THE UNIVERSITY DAILY IANSAN
THURSDAY, MAY 7. 2009
NEWS 5A
NATIONAL
First face transplant recipient speaks out
BY MARILYNN MARCHIONE
Associated Press
CLEVELAND — When Connie Culp heard a little kid call her a monster because of the shotgun blast that left her face horribly disfigured, she pulled out her driver's license to show the child what she used to look like. Years later, as the nation's first face transplant recipient, she's stepped forward to show the
rest of the world what she looks like now.
Her expressions are still a bit wooden, but she can talk, smile, smell and taste her food again. Her speech is at times a little tough to understand.
Her face is bloated and squarish. Her skin droops in big folds that doctors plan to pare away as her circulation improves and her nerves grow, animating her new muscles.
But Culp had nothing but praise for those who made her new face possible.
ference at the Cleveland Clinic, where the groundbreaking operation was performed. But "I think it's more important that you focus on the donor family that made it so I could have this person's face."
Culp's husband, Thomas, shot her in 2004, then turned the gun on himself. He went to prison
"It's more important that you focus on the donor family that made it so I could have this person's face."
"I guess I'm the one you came to see today," the 46-year-old Ohio woman said at a news con-
Until Tuesday, Culp's identity and how she came to be disfigured were a secret.
CONNIE CULP Face transplant recipient
for seven years.
His wife was left clinging to life.
The blast shattered her nose,
cheeks, the roof of her mouth and an eye. Hundreds of fragments of shotgun pellet and bone splinters were embedded it.
her face. She needed a tube into her windpipe to breathe. Only her upper eyelids, forehead, lower lip and chin were left.
A plastic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Risal Dijohan, got a look at her injuries two months later.
"He told me he didn't think, he wasn't sure, if he could fix me, but he'd try," Culp recalled.
MEDIA
The Boston Globe and its largest employee union reached a tentative agreement early Wednesday morning on concessions that will keep the 137-year-old newspaper publishing, the union president said. The breakthrough came at about 4 a.m., said Dan Totten, president of the Newspaper Guild.
Boston Globe to settle with union
BY MARK PRATT
Associated Press
BOSTON — The Boston Globe and its largest employees union reached a tentative agreement early Wednesday morning on concessions that will keep the 137-year-old newspaper publishing, the union president said.
The breakthrough came at about 4 a.m., said Dan Totten, president of the Newpaper Guild. He did not release details pending a meeting with Guild members scheduled for Thursday.
"Out of respect for our members, the Guild and the New York Times Co. have agreed not to release details until Guild leaders have a chance to meet with our members," Totten said.
Globe spokesman Robert Powers said in a statement that details would not be released until Thursday. The Guild represents about 700 editorial, business and advertising staff.
The company had set a deadline of midnight Sunday to reach an agreement with its unions to
make $20 million in cuts or close the Boston Globe. The Times Co. struck agreements with six of seven unions before the deadline, but even though talks with the Guild stalled, management backed off its threat to file a notice required by federal law to begin the process of shutting down the newspaper.
The Guild has offered a 3.5 percent pay cut, plus three unpaid furlough days, for a total salary reduction of just under 5 percent. It said its offer represents more than the $10 million in concessions sought.
The Globe had proposed to slash wages by 23 percent to gain concessions of $10 million and keep the financially-strapped newspaper from closing.
The two sides resumed talks Tuesday evening at a location outside Boston.
The Times Co. also sought to change its lifetime job guarantees, a key sticking point. At least one of the smaller unions agreed to changes in the guarantees for its members, but Totten called ending that job protection a "non-starter" structure.
STATE
Kathleen Sebelius leaves the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka escorted by a security officer Tuesday, April 28. Sebelius won Senate confirmation Tuesday as the nation's health and human services secretary, thrusting her into the middle of a public health emergency with the swine flu sickening dozens of Americans.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Swine flu confirmed in K.C. area
BY JOHN MILBURN
Associated Press
TOPEKA—State health officials confirmed two new cases of swine flu Wednesday, both in the Kansas City area, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Kansas to seven.
