UK Chancellor of the Exchequer makes 2005 Budget speech

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

The United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Right Honourable Gordon Brown PC MP, in a speech to the British House of Commons today presented his ninth Budget, what is very likely to be his last Budget before the next UK General Election. This opened the parliamentary debate on the 2005 Finance Bill, and was followed by responses from the opposition parties.

In a 48 minute long speech, the Chancellor presented a Budget of “tax cuts that are reasonable, spending that is affordable, and [economic] stability that is paramount”, that was “the prudent course for Britain”. There were few surprises that had not already been indicated in his 2004 pre-Budget report. The increase in the threshold on stamp duty was greater than that forecast by commentators, as was the amount of the Council Tax rebate to households with pensioners.

Contents

  • 1 The Budget in detail
    • 1.1 Duty
    • 1.2 Taxes
    • 1.3 Benefits
    • 1.4 Business
    • 1.5 Employment
    • 1.6 Savings
    • 1.7 Spending
    • 1.8 Memorials
  • 2 Responses from opposition parties
    • 2.1 Conservative
    • 2.2 Liberal Democrat
  • 3 Sources

Thousands evacuated after chemical truck overturns in Pennsylvania

Saturday, March 21, 2009

A tractor-trailer carrying 32,000 pounds of hydrofluoric acid overturned on a northeastern Pennsylvania highway early Saturday morning, prompting the evacuation of about 5,000 people. The truck, registered to the Honeywell company, flipped over at about 2:40 a.m. after the driver swerved to avoid a deer.

The pressurized acid began to leak after the vehicle flipped over onto its side on Route 33 in Plainfield Township, but Northampton County authorities said Saturday the nobody was injured and the leak was contained by noon.

Residents were evacuated as Hazmat officials were brought in to clean up the site. Inhalation of hydrofluoric acid can be fatal, and low doses can irritate the eyes, nose and respiratory tract.

But Northampton County Administration Director John Conklin said the leak was slow-moving, and not enough of the chemical leaked to create a toxic cloud.

“This will be over real quick,” Conklin told CNN International.

Hundreds of evacuees were taken to the Pen Argyl Area High School in nearby Pen Argyl, but Conklin anticipated they would be able to return to their homes by the end of the day.

Hydrogen fluoride is a hazardous and highly corrosive chemical compound used mostly for industrial purposes. It is also an ingredient in high-octane gasoline, refrigerants and light bulbs.

The driver of the truck, Raymond Leblanc, 54, of Harrow, Ontario, was treated at Pocono Medical Center in East Stroudsburg for minor injuries and released Saturday. A passenger, Joseph Dault, 51, of Ontario, was not hurt.

Oil in Alberta spill may be carcinogenic

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

The province of Alberta, Canada is considering legal action against Canadian National Railway for failing to warn that a derailment last week contaminated Wabamun Lake with a hazardous chemical.

The 700,000 litres of heavy Bunker C fuel oil that spilled into the lake asphyxiated birds and killed fish.

In addition, one of the ruptured tanker cars sent 70,000 liters of Imperial Pole Treating Oil into the lake. This oil is a yellow mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and aliphatic hydrocarbons. Naphthalene, a component of this “very toxic material” is suspected of causing skin cancer if touched and lung or other cancers if inhaled.[1] Inhalation is promoted by actions that cause splashing or foaming. The mineral oil is used in connection with pentachlorophenol for preserving wooden utility poles.

Wabamun Lake is a popular summertime recreational area about 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Edmonton, Alberta.

The 766-megawatt Keephills power generating plant, one of 3 in Wabamun, was shut down because the coal-fired plant uses water from the lake. Edmonton’s health authority ordered people not to swim, boat or rescue animals in the lake and to stop using its water or any water from nearby wells for cooking, drinking, showering or brushing teeth. These warnings came 3 days after many residents, including children, had been wading into the oil slick without protective clothing to save wildlife injured by the spill and others had been routinely depending on the lakewater for home use. Why the alert was not issued sooner remains under investigation and may result in criminal charges. Canadian National Railway had been informed of the nature of the oil when it was loaded by Imperial Oil Ltd., Canada’s largest petroleum company. Imperial Oil is posting informational updates on a special website [2]. In addition The Wabamun Residents Committee has established an information website [3].

