Harmless Virus May Kill Cancer Cells

This is a June 24th article from webMDhealth it's quite interesting and it is quite a breakthrough as well: "A common virus may have the potential to become a powerful cancer fighter.

Laboratory tests showed that the virus, known as adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2), kills many types of cancer cells without harming healthy cells.

"We believe that AAV2 recognizes that the cancer cells are abnormal and destroys them. This suggests that AAV2 has great potential to be developed as an anticancer agent," says researcher Craig Meyers, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology at Penn State College of Medicine, in a news release.

Meyers presented the results this week at the 24th annual meeting of the American Society for Virology held at Penn State in University Park.
Virus May Lead to New Cancer Treatments

AAV2 is considered a harmless virus and infects the majority of the population. The virus normally resides in epithelial cells, which form the outermost layer of tissues.

For unknown reasons, people who carry the virus are less likely to develop human papillomavirus (HPV), some strains of which are associated with cervical cancer.

Researchers say AAV2 usually requires a second, helper virus, such as HPV, to become activated. When it finds a helper virus, AAV2 replicates and causes infected cells to die.
In the study, researchers examined the effects of AAV2 on normal human epithelial cells and cells infected with HPV or cancer.

In one test, researchers combined cells infected with both HPV and AAV2 and found that after six days all HPV-infected cells had died.

Similar tests showed that the AAV2 virus killed four different types of cancer cells (cervical, breast, prostate, and squamous cells) within six days of treatment without affecting healthy cells. It did so without the presence of a second, helper virus.

"One of the most compelling findings is that AAV2 appears to have no pathologic effects on healthy cells," says Meyers. "So many cancer therapies are as poisonous to healthy cells as they are to cancer cells. A therapy that is able to distinguish between healthy and cancer cells could be less difficult to endure for those with cancer."

Researchers say future studies are needed to determine exactly how AAV2 causes cancer cell death and how the virus might be developed to more aggressively target and treat cancers."

This is realli great, once the drug or medication is out, it's gonna help mankind in a very big way. Hmm, well at first I thought isn't viruses suppose to be harmful? I mean they will infect a host cell and then exploit it's machinery(ribosomes, enzymes, etc) But like it said, for unknown reasons, it actually helped in preventing or treating cervival cancer with the help of another virus, and the treatment lasts only six days even for other common cancer like breast and prostate cancer, which do not need a helper virus. Oh, by the way, squamous cells are flat, scalelike cells found in epithelial tissue. Cancers that originate in these cells are called squamous cell carcinomas. Hopefully, more viruses like AAV2 which is not harmful, could be discovered quickly so that many cancer patients need not have to suffer anymore.

AAV2 virus killed four different types of cancer cells (cervical, breast,
prostate, and squamous cells) within six days of treatment without affecting
healthy cells. It did so without the presence of a second, helper virus.

The burden of a lasting memory

This is a pretty interesting article I read in NewScientist website, altho' this is a 28th of May 2005 article, it's still quite recent, heh. The study was done on fruit flies but the results might be the same for humans too. Here's the article:
"If you are forever forgetting people's names or family birthdays, take heart. Forming permanent memories is so physiologically expensive it can result in early death - at least for fruit flies.

When fruit flies form lasting memories, their neurons must make new proteins. Now Frederic Mery and Tadeusz Kawecki at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland have shown that this extra work takes its toll on the flies' ability to survive.

They trained one group of flies to associate a jolt with a bad-smelling mixture of two alcohols, while other flies were subjected either to jolts only or to jolts and odours, but not at the same time. When the flies were subsequently deprived of food and water, the group that had learned the link died an average of 4 hours, or 20 per cent, earlier than the others (Science, vol 308, p 1148).

The study suggests that there is a cost to memory and learning, raising the question of whether humans lost other qualities when they evolved superior intelligence. "We have such an extraordinary memory and learning capacity, we must have paid for it," says Kawecki"

Hmm, yes we must have paid for it. Who knows, people who have short-term memory might have a longer life than people who have long-term memory. Although, I think people who have long-term memory should have more advantage since they are able to remember more things. But ya, they'll need to make more cells to remember more things and etch them inside too. Well, We'll just leave it to more studies then.