The sample was sent Friday,
Health department spokeswoman
Kansas Department of Health and Environment officials also have identified a probable case of swine flu in Johnson County, in the Kansas City area. They are awaiting test results from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
Maggie Thompson said her agency may be able to test a sample using new test kits sent by the federal labs, which would expedite the confirmation process if necessary.
The new Kansas cases involve a child and adult in Wyandotte County. The health department did not provide additional details about the residents or how the contracted the virus. The agency said investigations and interviews are being conducted.
The new cases bring the number of confirmed cases in the Kansas City area to 10 — four in Kansas and six in Missouri. An additional six probable cases of swine flu in
Missouri are in the Kansas City area.
Meanwhile, Gov. Mark Parkinson and some legislators were trying to reinforce the idea that pork is safe to eat. They planned to join members of the Kansas Pork Association on Wednesday at a pork lunch in Topeka.
Health officials have stated that the swine flu cannot be transmitted by eating or handling pork products and poses no threat to the nation's food supply.
The strain of influenza is a mix of pig, human and bird viruses. The pork industry has argued against referring to the disease as "swine" flu, and the U.S. government and
the World Health Organization have complied, instead calling it "H1N1."
At Wichita State University, concerns about the flu have led officials to alter graduation ceremonies. The Wichita Eagle reported Wednesday that new graduates won't be receiving handshakes from the school's president or deans at commencement ceremonies May 15 and 16.
Students will receive diplomas and have their pictures taken as they cross the stage, Provost Gary Miller said, but the most they can expect from administrators will be a smile and possibly a pat on the back.
Jailed American journalist ends hunger strike
Associated Press
BY ALI AKBAR DAREINI
TEHRAN, Iran — An American journalist jailed in Iran on charges of spying for the U.S. has ended her two-week hunger strike for health reasons, her father said Wednesday.
Roxana Saberi, a 32-year-old dual Iranian-American national was convicted last month of espionage and sentenced to eight years in prison after a one-day trial behind closed doors. The U.S. government has called the charges against her "baseless" and demanded she be freed.
Iran has promised a complete review of the case on appeal and insisted Saberi will be allowed to provide a full defense at that point, possibly an indication it wants to ease the tensions with
"Roxana called last night to inform me that she has ended her hunger strike," her father Reza Saberi told The Associated Press. "I'm relieved that she has done so to avoid a deterioration of her health."
Saberi's case has been an irritant in U.S.-Iran relations at a time when the Obama administration has said it wants to engage its longtime adversary in a dialogue. The case has also drawn the concern of press freedom groups.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
But Iranian officials denied several times during the past two weeks that Saberi was even on a hunger strike.
Akiko Saberi, the Japanese mother of imprisoned Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, talks as she prepares her 64th birthday cake at her home in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday, April 25. The American journalist convicted of spying in Iran had gone on a hunger strike to protest her imprisonment, said her father, right, back to camera.
Media freedom group Reporters Without Borders said she was briefly hospitalized on Friday in Evin prison, where she has been held since her arrest in January, after she intensified her hunger strike by refusing to drink water.
"My wife and I met her in Evin prison Monday morning and gave her some yogurt. We asked her to stop the hunger strike," he said.
Saberi's Iranian-born father said Roxana began a hunger strike April 21 to protest her imprisonment, vowing to keep it up until she was freed.
Saberi was born in New Jersey and raised in Fargo, North Dakota. She moved to Iran six years ago and worked as a freelance journalist for news organizations including National Public Radio and
the U.S. On Tuesday, the judiciary said the appeal will be heard next week and judiciary officials have suggested her jail term could be reduced.
"The press freedom organization continues to call for the appeal against her conviction to be given a fair hearing and not any sham proceedings," the statement read.
She was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But earlier this month, an Iranian judge leveled the far more serious allege-
Reporters Without Borders said it was relieved to learn Saberi had ended her hunger strike.
the British Broadcasting Corp. She received Iranian citizenship because her father was born in Iran.
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