Real Estate

Refinance Auto Loan The Pros And The Cons

Refinance Auto Loan- The Pros And The Cons by Criss HadenIf you have got a loan on a higher rate and some offer comes to you which may cost you lesser as compared to previous one, your obvious reaction would be to acquire that loan immediately. But it should be possible for you to get the loan exchanged from the previous one to the new low rate loan. This can be done only through the refinance auto loan . This is a kind of new loan which is having a lower rate of interest as compared to the previous one. So, the borrower can make use of the lower rates. The other benefits of a refinance auto loan may be summarized as follows:The borrowers can improve their credit score by applying for these loans. The rate is lower. So, less payment is to be made to the lender in future and you can save yourself from being declared as bad credit holder.If you are unsatisfied from the lending institution, you can have a chance to shift to the new and comfortable lender very easily.You can save even hundreds of dollars with these loans.These loans can be paid back in the most convenient option.Your previous loan is repaid back by the new lender himself. You need not visit the place of the lender even.However, there are some cons of these loans also. These are:You may have to pay the processing fees again for these loans.The old lenders may charge some penalty upon you as the payments have been made earlier. This depends upon the terms of loan. Thus, these points should be kept in mind while taking these loans. If the cost of acquiring these loans is less, only then you should apply for these. Otherwise, you may even be ruined. You can have the best deal for these loans on the internet.Criss Haden is a senior finance market analyst and gives his useful advice by his articles. To know more about Fast Car Credit, Bad Credit Auto Financing, Refinance auto loan, Used Auto Loan, Bad credit auto loan , Easy Auto Loan, Auto Loan. You can visit nationsautoapproval.com Article Source: eArticlesOnline.com

Permaculture Magazine

The Beauty Of Garden Pebbles

By Mike Lang

Every garden has something to boast of as its main attraction. It may be a statue that’s surrounded by all the beautiful plants and flowers which also have a luscious and green lawn or a glamorously designed swing or wooden bench on a beautiful landscaped lawn. However, these main attractions can’t be completely highlighted without the complementary stuffs.

This is where flowers and many other things that are useful in gardening come in. Garden pebbles add up to the beauty of the garden as they are relaxing to the eyes and they add a beautiful effect on your garden. You can add them to your landscape design or you can simply mix them on your garden path to make a unique path to walk upon.

A pebble is a small piece of rock that comes in different color, shape, and texture. It has a particular size of about 4 to 64 millimeters and has an important role in enhancing the beauty of gardens. Pebbles are used on gardens because of their popularity in contributing a huge factor on the outcome of the decoration of the garden.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewr2SL8pirA[/youtube]

Decorative pebbles are widely available on any garden store and any store that sells decorative aggregates, rock stones and other related products. You can choose from all of the sizes and appearances of these pebbles. There may be many different designs and look of these pebbles as they are not manufactured. When choosing for the right pebbles, pick the size and design that will fit on the theme of your garden to better complement it.

Although pebbles are nothing if you look at one, but if you put them together you can have something wonderful to look at. You can mix pebble with rocks as they are different in size. This will add more attractions to your garden. Pebbles can also be used to emphasize something on your garden. You can also opt to use different designs of pebbles on a mixture and end up having a wonderful decoration to your place.

If you want a Japanese garden, you can create small infrastructures using these pebbles like a Japanese temple to add more spice to your garden. When building your own establishments with decorative pebbles, make sure you get those that are flat so that they will not fall off from the other. Choose the color you want for your building as the choice of color will make or break the beauty of it.

No matter what kind of pebble you use will depend on the theme of your garden. However, a carefully planned design on what pebble is perfect for the type of garden desired is more amazing than a design planned in a short period of time.

So if you’re planning to decorate your garden with pebbles, these simple information regarding the use and importance of pebbles in a garden will surely be a help to you. Go to your local pebble store and discuss what type of pebble will suit best on your garden. Have fun on decorating with garden pebbles.