Bear the heat

Now, it's about the heat wave, Climate change models did predict more fatal heat waves, altho' it does happen every year, it just gets worst. And freak weathers are happening around the world, like a report updated by AFP at 05:21 today titled: "Freak storms hit Europe, hundreds of houses flooded" . It says that a violent electrical storm struck the Paris region, flooding hundreds of houses, disrupting two lines on the metro system and causing delays at the city's two main airports. Elsewhere, lightning struck an electrical center in Switzerland, blocking about 100 trains in the second major breakdown to hit the Swiss railway system in two days. Luckily, no casualties were reported, but a motorcyclist had to be rescued when he was engulfed by water under a Paris road tunnel. In addition, South Asia is not the only one under the sufferings of the heat wave. France and other countries like Portugal, Spain, Nepal, and many more are also in the heat. Just from the South Asia heat wave alone, at least 375(yesterday was 200) people have died from sunstroke and dehydration in a month-long heat wave sweeping India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as it endures one of its hottest summers on record, authorities said. From the report: "Temperatures hit 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in some parts of South Asia this week, parching fields, emptying dams and drying river beds ahead of the annual monsoon.

Freak weather extended as far as northern China, where the heat set off explosives at a chemical plant in Shanxi province that injured hundreds. In central Chongqing city, authorities opened old bomb shelters so people can cool off.

Worst hit was India's impoverished eastern state of Orissa, where almost 100 people were reported killed from the heat.
Streets in the region emptied and many cities and villages resembled ghost towns as residents stayed indoors to avoid the sun. The state ordered government offices to close before noon.

"The heat wave along with occasional power-cuts had made life miserable here," said Lingaraj Panda, a local resident.
Officials reported drinking water shortages in the giant Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh as ponds and lakes dried up and villagers were forced to travel 10km to 15km to fetch water from deep wells.

Beer sales in New Delhi hit a record high with nearly 6 million bottles being sold in the first three weeks of this month as temperatures hit 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit).
India's weather department says the June-September rains got off to a weak start, but initial showers are now being reported across southern India and Bombay.

The month-long heatwave also killed more than 100 people in neighbouring Bangladesh, while in Pakistan more than 65 people died in the past week, including at least 24 believed killed over the last 24 hours from the heat, authorities said.

Villagers in Bangladesh held prayers in mosques and temples for rain -- though not too much rain. Last year, devastating floods caused by monsoon rains in July-September killed more than 1,000 people and left about 10 million homeless.

"The monsoon is playing truant this year in Bangladesh as well as in India, scorching farmland and killing people," one weather official said.

Tahir Ali Javed, Health Minister of Pakistan's central Punjab province told Reuters all the fatalities have come in the province where temperatures soared to 46 degrees Celsius (115 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday.

Temperatures shot up to 44 degree Celsius (111.2 Fahrenheit) in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Tuesday - a four-year record.
At least 11 people have died in neighbouring Nepal, a local media report said, but monsoon rains had now begun in most parts of the country." Well, at least some rain did fall in some parts of some country but it's not gonna be enough to help cool of this heat.

About the heat wave in France: "France was on a heat-wave alert yesterday as the government released its new emergency plan to avoid a repeat of the nearly 15,000 deaths attributed to the scorching temperatures during the summer of 2003.

As the mercury climbed above 30 degrees in parts of France during the past two days, Health Minister Xavier Bertrand released the new heat-wave plan including measures to bolster emergency services and to care for elderly people living on their own.

Meanwhile, extreme or severe drought has gripped 79 per cent of Portugal, the government's water institute said yesterday. The country has slashed the wheat-harvest forecast by as much as 70 per cent.

In neighbouring Spain, farmers also expect huge losses. Environment Ministry data show Spain's water reserves stand at 56 per cent of capacity." Hopefully, the heat wave incident in 2003 could be totally avoided. This, again, shows an obvious consequence - drier countries get drier, wetter countries get wetter.

