Singapore would swell if...

SINGAPORE, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia would see their populations triple if everyone who wants to move there were allowed to, a poll released on Friday by Gallup shows.

At the opposite end of the scale, the populations of Sierra Leone, Haiti and Zimbabwe would fall by more than half if migrants were allowed to leave at will, the poll found.

Gallup researchers interviewed nearly 350,000 adults in 148 countries between 2007 and 2010 to calculate each country's potential net migration score - the number of adults who would like to leave a country minus the number who would like to move in - seen as a proportion of the total adult population.

They found that Singapore's population of 4.8 million would increase by 219 per cent, New Zealand's population of four million would rise by 184 per cent and Saudi Arabia's population of 26 million would soar by 176 per cent if everyone who wants to come in and wants to leave, could.

Switzerland made it onto the list, which was first compiled in 2009, for the first time this year. Some 800,000 of Switzerland's six million citizens said they would like to permanently leave the country, while some 10 million foreigners said they would move there, given the chance.

The hefty influx of migrants to Switzerland versus the scant outflow from the Alpine country would mean its population would more than double, according to the Gallup poll.

The preferred destination of most would-be migrants is still the United States, although the already large US population - 300 million inhabitants - means that the impact is less acutely felt, Gallup said. The United States is number 14 on the net migration list. If everyone could come into the United States that wanted to, and all those who wished to leave did, the US population would rise by around 60 per cen

Most desired by migrants

SINGAPORE remained a top immigration hot spot for the second successive year in a global survey conducted by Gallup.

The city-state could see its population triple if everyone who wants to move here was allowed to, the poll released last Friday showed.

It found that, in that case, Singapore's population of 4.8 million would increase by 219 per cent.

The second-most popular destination was New Zealand, whose population of four million would rise by 184 per cent. Third was Saudi Arabia, whose population of 26 million would soar by 176 per cent if everyone who wants to come in and wants to leave, could do so.

Gallup researchers interviewed nearly 350,000 adults in 148 countries between 2007 and this year to calculate each country's Potential Net Migration Index (PNMI).

The PNMI is the estimated number of adults who wish to permanently leave a country subtracted from the estimated number who wish to immigrate there, as a proportion of the total adult population.

Prostate Cancer

ONE in six men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, according to Kedah Medical Centre (KMC) consultant urologist Dr Murali Mohan.

Dr Murali said if at a locally confined stage, five years survival rate remains a 100 percent possibility but in cases of metastasis, five years survival rate is only about 35 percent.

He said prostate cancer was the second leading cause of cancer deaths among American men after lung cancer and those who are over 50 are advised to undergo a medical examination.

"Men always say they are in great shape and do not feel sick, but they are wrong, stop being stubborn and in denial, get tested because early detection of prostate cancer is vital for survival.

"If you live long enough, you will get it. If you have two relatives with prostate cancer, the risk is five times higher and if three or more of your relatives have it, you will definitely get prostate cancer," he told Bernama.

Dr Murali said prostate is a sex gland in men, the size of a walnut and responsible for producing fluid that sperm travels in.

According to Dr Murali it is located in front of the rectum, below the bladder and wraps around the urethra (the passage through which urine drains from the bladder to exit from the penis).

Prostate cancer risk factors are obesity, little physical activity, smoking and high intake of fatty foods, he explained.

He said the symptoms of this killer disease in early stages are aching pains in genital, lower abdomen, lower back and the patient would also have problems with their sexual functions.

The patient would also experience painful, frequent, urgent urination or slow urine stream and retention and sometimes have blood in the urine, he said.

"In advanced stages, patients will lose their energy, suffer persistent swelling in legs and pain in the back, spine, rib or hip.

"They will also have a hard growth on prostate and enlarged lymph nodes," he said.

Dr Murali said, there are three stages in prostate cancer detection; stage one was annual digital rectal checkup whereby a doctor would insert a gloved, lubricated finger into the patient's rectum to try and feel for enlargement, lumps and tenderness of the prostate.

Stage two is prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing; the cell activity in prostate produces PSA and higher than average PSA levels in the bloodstream is a sign of abnormal cell multiplication in the prostate.

Meanwhile, stage three is prostate biopsy; a thin needle is inserted into suspect areas and small sections of tissue are retrieved for analysis.

"Stage one and two is the locally confined stage, while stage three is locally advanced and the cell has spread to seminal vesicles and stage four is advanced and the cancer cell has spread to bladder, rectum and spine.

"For stage one and two I normally monitor the growth regularly and if the cells growth accelerates, the procedure is to do surgical removal of the entire prostate," he said.

Dr Murali said other treatments are external beam (for any stage), cryosurgery (reserved for salvage) and hormonal (chemo) therapy for late stages or metastasis.

When diagnosed with prostate cancer, patients are recommended to keep calm, get educated and get a good doctor and talk to him, he said.

"Patients are also advised to talk to others with prostate cancer experiences and undergo an operation at a large urban centre," he said.

To minimize the risks of having prostate cancer, men are advised to have a healthy lifestyle, do regular exercise, eat more vegetables such as broccoli.

