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ARLINGTON, Va. — The Pentagon is launching a multimillion dollar initiative to regrow skin, muscles, ears, noses and even new limbs for wounded servicemembers, using their own stem cells. The Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, or AFIRM, is a five-year, Army-led cooperative program using cutting-edge stem cell research to treat badly wounded servicemembers. “You often hear people talking about a conflict having a ‘signature wound,’” Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army’s surgeon general, told reporters at a Thursday news conference announcing the new institute. “Well, the signature weapon of this war is blast.” Some of AFIRM’s earliest work...

A new surgical technique pioneered at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy in Leipzig may allow for patients to receive grafted ‘artificial’ skin grown using their own cells. The procedure, called the EpiDex® technique, has been developed with euroderm GmbH, and could replace traditional treatments which involve taking skin from another part of the patient’s body. If successful, the new process would eliminate the additional scarring, with which patients suffer at the donor area (usually the thigh), but would still have the same chances of success for the graft taking. “If we produce this skin using the recently approved EpiDex®...

Two people were wounded in a Las Vegas Strip casino Saturday after a man knocked down in a fist fight retrieved a gun and opened fire, police reported. The gunshots rang out soon after a fight involving several people began about 4 a.m. near an elevator leading to a parking garage at the Caesars Palace hotel-casino, said Officer Ramon Denby of the Las Vegas Metro Police Department. "Blows were landed, one guy was knocked to the floor," Denby said. "The gentleman who was knocked to the floor got into the elevator, went upstairs and got a firearm." The man returned...

A platelet-rich gel derived from one's own blood could speed up the healing of wounds and cuts.Researchers at the University of Cincinnati say that a topical gel derived from a patient's own blood may help prevent infection while speeding up the healing process. The finding could mean that, in the not too distant future, a concentrated "cocktail" of a person's own blood could be used to help dress wounds, particularly in patients with diabetes or other disorders that slow the healing process. Blood's healing effects lie in its platelets--sticky, disc-shaped molecules that naturally flock to the site of a wound,...

China and India aim to heal old wounds By Peter Foster in New Delhi Last Updated: 2:06am GMT 21/11/2006 The leaders of the world's two most populous nations, China and India, will meet in New Delhi today in the hope that expanding trade can heal more than four decades of antipathy and suspicion. Hu Jintao, is making the first visit to India by a Chinese president for a decade. He will meet the Indian premier, Dr Manmohan Singh, for talks aimed at improving relations between the emerging economic giants of Asia. Despite trade between India and China expected to reach...

A team of researchers at MIT and the University of Hong Kong have developed a biodegradable liquid that can quickly stop bleeding. Composed of peptides, the liquid self-assembles into a protective nanofiber gel when applied to a wound. Rutledge Ellis-Behnke, research scientist in the department of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT and Kwok-Fai So, chair of the department of anatomy at the University of Hong Kong, discovered the liquid's ability to stop bleeding while experimenting with it as a matrix for regrowing brain cells in hamsters. The researchers then conducted a series of experiments on various mammals, including rodents...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2006 – Iraqi forces in Baghdad yesterday captured a man believed to be responsible for the January shooting death of a U.S. soldier and an interpreter, U.S. military officials reported. Iraqi security forces, supported by coalition advisors, conducted the intelligence-focused early-morning raid at a two-story residence in the Mansour district, capturing their primary target without incident. No Iraqi or coalition forces or civilians were injured during this operation. Also in Iraq, more than 60 Iraqis were killed and another 140 wounded when two makeshift car bombs detonated near a residential building Aug. 13. The explosion triggered a...

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2006 – Initial reports indicate 40 Iraqi citizens were killed and 90 wounded today when terrorists stormed a market area near the Mohammed Al Amin Mosque in Mahmudiya, Iraq, military officials reported. Iraqi security forces and soldiers from Multinational Division Baghdad immediately responded to the attack. Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, responded to explosions in the area at about 9:15 a.m. The troops began taking small-arms fire from unknown assailants southwest of the mosque while they performed a cordon-and-search operation for a suspicious vehicle in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, U.S. soldiers from 1st...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17, 2006 – A suicide car bomber killed four Iraqi police officers and one child and wounded 16 civilians and two Iraqi police officers yesterday at an Iraqi police checkpoint near Muqdadiyah, Iraq, officials reported. Officials said the attack was initiated by a flurry of small-arms fire followed by the devastating blast. Coalition forces from a nearby base responded to the attack and assisted with the post-blast investigation. Officials emphasized that reporting terrorist activity is the best way for local residents to help end violence in their neighborhoods and protect their families and homes. Cash rewards are available...