"The monsoon is playing truant this year in Bangladesh as well as in India,
scorching farmland and killing people,"

China floods kill 536 this year, worse to come

I watched the news yesterday on Channel 8 and they reported about the China floods and the heat wave around the world. I shall talk about the China floods first. I went to check out Reuters this morning and it reported : "flooding and landslides across China have killed 536 people and caused nearly 20.4 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) in losses this year, scores in the last week alone, and worse is expected on Friday(which is today). In the past few days, at least 97 people had been killed and 41 were missing in southern China, where days of torrential rain had pushed rivers past their breaking points and sparked mudslides, Xinhua news agency said.
Some 1.4 million people have been evacuated in six provinces, with floodwaters climbing up to four stories tall in the industrial city of Wuzhou in the Guangxi region, one of the worst-hit areas(Yesterday is was three stories high). State television showed pictures of rushing, turbid waters crashing through villages and cities alike and rescuers pulling children to safety. With floods peaking in some areas, worse is to come in others. "More than 100,000 people and soldiers are now bracing themselves for the worst peak of the floods on the river as it passes Guangxi," the China Daily quoted an official from the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters as saying, referring to the Xijiang River that runs through Wuzhou. " I didn't put in the whole report but most of it is here. Not only that..I forgot to mention that the main reason why the fatalities due to the floods in 1998 in China is the highest should be because that year, 1998 was the warmest year in record as well and the 1990s was the warmest decade. Just look at what Global warming can do to us.

A link between tofu and male infertility?

I just found this article in The Straits Times..I guess I didn't notice it just now when I first read it..This is rather interesting..I think I'll post the heatwave article tomorrow coz anyway..it's a rather long one..Okay..so researchers in copenhagen has discovered a link between soya products and sperms in male..here's how it goes: "A plant chemical found in soya, tofu and legumes could potentially damage sperm and affect male fertility, a British researcher says.
Professor Lynn Fraser of King's College, London, has shown that genistein, which can mimic the effect of the female hormone oestrogen, affects sperm in mice.But it seems to have an even stronger impact on human sperm.In laboratory tests, Prof Fraser found that small amounts of the chemical can cause human sperm to 'burn out' and lose fertility.'Human sperm proved to be even more responsive than mouse sperm to genistein,' Prof Fraser said at a recent fertility meeting.She said that if women eat soya and foods high in genistein it might have a bigger impact on male fertility because the chemical is likely to affect sperm when it is in the female, preparing to fertilise an egg.'Maternal exposure to the compounds is probably more important than paternal exposure,' she said.Although it is very preliminary research, Prof Fraser speculated that the findings could have an impact on women trying to conceive.'On the basis of what we have seen, it might be a practical thing to do if you are in the habit of eating lots of soya-based products to restrict your diet for a short time over the window of ovulation,' she told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.Professor Richard Sharpe of Edinburgh University, in Scotland, described the research as interesting and the results as surprising.But Prof Sharpe added that oriental societies that traditionally eat a soya-rich diet show no signs of reduced fertility that he is aware of.The effects on sperm in the laboratory may not be directly related to what happens in real life.Dr Allan Pacey of the University of Sheffield said: 'It's early days, but clearly if what happens in the laboratory also occurs in the woman's fallopian tube as the sperm make their way to the egg, then there would be the potential for fertilisation to fail.' " Well..maybe researchers could think of how to develop contraceptives from soya products then?

