香港國際論壇

Bo wife dying from cancer

Thursday, April 19, 2012

The wife of disgraced former Chongqing chief Bo Xilai is suffering from bone cancer and has only a short time to live.

According to a source in Beijing, that may explain the sudden change in the character of Gu Kailai, 53, who is accused of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood.

Gu's character changed so much that she was accused of "promiscuity" and flirting around "since her illness," the source said, adding that this raises the question whether Beijing will execute her even if she is found guilty of murder.

"She doesn't have much longer to live ... maybe a year or two," the source said.

British news reports claim Gu and Heywood, 41, had an affair and met in a shabby "love nest" at a flat on the south coast of England. He was even spotted pinching her bottom as they walked up stairs.

In another development, Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary entitled "Criminal case shall not be interpreted as political struggle," that the accusations against Bo, 62, and his wife are criminal offenses.

According to the Daily Mail, Heywood shared a 250,000 (HK$3.1 million) Bournemouth seafront flat with Gu, who has been named the chief suspect in the Briton's death. He was found dead in a hotel room in Chongqing in November.

Gu's playboy son Bo Guagua, 24, is believed to have also occasionally stayed at the flat in Keystone House, which was listed as Gu's address in official records.Gu first arrived in Britain in 2001 to

set up a business in nearby Poole, the paper said.

Chongqing scholar Wang Kang told The Times that there was a definite romantic attachment between Heywood and Gu. He alleged that Gu, a lawyer, was denied any normal passion from her husband, who also wanted her to set aside her career ambitions. An early theory put forward concerning Heywood's death suggested he was killed after Bo found out about the affair.

Bo rose from being mayor of the port city of Dalian to governor of Liaoning province before serving as commerce minister from 2004 to 2007.

In 2007, he secured a place on the Politburo and became the top official in Chongqing. In a scandal that has rocked the mainland, Bo has been removed from his powerful position as the Communist Party boss of Chongqing.

Heywood, who had known the Bo family for more than a decade, was said to have confided in a friend about the alleged affair with Gu, saying it had left his life under threat.

Regarding their apparent love nest, another source told the Mail: "He stayed in the first room on the right."

Mainland websites are full of rumors that the pair were having an affair.

It is said Heywood later called off the relationship for unknown reasons. Sources suggest that Gu - who has bee arrested - was becoming increasingly paranoid.

Another claim is that Heywood was poisoned after threatening to expose a plan by Gu to move money abroad.

It was the first time a specific motive has been given for Heywood's death - which ended Bo's hopes of emerging as a top central leader and threw off balance the party's looming leadership succession.

According to the allegations, Gu asked Heywood late last year to move a large sum of money abroad and she became outraged when he demanded a larger cut of the money than she had expected.

'Universal' Vaccine That Could Beat 90% of Cancers Is Tested on Humans for First Time

A vaccine that targets a molecule in 90 per cent of all cancers has been tested on humans for the first time.

Results from the safety trial - on patients with blood cancer - found all had greater immunity to the disease after receiving the vaccine. Three of the seven patients who have completed the treatment are now free of the condition.

As a therapeutic vaccine it is designed to be given to patients to help their bodies fight cancer rather than the majority - known as prophylactic vaccines - that aim to prevent disease in the first place.

Researchers believe the jab could also tackle breast, prostate, pancreatic, bowel and ovarian cancers.

Even tumours that resist treatment with the best medicines on the market, including the breast cancer ‘wonder drug’ Herceptin, may be susceptible to the vaccine.

If all goes well, the vaccine – called ImMucin – could be on the market by 2020.

More than 300, 000 cases of cancer are diagnosed in Britain each year and the disease kills around half this number annually.

Rather than attacking cancer cells, like many drugs, the new treatment harnesses the power of the immune system to fight tumours.

The search for cancer vaccines has until now been hampered by fears that healthy tissue would be destroyed with tumours.

Researchers from the drug company Vaxil Biotheraputics and Tel Aviv University

have focused on a protein called MUC1 that is made in bigger amounts in cancerous cells than in healthy ones.

Not only is there more of it, but a sugar that it is ‘decorated’ with has a distinctive shape.

The vaccine ‘trains’ the immune system to recognise the rogue sugar and turn its arsenal against the cancer.

The misshaped MUC1 sugar is found in 90 per cent of all cancers. There have been ‘dramatic’ results in tests on mice with breast tumours.

Now,

Vaxil Biotheraputics have announced promising results in a human safety trial.