Chinese memorial to 'the good Nazi' opens war wounds By Peter Goff in Beijing (Filed: 18/12/2005) A plan by China to honour "the good Nazi", a German who helped to save hundreds of thousands of civilians from Japanese troops, has reopened a dispute with Tokyo over its lack of atonement for the Second World War. The Chinese authorities are drawing up plans for a museum dedicated to the memory of John Rabe, who defied the "Rape of Nanking" - a six-week massacre during which an estimated 300,000 Chinese were slaughtered by Japanese soldiers. Honouring Mr Rabe gives China the chance...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Nov. 14, 2005) -- A Freehold, N.J., native was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds he received during combat operations in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. Lance Cpl. John Myslinski, 27, a Marine with Headquarters Battalion, 2nd Marine Division received the medal for his actions in Ramadi, Iraq back in June. The Purple Heart was established by General George Washington in Newburgh, New York, on Aug. 7, 1782, during the Revolutionary War later awarded to servicemember who was wounded by direct result of enemy action. While Myslinski, a 1996 Freehold Borough High School...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2005 – An Afghan interpreter was killed and two U.S. servicemembers were wounded Sept. 15 when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, military officials announced today. Both servicemembers were taken to Kandahar Airfield and were reported to be in stable condition. The unit was conducting combat patrols in the area to disrupt the enemy operations aimed at affecting the upcoming elections, officials said. "We send our deepest condolences out to the family and friends or our fallen Afghan friend," said Army Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, Combined Joint Task Force 76 spokesman. "He died...

AN American high school football coach has been reprimanded for licking the bleeding wounds of student athletes. The Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission placed Scott Reed, 34, on two years probation and ordered the coach, who is also a science teacher, to attend a class on the risks of blood-borne pathogens. Last year, Reed gave students at Central Linn High School near Eugene, Oregon, a pep talk about a coach who had licked and healed players' wounds so that they could rejoin the game. After the talk, he bent down and licked a cut on a track athlete's knee,...

String Of Beads Lanna Perry 1st March 2004 Sydney Australia My children, like a necklace is joined together, so I am calling My body, My children to come together. For if one bead is missing from a necklace, is it complete and functioning fully as it was created too? Surely Not. My children, you are like a string of beads. You are called to work together. For a necklace cannot be a necklace with one bead alone. A necklace cannot function completely without all of the beads being joined together. Yes, one bead alone has much beauty, but how much...

The good news is that fewer GIs are dying of their injuries than in any modern conflict. In Vietnam, one out of every three soldiers hurt in combat was shipped home in a body bag. In Iraq, it's one in eight. Credit the use of body armor and a dramatic increase in the speed of the Air Force's evacuation chain - the relays of Black Hawk helicopters and transport jets that ferry the wounded from the front lines to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where soldiers receive care before being sent on to hospitals like Walter Reed Army Medical...

Do the media give aid and comfort to terrorists by giving their violence maximum exposure and impact at times while sanitizing the perpetrators and tainting their victims at others? It is standard procedure for many media outlets to describe the perpetrators of terrorist acts - the premeditated slaughter of civilians - with a range of euphemisms, "militants" being the most common. Thus, The New York Times can headline a report on the killing of a hostage as "Iraq Militants Said to Behead a Truck Driver From Bulgaria." Similarly, terrorists killed in a military strike can be described in another as...

Home Resources News Travel Shop Money Careers Education Join the Military Community War Veterans Overloading VA Thousands of U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with physical injuries and mental health problems are encountering an overburdened benefits system, and officials and veterans groups worry that the challenge could grow as the nation remains at war. The disability benefits and health care systems that provide services for about 5 million American veterans have been overloaded for decades, with a current backlog of more than 300,000 claims. And as of Aug. 1, nearly 150,000 National Guard and reservist veterans became eligible...

> The author of this letter is well known in the Canon City, Penrose, Pueblo area. He is an author of numerous books and a businessman in Florence, Colorado. He is a retired member of the "A-team" Green Berets. > > AN OPEN LETTER TO SEN. KERRY > > My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year and the recovery is > terribly painful. Then she developed staph-epi infection, and they > had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just thinking > about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a second...

As Democratic hopeful John Kerry whines about the Swift Boat Veterans questioning his Vietnam “war service,” more revelations have surfaced which challenge the legitimacy of his first Purple Heart. The Senator claims that that medal was received because of enemy fire he took, but his own personal diary contradicts that assertion. While the Senator’s supporters tried unsuccessfully to portray President Bush as being “AWOL” during the Vietnam War, they won’t address the fact that Kerry tried to defer his military service at that time for 12 months. And what would Kerry and his friends say about the fact that his...

Dole Questions Kerry's Vietnam Wounds 11 minutes ago By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer CRAWFORD, Texas - Former Republican Sen. Bob Dole suggested Sunday that John Kerry apologize for past testimony before Congress about alleged atrocities during the Vietnam War and joined critics of the Democratic presidential candidate who say he received an early exit from combat for "superficial wounds." Dole also called on Kerry to release all the records of his service in Vietnam. Separately, President Bush's re-election campaign continued to deny links to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an anti-Kerry group running ads in three states, after the...