40 killed and 300,000 flee worsening floods, landslides

I just saw this article in The Straits Times.. This is about the flooding in Southern parts of China, I'll highlight the more important parts in red: "Floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain killed more than 40 people in Southern China and forced the evacuation of more than 300,000 in a mountaineous region. In response to the rapidly worsening situation, China Premier Wen Jiabao called for an "all-out effort" to combat floods.The reported death toll from heavy rains and floods in China since last month is now more than 400. In the south-west Guangxi region, the worst hit area in recent days, around 333,000 people have been evacuated from flooding prone areas, reported Xinhuan news agency. 27 people were confirmed dead and 20 others missing there, the regional disaster relief headquarters said. About 100,000 residents in low-lying areas of Wuzhou were evacuated overnight, state media said. It was the industrial city's worst flooding in 100 years. Notices about the mass evacuation were posted on walls, warning sirens blared in the night and residents loaded up cars, trucks and carts with valuables and fled the area for higher ground. Along the Wuzhou River, 8.5m above its danger level, thousands worked to fortify its banks and dams with sandbags, state broadcaster CCTV said. The water reached as high as the thirdflood of buildings in some areas. In south-eastern Fujian province, floods and landslides killed 12 people and left five missing. In Guangdong province, just north of Hong Kong, 10 people were reportedly killed, while more than half a million were affected by the bad weather, the China News Service said. Rainstorms in eastern parts of Guangdong caused cave-ins on part of the Beijing-Kowloon railway line. Dozens of trains were forced to delay or turn back while repairs were made. In the South-western municipality of Chongqing, around 30,000 residents were evacuated after rising waters endangered peoples lives, Xinhua said. Thousands of people perish every year from floods, land-slides and mudflows in China, with millions left homeless. Officials said this year's floods could be worse than usual." adding on another paragraph from Reuters: "While the south is suffering a deluge, much of northern China is sweating through a heat wave, which has driven temperatures to nearly 40 C in the capital Beijing and convinced Chongqing to open air raid shelters to provide shade. " Comments: The green numbers are from Reuters..it was originally 24 and 23..but I just went to check reuters and the death toll went up to 27. About the blue highlighted sentence, the thing i'd want to say is that yes thousands of people perish every year from floods and all that in China..but the thing is..it might get worse this year because of Global Warming..this is the second time that one side of the country is raining heavily while the other side is so hot..it just happened in February this year...which is somewhat the nearing end of winter..It can't be that hot during winter right.. I've also just checked out the flood data of China for last year, 2004..In total..about 1,343 people were killed by the floods. In late july, the death toll was 439..It's only june now and it's alreadi 400..*sigh*..It also mentioned: "While the annual rains and floods usually strike hardest in rural areas, this year(2004) big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have felt the effects with both experiencing freak weather."The country has witnessed extreme weather recently in big cities, such as Beijing's unprecedented rainstorm earlier this month, which paralyzed local transportation," Wang was quoted as saying by China Daily."The rainstorm in Shanghai on July 12 can be said to be a very rare disaster which happens only once a century." The storm claimed seven lives. Look at the hailstorm that just happened recently in Beijing..it's rare. But one good thing..The death toll did decrease over the years..with the worst in 1998 at 4,000 to 1,900 in 2003 and continue to decrease to 1,343 in 2004.. Another point is that it said that in 2004 it was the worst flood in decades...but this year is century..look at the difference.And last year..there was also this pattern whereby "while central and southern China were awash with water, northern and eastern regions were suffering severe drought or scorching temperatures.The provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north are all parched with rain only starting to fall in July, several months later than normal, the newspaper said.Meanwhile, the cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou in the east and Chongqing and Chengdu in the southwest are sizzling in temperatures of up to 38 degrees C. "(tenses were changed because it's already in the past) Anyway..if you see the last sentence..the maximum temperature was at least till 38 C..but this year it went up to 40 C. Looking back at the article from Straits Times..the last sentence said that officials said this year's flood could be worse than usual.See. Talking about the heatwave in Northern China..I'll post an article from The Straits Times later about the heatwave in India happening now. I'm off for brunch now..

