Excerpts: Spinal nerve regrown; paraplegic walks. Iran army massive army
military drill December 25, 2014

+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 25 Dec.’14:”Groundbreaking treatment sees
paralyzed man walk in UK”, Staff Writer
SUBJECT: Spinal nerve regrown; paraplegic walks

QUOTE:”Dr.Geoffrey Raisman: ‘Nothing can give me a greater feeling to what I’ve
done, no amount of money.’ “

FULL TEXT:In a reported medical first, a cell transplantation treatment has
allowed a man who was paralyzed from the chest down to get up from his
wheelchair and walk, the BBC reported Wednesday[24 Dec.].

Geoffrey Raisman, chair of neural regeneration at University College London’s
Institute of Neurology, was successful in developing a procedure which
enabled the paralyzed man to use his legs to walk, after decades of trying
to develop such a procedure.

Raisman’s breakthrough allowed the 40-year old Darek Fidyka from Poland, who
suffered injuries in a knife attack, to walk again using a frame.

The procedure uses regenerative cells – capable of repairing and renewing
the sense of smell - to form new connections in the damaged spinal cord.

Fortunately for Fidyka, the procedure was performed cost-free.

“Science doesn’t belong to one person, it is not my property. It’s an
exploration into something much bigger than we’ll understand,” the doctor
said, according to the BBC.

He added: “Nothing can give me a greater feeling to what I’ve done, no
amount of money.

“It’s deeper what drives you, it’s the sense of wonder of nature


+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 25 Dec.’14:” Iran’s army begins massive military
drill”, Staff writer withAssociated Press Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: Iran army massive military drill

QUOTE:” Last week Rear Admiral Sayari called for foreign forces in the
region‘to ‘leave the area’ in order to avoid incidents”

Full text;Iran launched extensive military drills on Thursday[25 Dec.”, in a
show of strength stretching several hundred kilometers from the Strait of
Hormuz to the Gulf of Aden, state TV reported.

Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, chief of the Army’s ground forces, told state
television on Thursday that the maneuvers are aimed at “transferring
experiences” to younger generations of the Iranian soldiers.

The weeklong exercise will be carried out over 850,000 square miles in the
northern part of the Indian Ocean, Sea of Oman and the eastern part of the
passage, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes, according
to the report.

The initial part of the drill includes exercises by ground units in
southeast Iran on Thursday[25 Dec.] and Friday[26 Dec.]. But the exercises
are set to last six days and involve ballistic missile and drone testing,
according to military officials.

Close to 13,000 personnel will take part in the drills, which will be the
first time Iran has organized military maneuvers so far from its coastline,
Agence France-Presse reported.

The southeastern provinces of Hormozgan and Sistan-Baluchistan will also be
included in the tests, with the Iranian army, air force, navy and
Revolutionary Guards participating.

“One of the aims of these maneuvers is to increase our defensive
capability... and to transfer this experience to young” personnel, army
chief general Abdolrahim Moussavi told state television.

The drills will finish with a military parade on Dec. 30.

Last week Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayari called on foreign forces in the
region to “leave the area” in order to avoid incidents.

The maneuvers will pose “no danger to foreign forces in the Persian Gulf,”
he added, in an apparent reference to the US Fifth Fleet, which is stationed
in Bahrain.

Iran’s navy has boosted its international presence over the past few years,
in particular to help guard commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden from
pirate attacks.

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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA