He sneers at George W Bush's presidency as too liberal.

But then there is Perry's unnerving record of winning elections that his opponents were certain he would lose.

"He's the luckiest politician that ever walked the face of the Earth," said Chris Bell, a former congressman who ran against Perry for governor five years ago. "Luck has a lot to do with success in politics – good timing, right circumstances, all play in to the likelihood of success and he has been very opportunistic throughout the past couple of decades and it has served him well."

But Ted Delisi, a longtime Republican campaign consultant and adviser to Perry, says the governor has benefited less from good fortune than from opponents who persistently underestimate a formidable politician.

"[The golfer] Ben Hogan's got a great line: the more I practice the luckier I am. Perry has been vastly underestimated in almost every Texas race that he's been engaged in," he said. "The governor benefits from his opponents not believing that he's going to be as good or as disciplined as he's been. But I also think he has a pretty good sense of what the average voter cares about."

Perry fits the image of a Texas politician that the privileged, New England-educated Bush, who was the state's governor before him, worked to cultivate. Perry was born into a house without indoor plumbing in a rural backwater, Paint Creek in west Texas, where his father was a cotton farmer. He likes to tell how his mother made his underwear even after he went to college to study animal science.

While Bush served briefly in the Texas air national guard and avoided being sent to Vietnam, Perry served five years as an air force pilot. He then went into farming with his father until, in 1984, he won a seat in the state legislature as a Democrat.

He quickly made a mark as an energetic legislator and, although he was never on the liberal wing of the party, he backed Gore in the 1988 presidential primaries and chaired his campaign in Texas.

A year later Perry jumped ship as the Democratic party foundered in the south with the mass desertion of white voters to Ronald Reagan's Republicans. Perry began an unceasing journey to the right that caught the eye of Karl Rove, the Republican strategist who later led Bush in to the White House. Rove guided Perry through an unexpected victory over a popular incumbent to become agriculture commissioner and then steered him into the lieutenant governor's post in 1998.

That positioned Perry for another stroke of good fortune when he moved in to the governor's mansion without an election after Bush resigned in 2000 to run for president.

But it was Perry's decade as governor that marked him out from Bush, who was popular for reaching across the political divide to co-operate with Democrats.

"I first met Rick Perry in '89," said Harold Cook, a Democratic party strategist. "He was a conservative Democrat house member, a very affable guy. Wasn't ideological at all. If you'd told me then he would switch parties and become a Republican I wouldn't have been surprised at all. But if you'd told me he'd be the most partisan rightwing governor in Texas history, I'd have said you were crazy.

"For the most part he's unencumbered by conscience. That's a real luxury. If you aren't worried about the right policy all that's left is for your political director to tell you what's unpopular. We who are involved in Texas politics are all just props in Rick Perry's movie. When his priorities are just picked out of a hat based on what Republican primary voters want, we're bit players."

The pillars of Perry's politics are states' rights and small government – an intertwined philosophy embraced by many Americans, Republican and Democrat, disaffected with what they see as too much power, spending and taxation by Washington.

Late last year, Perry published a book dramatically called Fed Up! in which he portrays Americans as increasingly oppressed by measures such as healthcare and environmental legislation, legalised abortion and out of control spending by an elitist federal government.

"Something is terribly wrong. There is a sense among Americans that the world we have always known is in danger of being turned upside down," he wrote. "We sense that our way of life and, perhaps more importantly, our ability to decide how we shall live, is no longer in our control but in the control of an increasingly powerful and oppressive national government."

Perry's campaign to distance himself from Washington has included the public airing of criticism of Bush's years in the White House as a betrayal of the fiscal conservative cause.

The Texas governor's antidote is small government and a return of power to the states. Two years ago, he caused a storm when he suggested to an anti-tax rally that Texas could break from the rest of the US.

The statement was met with mirth and contempt in the halls of Congress and Perry quickly clarified to say he was not advocating breaking up the union, but the point was made with the constituency he was playing to.

Through it all there have been regular predictions of Perry's political demise as opinion polls of Texas voters regularly showed support falling well below that once commanded by Bush as governor.

In 2006 he looked particularly vulnerable but then the governor's race split three ways and Perry slipped in with just 39% of the vote.

Four years later he again confounded predictions of defeat at the hands of one of Texas's Republican senators, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, by portraying her success in directing federal spending to Texas as evidence that she were a Washington insider sucking Americans dry with taxes.