Ten patients

suffering from multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, have now received the vaccine received the vaccine

at the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem.

Seven of the patients have finished the treatment and Vaxil reported that all of them had greater immunity against cancer cells compared to before they were given the vaccine. Of the seven, three patients are reportedly free of detectable cancer.

None of them have reported suffering side-effects apart from minor irritation.

A statement from Vaxil Biotheraputics said: 'ImMucin generated a robust and specific immune response in all patients which was observed after only 2-4 doses of the vaccine out of a maximum of 12 doses.

'In some of the patients, preliminary signs of clinical efficacy were observed.'

Years of large-scale human trials will be needed before the drug is judged safe and effective for widespread use in hospitals.

It could then be used with existing drugs to boost treatment and given to prevent tumours from coming back after surgery.

Men and women known to be at high risk of cancer because of their genes could also be vaccinated in an attempt to stop tumours from appearing.

Dr Caitlin Palframan, of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: ‘This exciting new approach could lead to treatments for breast cancer patients who have few options.

‘It also opens up the possibility of vaccinating high-risk women against breast cancer in the future.'

China needs 'consistent policy' on South China Sea

23 April 2012

Philippine and Chinese vessels remain at a disputed shoal, two weeks after a stand-off began
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China needs a ''consistent policy'' on the South China Sea if it is to resolve disputes, a new report says.

The International Crisis Group said ''conflicting mandates'' and ''lack of co-ordination'' among Chinese agencies had stoked tension in the region.

Philippine and Chinese vessels remain locked in a two-week stand-off at a remote shoal which both sides claim.

Meanwhile annual joint military exercises between the US and the Philippines are continuing in the area.

While the South China Sea conflict has been a longstanding one, the number of maritime disputes has ''increased dramatically'' in recent years, the report by the think-tank notes.

This has led to ''concerns that China, Vietnam and the Philippines are growing more assertive on this issue, endangering regional stability'', it says.

In China, many government agencies are using this issue to bolster their power and budget, it says.

Repeated proposals for ''a more centralised mechanism'' have not been met, it adds, and the foreign ministry ''does not have the authority or resources to manage other actors''.

''More immediate conflict risks lie in the growing number of law enforcement and paramilitary vessels playing an increasing role in disputed territories without a clear legal framework,'' it says.

The findings are based on interviews with officials, academics, diplomats, journalists and industry experts in fishing, tourism and oil, from China, South East Asia, Taiwan, Japan and the US.

'Meddling and intervention'
Six countries claim competing sovereignty over areas in the South China Sea, parts of which are believed to contain significant deposits of oil and gas.

Along with China and the Philippines, they are Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan.

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“
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Anyone with clear eyes saw long ago that behind these drills is reflected a mentality that will lead the South China Sea issue down a fork in the road towards military confrontation ”

Liberation Army Daily
Commentary
China's claim includes almost the entire South China Sea, well into what the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea recognises as the 200-mile-from-shore Exclusive Economic Zones of other claimants.

That has led to occasional flare-ups and to competition to occupy islands, reefs and sandbars.

The latest incident sparked when a Philippines warship found eight Chinese fishing vessels at the Scarborough shoal - which both sides claim - when it was patrolling the area on 8 April.

When navy personnel boarded the Chinese fishing vessels, they found a large amount of illegally-caught fish and coral, Manila said.

Two Chinese surveillance ships then arrived in the area, preventing the navy from making arrests.

Attempts to resolve the stand-off have not yet been successful. The Philippine warship has been replaced by a coast guard vessel and the Chinese fishermen have gone, but two Chinese vessels remain there.

China has also expressed anger at the annual US-Philippines military exercises, due to run until 27 April.

This year they are taking place off Palawan, near the disputed Spratly islands which both Manila and Beijing claim. The joint exercises involve some 7,000 troops, including more than 4,000 from the US.

With China asserting its claims more aggressively the US has been strengthening old friendships in the region, says the BBC's John Sudworth reporting from the South China Sea on the exercises.

This week, three US ships are also in Vietnam for a five-day naval exchange involving salvage and disaster training. No live fire drills are planned.

On Saturday, the official paper of the People's Liberation Army published a commentary lashing out at the US for ''meddling and intervention''.

"Anyone with clear eyes saw long ago that behind these drills is reflected a mentality that will lead the South China Sea issue down a fork in the road towards military confrontation and resolution through armed force," the commentary said.