wordpress: to query featured posts

featured posts

<!-- featured posts -->
<div class="span12">
    <?php
    query_posts('category=featured&showposts=2');
    if (have_posts()) :
        while (have_posts()) : the_post(); 
    ?>
    <div class="span5">
            <h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
            <?php
            if(has_post_thumbnail()) { ?>
                <div class="myfeaturedbox">
                    <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/wp-content/themes/mytheme1/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo get_image_url(); ?>&amp;h=290&amp;w=430&amp;zc=1" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>"/>
                </div>
            <?php
            }
            else {
                echo '<div class="myfeaturedbox">';
                echo '<img src="'.get_bloginfo("template_url").'/assets/img/nothumb.jpg"  alt="No Thumbnail"/>';
                echo "</div>";
            }
            ?>
            <div class="" id="content_<?php echo $post->ID ?>" style="margin-top:20px;">
                     <?php echo truncateWords($post->post_content,40)."..."; ?>
                </div>
    </div>
    <?php
        endwhile;
    endif;
    wp_reset_query();
    ?>
</div>
<div class="featured_posts"></div>
<!-- featured posts end -->