Now Perry is preparing to stride on to the national stage basking in the adulation of the Tea Party movement as head of a state that has weathered the economic downturn better than most through, the Texas governor argues, minimising government. He can boast that nearly 40% of all new jobs created in the US since the recession are in Texas.

"There's an element to which America has to lead the world out of an economic downturn and Texas has to lead our country out of an economic downturn," said Delisi.

That view is popular on the right of the Republican party. But what pushed Perry to the forefront as a potential presidential candidate at a party rally in New Orleans in June was a return to the assault on centralised government.

"Our goal is to displace the entrenched powers in Washington, restore the right balance between state and federal government," he told the rally. "We now live in this strange, inverted version of what our founders intended."

Cook scoffs at attempts by a man who has spent a quarter of a century inside the system to portray himself as an outsider, and his moves to claim credit for an economic environment in Texas that is a continuation of longstanding policies.

"Perry didn't invent the fact that we're a pro-business state. Yes, jobs have come here but a disproportionate percentage are low wage. Yes he's balanced the budget but it's on the back of the sick, the elderly and children, and public education and healthcare and the environment," he said

Perry's assault on education has generated considerable anger, even among some Republicans who view it as a false saving in a state with a large immigrant population.

The Texas legislature has cut the state's budget by $15bn (£9bn) – nearly 10% of spending – including a $4bn slice out of public education. Teachers are being dismissed and health services scaled back. Critics say the cuts are far deeper than what is required by the budget shortfall and that Perry is playing to a national audience.

That may appeal to Tea Party supporters but Bell said that once Perry's record comes under national scrutiny, many voters – not least the elderly and parents of school-age children – will recoil.

"When I was running for governor we would call Rick Perry the president of the 'thank God for Mississippi club' because if it wasn't for Mississippi we would have been last place in every category," he said.

Perry may also prove less palatable to the wider voting public once his other positions come under scrutiny. He proposes shutting the federal departments of education and energy, and advocates swifter and deeper cuts to the budget than those being proposed by even the most radical conservatives in Congress. He would repeal Obama's healthcare and environmental legislation.

He also takes a hard line on the death penalty in a country increasingly uncomfortable with executions. Perry vetoed a ban on capital punishment for those officially classified as "mentally retarded".

It will not help Perry with large parts of the country that he is another Christian evangelical from Texas when memories of George W Bush remain fresh.

But Perry's success or failure may ultimately hang on a matter far beyond his control – the national economy.

"There are sometimes when elections aren't about the status of the economy," said Delisi. "But it would just appear right now that the economy is by far the most pressing issue on voters minds. There are lots of other issues that could come up but this is one I think Governor Perry has a unique and special window to speak on."

With unemployment remaining stubbornly above 9%, the stock market free falling and the downgrading of the US's credit rating shaking confidence in Obama's economic strategy, Perry's luck may be holding up yet again.
Who is Rick Perry?

He was born in 1950 in a small farming community north of Abilene. Perry's father Joseph Ray Perry, a Democrat, was a Haskell County Commissioner, school board member and served as a tail gunner in the second world war.

Perry first entered politics in 1975 as a Democrat representative for a rural west Texas district in the state House of Representatives and chaired Al Gore's campaign in Texas during his 1988 bid for presidency. He joined the Republican Party in 1989, and was first elected to statewide office and served as Texas Commissioner for Agriculture for two terms. Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and two years later, in 2000, became the 47th Governor of Texas following George W Bush's resignation for presidency. Perry graduated from Texas A and M University in 1972 and married his wife Anita Thigpen in 1982 with whom he had two children Griffin and Sydney.
Source:www.guardian.co.uk

Robyn Gardner (Courtesy of Richard Forester) The family and friends of a Frederick woman who is missing in Aruba have begun speaking out about her as two high-profile morning television shows, “Today” and “Good Morning America,” began covering her story Thursday.

Andrew Colson, Robyn Gardner’s brother, told ABC 7 that he believes Gardner is still alive, despite having been missing since August 2. Gardner’s companion on the trip, Gary Giordano, is being held in connection with her disappearance, but he has not been charged with a crime.

“My gut feeling and instinct is that she is out there somewhere to be found,” Colson said.

He described Gardner as a “very loving, caring and kind person.”

Giordano, of Gaithersburg, told authorities that Gardner disappeared during a snorkeling trip.