About the Author: This writer for Pool Prodigy focuses on

salt chlorinator

treatment and more specifically in

salt water chlorinator

care.

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=790282&ca=Gardening

Medical Center

The Best Plastic Surgery From Board Certified Plastic Surgeon

The Best Plastic Surgery From Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon by samualDr. William H. Gorman is a Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon who has practiced medicine in Austin for more than twenty years.After graduating with two degrees from the University of Texas at Austin, he attended Texas Tech University School of Medicine, and graduated with an M.D. degree in 1975. Dr. Gorman did his internship and his general surgery residency at the University of Texas Medical Center in San Antonio, and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.He later completed his residency in Plastic and Reconstructive surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas. He returned to Austin with his family in 1983 and has since been practicing his specialty of Plastic Surgery.If you cant flatten your stomach with a healthy diet and regular abdominal workouts, you might be in the market for an abdominoplasty. While such lifestyle changes can improve your health, they are often no match for excess fat and loose, sagging skin that some people hold onto after losing a lot of weight or having children. A tummy tuck will firm and smooth the abdomen by removing that excess fat and skin, and may also tighten the muscles of the abdominal wall. If you want a leaner and more defined midsection than you have been able to achieve with diet or exercise, speak to Dr. Gorman about a tummy tuck. He is skilled in tummy tuck procedures from the most basic to more extended, circumferential abdominoplasty surgeries. Though fat is often something people want to lose in various places, fat injections or Lipostructure are often used to smooth out and contour various asymmetries and irregularities on the face and other areas of the body. Depending on the part of the body affected, this procedure is often done in an outpatient setting with only local anesthesia. If you are a good candidate for this surgery, it can give a more youthful look to your facial features without the need for more invasive surgical procedures.One of the oldest and most popular facial plastic surgeries, Rhinoplasty can change the size, shape, and general appearance of your nose, which in turn, can give your entire face an attractive new look. The goal is a natural looking nose that fits with the face behind it. It can be done after a damaging injury, in conjunction with a facelift to correct changes caused by aging, or by itself on those older than fifteen, simply to change a displeasing feature. Often certain breathing problems caused by internal nasal structure can also be corrected during the aesthetic surgery. If the look of your face no longer reflects how you feel about yourself, a facelift, or rhytidectomy, can make you look younger by smoothing the loose skin on your face and neck, tightening underlying tissues, and removing excess fat. It can eradicate deep wrinkles in cheeks or a deep line running from your nose to the corners of your mouth. It can remove loose skin and wrinkles in your neck, and even the jowly look that comes with the loss of a well-defined jaw line. Performed on both men and women, a facelift can be combined with other procedures, like a forehead lift, eyelid surgery, nose reshaping, or skin rejuvenating treatments like chemical peels or dermabrasion.If you are happy with the size of your breasts but not with their firmness or the effects gravity has had on them, you could be a good candidate for a mastopexy. This procedure removes excess breast skin to raise, reshape and firm your breasts. You can also combine this procedure with breast implants to increase size while you reshape.If you cant flatten your stomach with a healthy diet and regular abdominal workouts, you might be in the market for an abdominoplasty. While such lifestyle changes can improve your health, they are often no match for excess fat and loose, sagging skin that some people hold onto after losing a lot of weight or having children. A tummy tuck will firm and smooth the abdomen by removing that excess fat and skin, and may also tighten the muscles of the abdominal wall. If you want a leaner and more defined midsection than you have been able to achieve with diet or exercise, speak to Dr. Gorman about a tummy tuck. He is skilled in tummy tuck procedures from the most basic to more extended, circumferential abdominoplasty surgeries.It may not be only your abs that wont respond to diet and exercise. There are many stubborn areas of the body, face, and neck that will respond better to lipoplasty. When you remove deposits of excess fat from these areas, a smoother, better proportioned body is the result. While not a treatment for obesity, liposuction can improve the look of hips, thighs, and buttocks (thighplasty), shape calves and ankles, trim the upper arm and chest area (brachioplasty), as well as tighten the abdomen and waist. Sometimes large breasts can be the cause of physical discomfort like neck, shoulder and back pain, or skin rashes underneath the breast. A reduction mammaplasty is designed to reduce those discomforts and enhance the overall appearance of your breasts by removing excess breast tissue and skin, making your breasts smaller and firmer. A similar surgery can be performed on men with enlarged breast tissue (a condition called Gynecomastia). These breast reduction surgeries have some of the highest rates of patient satisfaction of any plastic surgery procedures. Visit Us:=========http://www.whgormanmd.comwhgormanmd.com3003 Bee Cave Road, Suite 203,Austin, TX 78746,usa(In the Austin Surgical Hospital)email: william.gorman@austinpsi.comPhone: (512) 454-6733William H. GormanArticle Source: eArticlesOnline.com