Fingering the Answers

This is from the June issue of discover, it's pretty cool: 'Don’t judge a man by his handshake; look at his fingers instead. Psychologist Peter Hurd of the University of Alberta in Canada compared the second and fourth fingers, that is, the index and ring fingers, of 300 university students and found males with the longest ring fingers were most likely to get in fights.“A longer ring-to-index finger ratio has been correlated with higher levels of prenatal testosterone exposure,” says Hurd. Previous studies suggest that men with longer ring fingers are better when it comes to sports and have especially developed male-pattern visuospatial skills. “We originally started this study just to have fun,” says Hurd, who is now looking at the fingers and penalty records of professional hockey players to see if they confirm his results. But assessing a potential mate by his fingers would be premature. “Finger length explains only 5 percent of the variation in physically aggressive behavior between individuals,” says Hurd. “But it does suggest more of our personalities are determined in the womb than we thought.” ' It's quite interesting and also quite agreeable that we shouldn't be assessing a potential mate by his fingers. At least..well..the girls may just know if their partner is agressive or not. Something relating to this..I remembered my biology lecturer mentioning that the reason why twins do not have similar fingerprints is by the different way in which they clasp their hands in the womb..that applies to us too..that's y all of us have different fingerprints.

Patagonia-Evidence of Climate Change(video from Greenpeace)

Patagonia has one of the largest ice fields in the Southern Hemisphere outside Antartica..I just watched this video and seeing the ice melt is really astonishing.. I've linked them here: Quicktime, Real Player, Windows Media Player. I've also found some images from the Artic in the Greenpeace website: click here

Brain study links negative emotions and lowered immunity

This is another article from the archive in newscientist, 02 september 2003. It can be said it is more "recent" than my previous post worriers prone to cancer. This is about how the study of the brain has linked negative emotions with lowered immunity: "Brain activity linking negative emotions to a lower immune response against disease has been revealed for the first time, claim researchers.Many previous studies have shown that emotions and stress can adversely affect the immune system. But this effect had not been directly correlated with activity in the brain, says study leader Richard Davidson, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in the US.
The part of the brain the team studied, the prefrontal cortex (PFC), is associated with depression. People who had the greatest activity in the right PFC when asked to dwell on distressing episodes in their life had a markedly lower antibody levels after an influenza vaccination. In contrast, those showing exceptional activity in the left PFC when recalling happy times developed high antibody levels.Davidson says emotions play an important role in regulating systems in the body that influence health. "This study establishes that people with a pattern of brain activity that has been associated with positive [emotions] are also the ones to show the best response to the flu vaccine.""It begins to suggest a mechanism for why subjects with a more positive emotional disposition may be healthier," he says. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, an expert on stress and immunity at Ohio State University, told the New York Times that the study represents "some of the best evidence we've seen to date."
Intense sadness (Sub-title):Davidson, with colleagues at Wisconsin and Princeton University, New Jersey, asked 52 men and women who graduated from Wisconsin in 1957 to recount both the best and worst events in their lives on paper.For their best experiences, the subjects were asked to write about an event where they experienced "intense happiness or joy". And for their worst experience they were asked to remember an event causing "the most intense sadness, fear, or anger".During this autobiographical task, the electrical activity of the brain was measured. The subjects were then given flu shots and their antibody levels were measured after two weeks, four weeks and six months. The researcher found a clear link between strong activity in the left PFC and a large rise in antibodies, and vice versa. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1534743100).However, the study could not explain exactly how having a positive attitude boosts the immune system. The researchers say some evidence exists to suggest a link between the PFC and the immune system via a complex hormonal system governed by the hypothalamic, pituitary and adrenal glands.Another study by Italian and UK researchers, also published on Monday, reveals that depressed elderly people have fewer lymphocytes and T-cells - white blood cells crucial for fighting disease. This study is published in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (vol 72, p 253)" So..here's another evidence that being depressed is not a very good thing. So let's all be happy and stress-free :)