Richard Forester, Gardner’s boyfriend, said he doubted the story that Gardner disappeared while snorkeling, since exploring the ocean underwater is not the type of activity that would interest her.

“She’s too concerned about her hair, her makeup,” Forester told ”Today.” He also said he thought Gardner would probably have had “a couple of drinks” by the time they were supposed to have gone snorkeling, so she would be disinclined to get get in the water.

Forester, of Bethesda, said he did not know Gardner was traveling with Giordano. He also said that Gardner had posted a message on his Facebook wall during her trip that said, “This sucks,”--but added that he couldn’t be sure what, in particular, Gardner was referring to. Forester said the posting was followed by a Facebook message from Gardner that said: “I love you. I care about you. We’ll sort this out when I get back.”

The Associated Press reported that people who knew Gardner said photos of her tattooed, bikini-clad body, belie her quiet nature. Gardner enjoyed reality TV and traveling, and was a tennis player and a jogger, those close to her said. She had recently been laid off from a job as a scheduler at a dentist’s office, AP reported, and she had previously worked as a model.

Gardner graduated from South Carroll High School in Sykesville, Md. in 1994. Forester said she had taken some college classes but didn’t have a degree, according to the AP.

Christina Jones, a friend and part-time roommate of Gardner, told the Associated Press Gardner is a “trusting person” and a “hardworking, loyal, standup female.”
Source:www.washingtonpost.com

She has lived behind a veil for the past two years, but today Charla Nash, the woman who survived a vicious attack by her friend's chimpanzee, has revealed her new face for the first time.

Ms Nash, who was left permanently blind, and lost her nose, eyes and lips in the attack, received a ground-breaking face transplant in May.

Speaking of her incredible recovery in an interview for the Today show, she said that for the first time since the horrific ordeal she can smell, eat solid food and feel sensation on her face. And remarkably, her new features are beginning to show.

'I’m beginning to feel my jaw and chin. And I can move my mouth and smile. I still feel weak. But little by little I’m getting stronger,' she said off air. Her first meal after the surgery, she said, was eggs and cream cheese.

In May, a team of more than 30 surgeons, nurses and anaesthetists at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, led by Dr Bohdan Pomanhac, painstakingly rebuilt her face. They kept the date secret to protect Ms Nash's privacy.

They took the donor's skin, underlying muscle, nerves and upper palate and transplanted the whole face on to Ms Nash's skull.

They also gave the 57-year-old a double hand transplant during the greulling 20-hour operation. However these later had to be removed after Ms Nash developed severe complications, including kidney failure and pneumonia, which caused low circulation in the new hands.

Her new face, however, was an incredible success and each day as the swelling reduces, the transplant moulds more to her underlying bone structure.

Since Ms Nash was too weak to give an interview to the Today show team, her daughter and brother appeared on the show after the taped hospital visit was aired to express their relief.

Her daughter, Brianna, 17, smiled during a studio interview today as they discussed her mother's incredible progress.

'New hope has been sparked. It's just so nice to see her get at it again. For her to make an expression... it's just nice that her body can respond to what she feels,' Brianna said.

'I think she is impatient for recovery. Her speech is getting much better and she’s been getting up and starting to eat,' she continued.

Today, Ms Nash is in intensive therapy. Doctors are not sure when she will have full function in her face.
But Ms Nash's brother, Steve, said the family is 'optimistic' about the future.
Ms Nash was blinded in the attack in February 2009, when her friend's 200lb chimp, Travis, went berzerk and ripped off her nose, lips, eyelids and hands.

The lead surgeon, Dr Bodan Pomahac, told the Today show before the operation: 'Transplanting a face and hands together is basically an unparalleled quest.

'The complexity, logistically and surgically, I think makes it the most challenging thing we can do these days.'

John Orr, a spokesman for the Nash family, has said the donor's identity has been kept secret, but was a 'fairly consistent match'.

The donor can be as much as 20 years younger or up to ten years older than the recipient and must have the same blood type and similar skin colour and texture.
Dr Pomahac said: 'From what we know, she will not resemble the donor. She will be looking like someone a little different than she was before the accident, but different than the donor.'

Before the operation, Ms Nash said she was looking forward to being able to live at home rather than in a facility.

She said: 'I want be able to eat on my own. I want to be able to hold a cheeseburger or a hot dog in my hand and put it in my own mouth.'