Wikipedia founder embroiled in affair and financial allegations

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

This article mentions the Wikimedia Foundation, one of its projects, or people related to it. Wikinews is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.

The implosion of a relationship between Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and journalist Rachel Marsden has resulted in controversy and international headlines. Associated Press and ABC News have also reported on questionable activity by Wales involving Wikimedia Foundation expenses. The Wikimedia Foundation is a donor-supported non-profit organization which runs Wikipedia.

Marsden had contacted Wales two years ago about concerns she had over the article about her on Wikipedia, and Wales determined the article was not compliant with Wikipedia’s standards. The tech blog Valleywag revealed Wales had a personal relationship with Marsden, and posted supposed transcripts of their instant message conversations on its site, www.valleywag.com. Wales and Marsden met in February, and The Times reported that “An apparent transcript of their conversations before that meeting suggests that, although Mr Wales had withdrawn from the editing process, he was still influencing the editors.” The Times quoted Wales from the chat logs as having stated to Marsden “The truth is of course a much worse conflict of interest than that; but that will do.” — in reference to his conflict of interest regarding Marsden’s article on Wikipedia.

Wales posted a public statement on Saturday on Wikipedia addressing the matter, and stated that his relationship with Marsden was over: “First, while I find it hard to imagine that anyone really cares about my sex life, the facts are: I am separated from my wife. I considered myself single at the time of my one meeting with Rachel Marsden on Feb. 9, 2008 … I am no longer involved with Rachel Marsden. Gossipy stories suggesting that I have been in a relationship with her ‘since last fall’ are completely false … I care deeply about the integrity of Wikipedia, and take very seriously my responsibilities as a member of the board and as a member of the Wikipedia community. I would never knowingly do anything to compromise that trust.” With regard to the conflict of interest in Marsden’s article, Wales had acknowledged to a team of Wikipedia editors in February 2008 that he and Marsden “became friends … and that we would be meeting about that,” and stated “I recused myself from any further official action with respect to her biography.”

On Sunday, The Canadian Press reported that Marsden had posted photos of herself on Ebay, and was selling items that Wales had left at her New York City apartment. In her Ebay posting, Marsden stated: “Hi, my name is Rachel and my (now ex-) boyfriend, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, just broke up with me via an announcement on Wikipedia … It was such a classy move that I was inspired to do something equally classy myself, so I’m selling a couple of items of clothing he left behind, here in my NYC apartment, on eBay. Jimbo was supposed to come visit me in a couple of weeks and pick up some of his stuff, but obviously that won’t be happening now.” Marsden told The Canadian Press “It didn’t really help matters that Jimmy chose to announce the breakup to the entire world via Wikipedia (which apparently now is an online encyclopedia that doubles as a personal soapbox?) rather than to me directly (which he did much later, in an instant message discussion).”

I care deeply about the integrity of Wikipedia, and take very seriously my responsibilities as a member of the board and as a member of the Wikipedia community. I would never knowingly do anything to compromise that trust.

Marsden placed a t-shirt and sweater which she said were left at her apartment by Wales up on Ebay, and started the bidding for each at ninety-nine cents, with the auctions set to end on March 12. By Monday, bidding on the t-shirt had reached US$300, and by Tuesday the highest bid had reached $12,200. In an email to The Globe and Mail, Marsden stated “My only focus right now, to be really honest, is on my career and finding a way to get back into print, TV, or radio here in NYC,” she wrote. “All of this other personal stuff is just an unfortunate distraction.”

