The woman who received the first-ever near-total face transplant in the United States told her doctor she has regained her self-confidence, said Dr. Maria Siemionow, head of plastic surgery research at the Cleveland Clinic and leader of the transplant team. The patient, who prefers to be anonymous, is finally able to breathe through her nose, smell, eat solid foods and drink out of a cup, Siemionow told participants of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of ...

The world's richest countries committed to "any further action that may prove necessary" to restore confidence in the global financial system, their finance ministers said as they wrapped up a two-day meeting in Rome. The Group of Seven finance ministers also urged countries not to close their markets to goods and services from abroad. "An open system of global trade and investment is indispensable for global prosperity," they said in a statement at the end of their meeting Saturday. "Protectionist ...

Making his international debut at the Group of Seven meetings in Rome, new U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said swift and decisive action is needed on several levels to address the global financial crisis. "Although this crisis began in the major economies, it's now spread to emerging markets around the world," Geithner said. Governments and central banks are already acting to support economic growth, he said. "These actions must be forceful and sustained until recovery is firmly established." He called ...

Finance ministers from the world's leading industrialized nations were holding their second and last day of meetings in Rome on Saturday with an agenda squarely focused on the world financial crisis. Italy is hosting the meeting of the Group of Seven in its role as G7 president for 2009. G7 members are the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Britain, and Canada. The agenda drawn up by Rome calls for adopting global measures and economic policy reforms capable of stabilizing ...

France and Finland are thinking it over. Spain has balked because of legal ramifications. Belgium and Austria have curtly concluded that America should clean up its own mess. Europe was united during the Bush years in pushing for the closure of the controversial military prison in Guantanamo. But now that there's a president in the White House who wants to close the prison, most European countries are making themselves scarce. Except Portugal. The Portuguese government was the first ...

Winds whipping across southeastern Australia's countryside continued to fan deadly brushfires Wednesday, spreading flames through rural towns and ravaging scores of homes. "The temperatures are much cooler, but the concern is there's still this wind which sort of fans the flames and keeps them spreading," said CNN Correspondent John Vause from Whittlesea, where tent cities have sprung up just north of Melbourne. Relief agencies pitched camps for those forced out of their homes. At least 181 people have died from ...

As fires smoldered and sometimes raged across sections of the scarred landscape Tuesday, rescue officials in Victoria attempted to offer solace to hundreds burned out of their homes and frustrated at being unable to return. Tent cities sprung up around Whittlesea, just north of Melbourne, as relief agencies pitched camps for those forced out of their homes. Weekend bushfires "completely wiped out" the towns of Marysville and Kinglake, officials said. More than 20 fires were burning Tuesday, according to the ...

Parts of southeastern Australia turned to recovery Tuesday even as fires smoldered and sometimes raged across sections of the scarred landscape. Tent cities sprung up around Whittlesea, just north of Melbourne, as relief agencies pitched camps for those forced out of their homes. Weekend bushfires "completely wiped out" the towns of Marysville and Kinglake, officials said. More than 20 fires were burning Tuesday, according to the Country Fire Authority. Frustration also brewed as residents desperately wanted to return ...

A massive fire engulfed a newly constructed, unoccupied luxury hotel in central Beijing on Monday night as crowds watched a nearby fireworks display marking the end of Lunar New Year celebrations. The cause of the blaze at the 40-story Mandarin Oriental is not known and there were no reports of injuries, according to CNN staff members who were at the scene. The fire began about 9 p.m. and continued to burn an hour later. A plume of flames shot from ...