Ms Nash has hidden her face under a veil for the past two years. She bravely revealed her disfigured features in an interview with Oprah Winfrey just a few months after the attack.

At the time she said: 'I wear (the veil) so I don't scare people. Sometimes other people might insult you, so I figure maybe it's easier if I just walk around covered up.'

The chimp was later shot by police. At the time its owner, Sandra Herold, speculated the pet was trying to protect her and didn't recognise Ms Nash because she had changed her hairstyle.

Ms Herold died of an aneurysm last year. Ms Nash's family are suing her estate for $50million and wants to sue the state for $150million, saying officials failed to prevent the attack.

The double transplant was the first of its kind in the U.S., and has only been performed once before in the world, in France.

It was paid for by the Department of Defense, through a contract it gave Brigham and Women's Hospital in 2009 to cover the cost of face transplants for veterans and some civilians, hospital officials said.

Two other face transplants have been performed at the hospital this year.

In March, Dallas Wiens became the first person in America to undergo the surgery, after his features were all but burned away when he hit a power line while painting a church.

Just a month later Mitch Hunter, 30, also underwent the surgery. His face was severely disfigured and burned during a car accident that toppled high-voltage electrical wires.
Watch video here

Source:www.dailymail.co.uk

For the third time in less than a week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down more than 500 points. This time, the Dow dropped a total of 520 points, or 4.63 percent, closing at 10,718, according to Reuters. That makes it the ninth-worst single-day drop in the history of the Dow Jones.

In the last week, the Dow Jones has now experienced drops of 513 points, 520 points and 634 points.

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones experienced a significant gain, rising by 429 points.

Wall Street focused Wednesday on the bleak landscape ahead for the economy and sold off, wiping out the big gains from a day earlier and then some. The selling was intensified by worries about debt problems in Europe. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 519.83 points.

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve said it planned to keep interest rates ultra-low for two more years. After some initial confusion, the stock market staged a huge comeback and had one of its best days.

But the interest-rate news proved to be a distraction. The Fed made the pledge because it sees almost no chance that the economy will improve substantially by 2013, and when investors focused on that, they dumped stocks again.

"Now it gets back to the fundamentals," said Mark Lamkin, founder of Lamkin Wealth Management, which manages $215 million.

The Dow closed at 10,719.94, down 4.6 percent for the day. By points, it was the ninth-steepest decline for the market. The Dow has lost more than 2,000 points in less than three weeks.

Wednesday was another day marked by big moves on the stock market. The Dow was down more than 300 points within minutes of the opening bell. It recovered some of that loss, then drifted steadily lower in the last two hours.

The market has traded that way for two weeks, lurching up and down. The most extreme example was Tuesday, when the Dow swung more than 600 points from a loss of 205 points to a gain of 429 points in the one hour and 45 minutes after the Fed's statement.

The stomach-churning highs and lows are reminiscent of the fall of 2008, the depths of the financial crisis, when swings of 800 or even 1,000 points in day were not unheard of.

The S&P 500 finished the day down 51.77 points, or 4.4 percent, to 1,120.76. The Nasdaq composite index is down 101.47 points, or 4.1 percent, to 2,381.05.

Gold rose above $1,800 per ounce for the first time as more money poured into investments considered safe at a volatile time for the financial markets. Gold closed up, $41.30, to $1,784.30 per ounce. Just 10 days ago, gold was $1621.70 per ounce.

The 10-year Treasury note, which has also served as a haven, also rose sharply. Its yield fell to 2.11 percent from 2.26 percent late Tuesday. It had reached a record low of 2.03 percent on Tuesday. A bond's yield falls when its price rises.

Investors have bought U.S. government debt even after S&P stripped the United States of its top credit rating, AAA, late last week.

On top of concerns about the U.S. economy, Wall Street's attention is still on Europe. Investors there are worried that Italy and Spain may be the next countries unable to repay their debts.

The European financial system has been battered by fears about banks' holdings of bonds issued by heavily indebted countries such as Greece and Portugal. This week, there have been additional concerns about banks' exposure to other banks.

"It's the same game of Old Maid playing out in Europe that was played out here during the subprime mortgage crisis," said Quincy Krosby, an economist and market strategist with Prudential Financial.

In Asia, the concern is that higher inflation in China could lead to slower growth. China, Brazil and other less-developed countries have provided the strongest economic growth since the world began to recover from recession in 2009.
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com