Jay Walsh, the Wikimedia Foundation’s head of communications, told the San Jose Mercury News that Wales’ actions in relaying Marsden’s concerns about her Wikipedia article to a team of trusted editors was within his “routine” role. When asked by the San Jose Mercury News if Wales’ actions regarding the Marsden article could compromise his role with the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia, Walsh responded “No, absolutely not.”

On Tuesday, ABC News carried a story by Wired News reporter Megan McCarthy regarding allegations of “excessive spending” by Wales, and Associated Press also reported on questions involving Wikimedia Foundation expenses. McCarthy reported that former Wikimedia executive Danny Wool, who had left the foundation last year, criticized Wales’ use of Wikimedia Foundation expenses in a blog post. Wool stated that Wales had tried to expense $300 bottles of wine, a $1,300 dinner for four at a Florida steakhouse, and visits to Moscow massage parlors to the foundation, and that the foundation rescinded Wales’ corporate credit card in 2006. Wool also stated that Wales paid the foundation $7,000, after being short $30,000 on receipts for expenses.

Wool told EPICENTER that “There were occasions where he used [the Wikimedia Foundation] for personal advancement under the guide [sic] of the mission. And, as someone who was in there for the mission part of it, I found that rather distressful.” Wool commented in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle: “Originally, it was carelessness … But as things developed, it became more apparent and obvious that he was taking advantage of the foundation credit card. It was almost like his personal piggy bank.”

Jimmy has never used Wikimedia money to subsidize his personal expenditures. Indeed, he has consistently put the foundation’s interests ahead of his own.

In an instant message exchange with Associated Press, Wales denied that the Wikimedia Foundation had taken away his corporate credit card, and asserted that he had made the decision to stop expensing business travel for the foundation. Wales highlighted a statement by the foundation’s executive director Sue Gardner: “Jimmy has never used Wikimedia money to subsidize his personal expenditures. Indeed, he has consistently put the foundation’s interests ahead of his own.” In an email to Associated Press, Brad Patrick, a former attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, stated “Danny seems interested in blogging his way straight to a lawsuit”.

Florence Devouard, who chairs the Wikimedia Foundation, told Associated Press that Wales had been “slow in submitting receipts,” and that the foundation had rejected Wales’ expense at the Florida steakhouse. Devouard told fellow foundation board members in a private email that she had convinced Associated Press that “the money story was a no story,” and told Wales “I find (it) tiring to see how you are constantly trying to rewrite the past. Get a grip!” Wales told Associated Press: “The board, the current executive director, the previous executive director, and independent auditors have reviewed our books and publicly agree that all of my expenses were appropriate and fully accounted for.”

Media reports speculated on how the controversy would end up being represented in Wikipedia itself. On Wednesday, the St. Petersburg Times wrote: “Wales’ Wikipedia page said only this about Marsden: ‘Wales had a brief relationship with Canadian journalist Rachel Marsden.'” An article in The Australian surmised: “History will decide whether Mr Wales broke his own principles, but before that happens there may well be a Wikipedia page devoted to the controversy.”

General Motors automobile sales plunge by 45%

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

General Motors Corporation (GM) announced on Wednesday that it saw a 45% drop in United States vehicle sales for its cars in March.

Executives from several auto firms, however, said that there was some hope for the auto industry to stabilise, as car sales rebounded in the last week of March.

“The market is starting to show small signs of life which need to be nourished like seedlings,” said the vice president and chairman of Chrysler LLC Jim Press. “It’s too early to see a trend, but spring shows signs of hope.”

Other automobile manufacturers also saw their car sales slip: Chrysler and the Japanese Toyota both reported a 39% loss, whilst Ford Motor Company sales fell 41%.

Annualised sales of vehicles in the car industry in the US are predicted to have dipped below nine million in March, compared to February’s 9.12 million, which was the lowest number since 1981.