Worriers more prone to cancer

This was from an archive in newscientist, 28 May 2003.. it may be quite old but research these days have also been passing on similar messages.. So this article is called Worriers more prone to cancer.. I would highlight the more important parts in red: "It is not the kind of news that will help matters. A study involving over 60,000 people suggests that people prone to anxiety are more likely to get cancer.The findings will add to the controversy over whether purely psychological factors such as stress, anxiety and depression can trigger cancer. Part of the problem with this kind of study is that it is hard to exclude with certainty the influence of behavioural factors, such as lack of self-care, poor diet and smoking.A team of psychiatrists led by Arnstein Mykletun at the University of Bergen in Norway followed up 62,591 people who took part in a massive medical survey of people living in one county in Norway during 1995 to 1997. The Norway National Cancer Registry was used to identify participants in the survey who had developed cancers or premalignancies - abnormal cells that can turn cancerous.Those who scored highly in an anxiety test in 1995 were about 25 per cent more likely to have premalignancies, the team told a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in San Francisco last week.
Inconsistent results (Sub-title):Previous studies of the link between mind and cancer have produced inconsistent results, Susanne Oksbjeg Dalton's team at the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen, Denmark, concluded in the most recent review. But two studies did find an association between psychological stress and two specific types of tumours, lymphomas and malignant melanomas.These results are intriguing, as lymphomas and melanomas are linked with immune system dysfunction. One theory is that psychological states like stress, anxiety or depression lower immune activity, compromising the body's constant surveillance for premalignant or cancerous cells, and thus allowing cancers to grow.Support for this theory comes from another study presented at the San Francisco meeting. Sandra Nunes's team at the State University of Londrina in Brazil compared 40 depressed adults who were not on medication with 34 healthy controls. In the depressed patients, there were dramatic reductions in immune functions, including white blood cell activity and antibody responses. However, Mykletun's team did not find a statistically significant link between depression and premalignancies in the Norwegian study, as they did with anxiety. Dalton also points out that it is vital that factors like smoking are adequately controlled for in research of this type. People suffering psychological stress are more likely to smoke, greatly increasing their risk of cancer. Mykletun's team did try to take this into account, but screening for smokers and determining how much they smoke is difficult in large studies like the Norwegian one.
The debate looks set to run and run. Until it is resolved, anxious people will have one more thing to worry about." Well.. at least it is quite clear that being depressed lowers your immune system greatly and so the body is more likely get cancer. I do find the sentence in blue quite interesting..anxious people do have one more thing to worry about..heh..

rise in ocean temperatures

I just saw this small information in the "flash" section of Discover magazine, May. It says: "Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography say a rise in ocean temperatures shows global warming is well underway. Meanwhile, former Secretary of State James Barker, a close ally of the president, calls for "gradual and orderly transition" away from fossil fuels." I went to the website for a more in-depth story...so i've got out the more important parts: '"This is perhaps the most compelling evidence yet that global warming is happening right now and it shows that we can successfully simulate its past and likely future evolution," said Tim Barnett, a research marine physicist in the Climate Research Division at Scripps. Barnett says he was "stunned" by the results because the computer models reproduced the penetration of the warming signal in all the oceans. "The statistical significance of these results is far too strong to be merely dismissed and should wipe out much of the uncertainty about the reality of global warming." Yes i would strongly agree with the one i highlighted in red.. "According to Barnett, the climate mechanisms behind the ocean study will produce broad-scale changes across the atmosphere and land. In the decades immediately ahead, the changes will be felt in regional water supplies, including areas impacted by accelerated glacier melting in the South American Andes and in western China, putting millions of people at risk without adequate summertime water. Similarly, recent research by Barnett and his colleagues with the Accelerated Climate Prediction Initiative analyzed climate warming impacts on the western United States using one of the models involved in the new study. The earlier study concluded that climate warming will likely alter western snow pack resources and the region's hydrological cycle, posing a water crisis in the western U.S. within 20 years. "The new ocean study, taken together with the numerous validations of the same models in the atmosphere, portends far broader changes," said Barnett. "Other parts of the world will face similar problems to those expected--and being observed now--in the western U.S. The skill demonstrated by the climate models in handling the changing planetary heat budget suggests that these scenarios have a high enough probability of actually happening that they need to be taken seriously by decision makers." In the new study, Barnett and his colleagues used computer models of climate to calculate human-produced warming over the last 40 years in the world's oceans. In all of the ocean basins, the warming signal found in the upper 700 meters predicted by the models corresponded to the measurements obtained at sea with confidence exceeding 95 percent. The correspondence was especially strong in the upper 500 meters of the water column. It is this high degree of visual agreement and statistical significance that leads Barnett to conclude that the warming is the product of human influence. Efforts to explain the ocean changes through naturally occurring variations in the climate or external forces- such as solar or volcanic factors--did not come close to reproducing the observed warming" So..we'd better stop all the fossil fuels burning and come up with alternative resources.. and also be prepared for what may be happening real soon.. for full article..click here

