FACE-TRANSPLANT PATIENT GIVES UPDATE TO NEWSPAPER

Face-transplant patientgives update to newspaper
PARIS -- The French woman who received the world's first partial face transplant has complete feeling in the new tissue five months after the operation, she told a Sunday newspaper. Isabelle Dinoire, 38, also told the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that the hardest part of her recovery appears to be getting to know herself again. When asked if she has accepted her new face, she responded: "It's too difficult to explain." She takes out old photos and, shocked at the difference between her former face and her new one, tells herself that she simply has aged, she said. Dinoire said her speech has improved as she has gained more facial mobility.
Puerto Rican lawmakersdeadlock over shortfall
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Puerto Rican lawmakers, facing the possibility of a partial government shutdown, remained deadlocked Sunday on plans to close a $740 million budget shortfall. The U.S. commonwealth's government runs out of cash today to pay some 100,000 public employees. Barring a last-ditch compromise, 45 of nearly 120 government agencies would close and 1,600 schools would end their terms two weeks early.
Serbian deadline passes
BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro -- A European Union deadline for Serbia to surrender war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic expired Sunday with no sign of the former army commander, threatening the nation's efforts to join the bloc. Still, Serbian officials vowed to keep hunting the Bosnian Serb commander indicted by the U.N. court for genocide in the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica, Europe's worst massacre since World War II. If it does not surrender Mladic, Serbia faces the prospect of a suspension of its pre-membership talks with the 25-nation EU.
Bolten's agenda for Bush
WASHINGTON -- It's time for the White House to go on offense and "get our mojo back," Josh Bolten said Sunday in his first interview since taking over as the president's chief of staff. Bolten made no promises of pulling up President Bush's all-time low approval ratings, but he said he and Bush have decided they want to be more open with the press and the public. "We've taken advice from a lot of folks that we ought to put the president out more in ways that the American people can see what he's really like," Bolten said on "Fox News Sunday."
New tack in obesity fight
CHICAGO -- The American Academy of Pediatrics wants to turn children's doctors into activity police, encouraging them to routinely monitor how active patients and even their parents are each day to help conquer obesity. Boosting daily physical activity from infancy through the teen years is a key to fighting fat, and parents need to set good examples by also adopting active lifestyles, the group says in a new policy statement. The policy says pediatricians should ask patients and parents at regular office visits how active they are. They also should document how much time patients spend each day on sedentary activities and urge them to follow AAP guidelines recommending no TV for children under age 2 and no more than two hours daily of TV, video games and other "screen time" for older children.
County begins oil boycott
BEEVILLE, Texas -- High gas prices are unquestionably painful in this small South Texas town that is at least an hour's drive from malls and specialized medical care, but some residents are doubting the wisdom of the county board's call for a boycott of Exxon Mobil Corp. Opponents of the boycott that starts today note that oil and gas taxes fund much of Bee County's budget, and they say a boycott could end up harming mom-and-pop gas stations whose main profits are not from oil. The boycott against the world's largest oil company will continue until gas is down to $1.30 a gallon, said County Judge Jimmy Martinez, the county's highest elected official. A gallon of regular unleaded cost $2.92 on average around the nation and $2.80 in the Corpus Christi region Sunday, according to AAA.
Associated Press