“Auto makers are pulling every lever in their effort to attract buyers, as evidenced by the new programs from Ford and GM. The typical incentive programs simply do not resonate in today’s economy,” Jesse Toprak, an analyst for Edmunds.

Ford shares gained 2.3% to a level of US$2.69 in early trading at US stock markets on Wednesday, while stocks for Toyota’s US depository increased 5.9% to $67. GM shares slipped 1.6% down to $1.92.

New search engine to search inside Wikipedia

This article mentions the Wikimedia Foundation, one of its projects, or people related to it. Wikinews is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

A new search engine that was announced yesterday finds articles and links within the English Wikipedia. Wikiseek, run by a California based startup company called “searchme”, is a website which aims to be “A better way to search Wikipedia.”

Although most keywords work without problems, Digg users have found search terms that the site does not recognize. If you enter “Chicago” for example, it shows no Wikipedia articles at all, and clicking “Chicago, Illinois” leads to an article on West Chicago, Illinois and other related articles to the subject. Similarly, entering “Christmas“, “United States” or “PlayStation 3” only provides links to related articles on Wikipedia, although they are in the top 10 of most viewed articles in the English Wikipedia. Searching “porn” comes up with commercial websites linked from Wikipedia, but not the relevant articles in the free encyclopedia. For most articles however, the relevant Wikipedia article is the first result or among the results.

The site says that “The contents of Wikiseek are restricted to Wikipedia pages and only those sites which are referenced within Wikipedia, making it an authoritative source of information less subject to spam and SEO schemes.” The site also offers a Toolbar plugin and a Firefox extension to add a Wikiseek search button inside of Wikipedia pages.

Danny Sullivan at the Search Engine Land blog found Wikiseek’s results inferior compared to the results from established search engines. SearchMe CEO Randy Adams stressed that Wikiseek is still in a beta phase. He pointed out that they welcome feedback more than the average search engine, which can be posted on their company wiki.

Searchme put a button on their main page, encouraging beta testers to instantly promote the site on Digg. In August 2006, Digg had half a million registered users.

Some media outlets have reported that Wikiseek was created by either the Wikimedia Foundation which runs Wikipedia, or private corporation Wikia, which hosts a collection of wiki communities. Both rumors are untrue, says Angela Beesley, co-founder of Wikia and chair of the Advisory Board of the Wikimedia Foundation. “Wikiseek is an independent project with no affiliation with either Wikia or the Wikimedia Foundation.”

The Wikiseek site says they contribute the majority of its revenue from advertisement to the Wikimedia Foundation’s fundraising effort.

Cleveland, Ohio clinic performs US’s first face transplant

Thursday, December 18, 2008

A team of eight transplant surgeons in Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA, led by reconstructive surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow, age 58, have successfully performed the first almost total face transplant in the US, and the fourth globally, on a woman so horribly disfigured due to trauma, that cost her an eye. Two weeks ago Dr. Siemionow, in a 23-hour marathon surgery, replaced 80 percent of her face, by transplanting or grafting bone, nerve, blood vessels, muscles and skin harvested from a female donor’s cadaver.

The Clinic surgeons, in Wednesday’s news conference, described the details of the transplant but upon request, the team did not publish her name, age and cause of injury nor the donor’s identity. The patient’s family desired the reason for her transplant to remain confidential. The Los Angeles Times reported that the patient “had no upper jaw, nose, cheeks or lower eyelids and was unable to eat, talk, smile, smell or breathe on her own.” The clinic’s dermatology and plastic surgery chair, Francis Papay, described the nine hours phase of the procedure: “We transferred the skin, all the facial muscles in the upper face and mid-face, the upper lip, all of the nose, most of the sinuses around the nose, the upper jaw including the teeth, the facial nerve.” Thereafter, another team spent three hours sewing the woman’s blood vessels to that of the donor’s face to restore blood circulation, making the graft a success.