Global warming is a 'clear and increasing threat'

I was reading the online newsletter posted to my hotmail by NewScienctist and I saw this title and was like "ha!finally.." So the title is of course "Global warming is a 'clear and increasing threat' " I'll post the whole article since every part is as important: "Eleven of the world's most influential science academies warned world leaders that the threat of global climate change "is clear and increasing" and that they must act immediately to begin addressing its causes and consequences. The stark warning came on Tuesday in an unprecedented joint statement from the heads of the science academies of Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US. The statement, issued ahead of the G8 economic summit in Gleneagles, UK, in July, outlines the strong evidence for global warming. "The evidence comes from direct measurements of rising surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures and from phenomena such as increases in average global sea levels, retreating glaciers, and changes to many physical and biological systems," the statement says, adding that most recent warming is likely to have been caused by human activity. Majour put-down(sub title):That the US National Academy of Sciences, the key scientific adviser to Congress, has signed the document is seen as a major put-down to the global warming naysayers in the Bush administration, which has refused to sign up to the Kyoto protocol to curb greenhouse gas emissions.Following a meeting in Washington DC between President George Bush and UK prime minister Tony Blair on Tuesday, Bush conceded that climate change is a "major long-term problem" and cited US research into hydrogen-powered cars and low-pollution coal as moves already under way to help combat it. But there was no change to his opposition to the Kyoto protocol. Nevertheless, Blair intends to make tackling climate change a central plank of the G8 summit he will be hosting. "We need to be thinking about how we move beyond a situation where there are huge emissions of greenhouse gases from present energy consumption," he said. Environmental group Friends of the Earth welcomed the joint statement but complained that it lacks targets and a timetable for action. "G8 countries must accept their historic responsibility in creating the problem, and show genuine leadership through annual reductions in emissions," says Catherine Pearce, climate expert at Friends of the Earth. " The first part of the article before the sub title is the most important part of everything..Yes, i would really totally agree that they must act immediately before everything is too late!! look at what is happening to the weather pattern prior to the fact about changing global temperature..Well, at least finally something is said..

Eleven of the world's most influential science academies warned world leaders
that the threat of global climate change "is clear and increasing" and that they
must act immediately to begin addressing its causes and consequences.

Please read: Important

I am sooo sorry..made a mistake about tt article abt ice in China..it was not ice but hailstones...guess i saw the word "bing bao" and tot it was ice since it had bing in it meaning ice but later realised when i went to check out in the English-Chinese dictionary that hailstone in chinese means bing bao...I am so so sorry...But anyway since hailstones are made of ice so it's actually the same...heh..so there is still "ice" raining in China just that the word for it is hailstones..so tt post still matters...anyway..I JUST FOUND THE ARTICLE!!!Okay..here's what it says:
'BEIJING, June 1 -- Car owners in Beijing were carefully examining their precious vehicles yesterday after hailstones the size of golfballs tumbled from the sky. Traffic was brought to a near-standstill in the heart of Beijing when millions of unseasonable ic crystals pierced the humid skies and caused minor damage pock-marks to paintwork. The hailstorm only lasted for about 10 minutes but it sent pedestrians scurrying for cover as they used handbags and briefcases to shield them from the heavenly artillery. "Hailstones hit parked cars and left small dents," said a witness. Thunderstorms and downpours also struck the capital. Zhou Qingliang, an expert with the Central Meteorological Observatory, said the weather front should have hit western parts of Northeast China's Liaoning Province and parts of Hebei Province neighbouring Beijing. "Thunderstorms with probable hails are likely to go on over the next two to three days in those areas," he said. In downtown areas, many people rushed to open parking areas to check on their cars, only to find most imprinted by the hailstones. Some bicycle riders in rain coats protected their heads with one hand while cycling home. Some residents had their windows broken by hailstones' The wild weather helped cool the sweltering temperature, however.
(Source: China Daily)' Finally i found it! Searched 'hailstones' instead of 'ice' in search buttons and found it easily...Anyway..well look at the damage the stones have done..it was even said as wild weather so you could see how rare it actually is..i thk it could even be the first time the capital has it..hmm I've also found a picture over here:

