Iran launches war games near Iraqi Kurdistan border DUBAI, SEPTEMBER 24 (Reuters): Iranian forces have launched war games in an area near the border with Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Iran’s state media reported on Sunday, a day before an independence referendum is to be held in the region. State broadcaster IRIB said the exercises, part of annual events held in Iran to mark the beginning of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, are centered in the Oshnavieh border region. The war games will include artillery, armored and airborne units, IRIB reported. Clashes with Iranian Kurdish militant groups based in Iraq are fairly common in the border area. Iran has joined Turkey and the Iraqi government in voicing opposition to the referendum. 2/3 Japan voters oppose PM Abe calling snap election: survey TOKYO, SEPTEMBER 24 (Reuters): Almost two-thirds of Japanese voters are opposed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calling a snap election, a Kyodo news agency survey showed on Sunday, a day before the Japanese leader is expected to announce an October vote. According to the survey, 27 percent of the respondents plan to vote for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in proportional representation districts in the expected lower house election, versus 8 percent who favour the struggling main opposition Democratic Party. The poll also showed that 6.2 percent will vote for a new party aligned with popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, which is expected to be launched this week. Another 42.2 percent remain undecided. Abe is expected on Monday to announce plans to call a general election for Oct. 22 to take advantage of a rebound in his damaged approval ratings and an opposition in political disarray, ruling party and government sources said. What causes bone loss in elderly New York, September 24 (IANS): Researchers have identified a mechanism that leads to bone loss in older adults, an advance that may help develop therapeutics to treat the age-associated bone loss condition. Osteoporosis -- the thinning of bone and the loss of bone density that increases the risk of fractures -- is a major health problem in older people. Often the condition is accompanied by an increase in fat cells in the bone marrow. The study led by Yi-Ping Li, Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, found a protein called Cbf-beta which plays a critical role in maintaining the bone-producing cells. Furthermore, the examination of aged mice showed dramatically reduced levels of Cbf-beta in bone marrow cells as compared to younger mice. The findings showed when this mechanism malfunctions, progenitor cells stop creating bone-producing cells and instead create fat cells. Thus, maintaining this Cbf-beta may be essential to prevent human age-associated osteoporosis that is due to elevated creation of fat cells, Li said. The results were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Knowledge of this mechanism can provide targets in the search for novel bone-loss therapeutics to treat human osteoporosis with minimal side effects, the researchers noted.
