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…

Monday, February 18, 2013 Venezuela’s government has opened a granite processing plant in the state of Bolívar, with the intention of providing about 25% of the granite required nationwide. Ricardo Menéndez, vice president of the Productive Economic Area, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has yearned for the creation of this project to empower Venezuelan construction. Granito Bolívar is reportedly the most modern Venezuelan granite plant, not consuming community water or electricity, and is also the largest, with a daily capacity to supply enough material for use in construction of about 820 houses. Menéndez said, “These granite blocks are the natural resources of our country, are the wealth we have as…

Friday, April 22, 2005 Ireland’s National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) has posted a 2.4% return for the first quarter (9.6% annualized). On March 31, the funds value stood at €12.3bn, a rise of €290m (excluding state contributions) since December 31. Donal Geaney, the fund’s chairman, told the press that growth in the past quarter had been driven by the Fund’s European equity investments. Mr Geaney, former Élan CEO, has pursued a policy of diversification since February of this year, with the stated aim of placing a larger amount of the funds assets in companies with small market capitalizations and in property funds. The fund was set up by the National…

 Correction — August 24, 2015 These briefs incorrectly describe BP as ‘British Petroleum’. In fact, such a company has not existed for many years as BP dropped this name when becoming a multinational company. The initials no longer stand for anything.  Wikinews Audio Briefs Credits Produced By Turtlestack Recorded By Turtlestack Written By Turtlestack Listen To This Brief Problems? See our media guide. [edit]

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 British rapper Derek B has died at the age of 44 after a heart attack, according to reports released today. The hip-hop artist, who was born by the name of Derek Boland, was born in London, England, was believed to have become the first “home-grown” artist in his music genre to appear on British televised music programme Top of the Pops, and was one of the first hip-hop artists in the United Kingdom to have significant chart success in the UK Singles Chart, achieving songs that reached the top 20 of the chart, including the likes of “Good Groove” and “Bad Young Brother” in 1988. He…

Friday, June 8, 2007 On June 7, Mike Svonavec, the owner of the land in Somerset County, Pennsylvania where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on September 11, 2001 has a US$10 million price tag for his property which is sought by the group, Families of Flight 93 and the United States National Park Service, (NPS) for building a memorial dedicated to those on the plane. Svonavec also placed a box on the crash site temporary memorial, where visitors can leave a “donation” to pay for his asking price for the land as well as the cost of providing security at the site. The NPS has covered the donation box with…