This is, in my opinion, just the start of the damage.

China floods leave 200 dead, missing-resident

It seems i couldn't find the article anywhere about tt ice raining incident but i did find this in The Straits Times this morning while trying to find the article..It's from Reuters so i went there to find out more: 'BEIJING (Reuters) - Heavy rain has triggered floods and mudslides in southern China, leaving at least 200 people dead or missing, a resident and state media said on Wednesday. Torrential rain hit a mountainous region of Hunan province in the early hours on Wednesday and 22 people died in floods, the official Xinhua news agency said. Two officials were killed during rescue work. Thirty-five people, including five students, were missing, Xinhua said. However, a local resident with knowledge of the casualties and damage said at least 200 people died or were missing after torrential rains hit Xinshao and Lianyuan counties, Shaoyang city and three other cities in Hunan province since Tuesday. "Villagers, cadres and rescuers were washed away by floods," the resident, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. "More than 10,000 people were left homeless after their homes were either washed away, flooded or toppled," he said. Mountain torrents in Xinshao were the worst in the county's history, Xinhua said. At least 47 villages were devastated by the torrents and 54,600 villagers affected, Xinhua quoted Shen Guirong, director of the county government's publicity department, as saying. About 3,560 homes were destroyed, Shen said, and electricity and telecommunications services were cut off in some villages. Crops, bridges and roads were destroyed. Taizimiao village was the worst hit and the local government scrambled to build temporary bridges to rescue stranded villagers, Shen said. A local official reached by telephone estimated damage to property at over 2 billion yuan ($240 million). People's Liberation Army soldiers were mobilized to help with rescue work, residents said. "We'll be working overtime all night," said a rescue center official in Taizimiao, who gave his surname as Zhu. A local weather bureau official reached by telephone said heavy rainfall caused the floods. "Rainfall in the first half of this year was not a historic high but it was too heavy in a short period of time," the official said. In southwestern Guizhou province, a thunderstorm triggered flooding and landslides killing 12 people and injuring dozens, state radio said. Parts of China are hit by summer floods annually. ' Okay..so it seems that 'China suffers widespread flooding and drought each year, causing huge loss of life. Earthquakes are common and typhoons roar ashore from the South China Sea in the summer,' according to Reuters..so that could explain this article but what about the ice raining thing still? Something must explain it.. You could read back on what i blogged about "as the world warms" there is this part at the start about the weather in Beijing too where it was raining like mad on one side and hot like the desert on the other.. I am still keeping a look-out for the article so if anyone happens to see it..could you tell me please? thanks.

Shocking

This is so shocking i just HAD to say it..I just saw Channel 8 news on tv and u noe what?In China, Beijing...it rained ICE THE SIZE OF PING PONG BALLS !!!I was totally staring at the screen with my mouth opened..not only tt..it was raining at the same time too..I'm trying to find if there's an article abt it on the net but i guess they probably may not post it yet or something..But I'll definitely post it here immediately after I find it..This is realli getting out of hand..It's like supposed to be summer soon in China..ICE during SUMMER??Anyway...let's just hope it's not the effects of global warming but just some strange phenomenon like in August 6, 2000:In Norfolk, England, It was raining fish from the sky. But..well this is not some fish or cat or dog but ice...something natural from the environment..Wonder what will happen next..Snow in Singapore? That might just happen ya noe..