The New York Times reported that “three partial face transplants have been performed since 2005, two in France and one in China, all using facial tissue from a dead donor with permission from their families.” “Only the forehead, upper eyelids, lower lip, lower teeth and jaw are hers, the rest of her face comes from a cadaver; she could not eat on her own or breathe without a hole in her windpipe. About 77 square inches of tissue were transplanted from the donor,” it further described the details of the medical marvel. The patient, however, must take lifetime immunosuppressive drugs, also called antirejection drugs, which do not guarantee success. The transplant team said that in case of failure, it would replace the part with a skin graft taken from her own body.

Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, a Brigham and Women’s Hospital surgeon praised the recent medical development. “There are patients who can benefit tremendously from this. It’s great that it happened,” he said.

Leading bioethicist Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania withheld judgment on the Cleveland transplant amid grave concerns on the post-operation results. “The biggest ethical problem is dealing with failure — if your face rejects. It would be a living hell. If your face is falling off and you can’t eat and you can’t breathe and you’re suffering in a terrible manner that can’t be reversed, you need to put on the table assistance in dying. There are patients who can benefit tremendously from this. It’s great that it happened,” he said.

Dr Alex Clarke, of the Royal Free Hospital had praised the Clinic for its contribution to medicine. “It is a real step forward for people who have severe disfigurement and this operation has been done by a team who have really prepared and worked towards this for a number of years. These transplants have proven that the technical difficulties can be overcome and psychologically the patients are doing well. They have all have reacted positively and have begun to do things they were not able to before. All the things people thought were barriers to this kind of operations have been overcome,” she said.

The first partial face transplant surgery on a living human was performed on Isabelle Dinoire on November 27 2005, when she was 38, by Professor Bernard Devauchelle, assisted by Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard in Amiens, France. Her Labrador dog mauled her in May 2005. A triangle of face tissue including the nose and mouth was taken from a brain-dead female donor and grafted onto the patient. Scientists elsewhere have performed scalp and ear transplants. However, the claim is the first for a mouth and nose transplant. Experts say the mouth and nose are the most difficult parts of the face to transplant.

In 2004, the same Cleveland Clinic, became the first institution to approve this surgery and test it on cadavers. In October 2006, surgeon Peter Butler at London‘s Royal Free Hospital in the UK was given permission by the NHS ethics board to carry out a full face transplant. His team will select four adult patients (children cannot be selected due to concerns over consent), with operations being carried out at six month intervals. In March 2008, the treatment of 30-year-old neurofibromatosis victim Pascal Coler of France ended after having received what his doctors call the worlds first successful full face transplant.

Ethical concerns, psychological impact, problems relating to immunosuppression and consequences of technical failure have prevented teams from performing face transplant operations in the past, even though it has been technically possible to carry out such procedures for years.

Mr Iain Hutchison, of Barts and the London Hospital, warned of several problems with face transplants, such as blood vessels in the donated tissue clotting and immunosuppressants failing or increasing the patient’s risk of cancer. He also pointed out ethical issues with the fact that the procedure requires a “beating heart donor”. The transplant is carried out while the donor is brain dead, but still alive by use of a ventilator.

According to Stephen Wigmore, chair of British Transplantation Society’s ethics committee, it is unknown to what extent facial expressions will function in the long term. He said that it is not certain whether a patient could be left worse off in the case of a face transplant failing.

Mr Michael Earley, a member of the Royal College of Surgeon‘s facial transplantation working party, commented that if successful, the transplant would be “a major breakthrough in facial reconstruction” and “a major step forward for the facially disfigured.”

In Wednesday’s conference, Siemionow said “we know that there are so many patients there in their homes where they are hiding from society because they are afraid to walk to the grocery stores, they are afraid to go the the street.” “Our patient was called names and was humiliated. We very much hope that for this very special group of patients there is a hope that someday they will be able to go comfortably from their houses and enjoy the things we take for granted,” she added.

In response to the medical breakthrough, a British medical group led by Royal Free Hospital’s lead surgeon Dr Peter Butler, said they will finish the world’s first full face transplant within a year. “We hope to make an announcement about a full-face operation in the next 12 months. This latest operation shows how facial transplantation can help a particular group of the most severely facially injured people. These are people who would otherwise live a terrible twilight life, shut away from public gaze,” he said.