Taking supplements such as selenium is also recommended. Selenium can be found naturally in foods such as nuts, whole grain, cereals or meat and seafood.

Cancer: top economic killer

CANCER is the world's top 'economic killer' as well as its likely leading cause of death, the American Cancer Society contends in a new report it will present at a global cancer conference in China this week.

Cancer costs more in productivity and lost life than AIDS, malaria, the flu and other diseases that spread person-to-person, the report concludes.

Chronic diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes account for more than 60 per cent of deaths worldwide but less than 3 per cent of public and private funding for global health, said Rachel Nugent of the Center for Global Development, a Washington-based policy research group.

Money shouldn't be taken away from fighting diseases that spread person-to-person, but the amount devoted to cancer is way out of whack with the impact it has, said Otis Brawley, the cancer society's chief medical officer. Cancer's economic toll was US$895 billion (S$1.22 trillion) in 2008 - equivalent to 1.5 per cent of the world's gross domestic product, the report says. That's in terms of disability and years of life lost - not the cost of treating the disease, which wasn't addressed in the report.

The World Health Organization has long predicted that cancer would overtake heart disease this year as the leading cause of death. About 7.6 million people died of cancer in 2008, and about 12.4 million new cases are diagnosed each year. Tobacco use and obesity are fuelling a rise in chronic diseases, while vaccines and better treatments have led to drops in some infectious diseases.

Many groups have been pushing for more attention to non-infectious causes of death, and the United Nations General Assembly has set a meeting on this a year from now. Some policy experts are comparing it to the global initiative that led to big increases in spending on AIDS nearly a decade ago. 'This needs to be discussed at the UN - how we are going to deal with this' rising burden of chronic disease, said Dr. Andreas Ullrich, medical officer for cancer control at WHO.

China to overtake US next?

CHINA has eclipsed Japan as the world's second-biggest economy after three decades of blistering growth that put overtaking the US in reach within 10 years.

Japan is still far richer per person after confirming on Monday that economic output fell behind its giant neighbour for the three months ending June 30. However, the news is more proof of China's arrival as a force that is altering the global balance of commercial, political and military power.

Analysts are already looking ahead to when China might match the United States in total output - which the World Bank and others say could be no more than a decade away. 'This means the world will pay more attention to China, especially when most Western countries are mired in the bog of debt problems,' said economist Lu Zhengwei at Industrial Bank in Shanghai. Unseating Japan - after earlier passing Germany, France and Britain - caps three decades of breakneck growth that has cemented a dramatic change in China's place in the world over just the past five years.

State-owned Chinese companies have emerged as major resource investors, pouring billions of dollars into mines and oil fields from Latin America to Iraq. Chinese pressure helped to win a bigger voice for developing economies in the World Bank and other global institutions.

On a human level, China's rise has allowed hundreds of millions of people to work their way out of poverty and sent a flood of students and tourists to the West. Its consumers are so avidly courted that companies from Detroit automakers to French handbag producers now design goods to suit them.

Still, China's rise has produced glaring contradictions. The wealth gap between an elite who profited most from three decades of reform and its poor majority is so extreme that China has dozens of billionaires, while average income for the rest of its 1.3 billion people is among the world's lowest.

China's military clout grows

CHINA'S drive to transform itself into a major military power is being pursued in a secretive manner that 'increases the potential for misunderstanding' and military conflict with other nations, according to a new Pentagon report.

The Defense Department's annual assessment released on Monday says that Beijing is upgrading its hefty arsenal of land-based missiles, modernizing its nuclear forces and expanding its fleet of attack submarines.

Among the findings in the Pentagon report is that China has as many as 1,150 short-range ballistic missiles and is acquiring an unknown number of medium-range missiles. China also is developing artillery systems with the ability to strike across the Taiwan Strait, the report states.

The effort comes as China has suspended military-to-military talks with the US, which could reassure the US about the motives behind Beijing's military builup.

US-China relations have been particularly strained in recent months, as China rejected the results of an investigation blaming North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship. China's military buildup also is seen as a threat to the US ability to defend Taiwan.

The congressionally mandated report does not contain any surprises. It has long been known that China - emerging as a world economic powerhouse - is pouring billions of dollars into offensive and defensive military capabilities to protect its regional interests.

'China a developing nation'

CHINA'S government said on Tuesday it still is a developing country despite becoming the second-largest economy, reflecting its reluctance to take on new obligations on climate change and other issues.

Beijing needs to improve life for millions of impoverished Chinese, said a Commerce Ministry spokesman, Yao Jian. It was the government's first public reaction to news on Monday that China passed Japan in economic output in the April-to-June quarter, confirming its arrival as a global commercial power.

'China is a developing country,' Mr Yao said. 'The quality of China's economic development still needs to be raised. It needs more effort to improve economic quality and people's lives'.

Rapid growth has boosted the communist government's political and economic influence abroad. But Beijing has resisted adopting binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions or making commitments in other areas such as easing controversial currency controls or guaranteeing foreign suppliers equal treatment in government purchasing.

China overtook Japan after Tokyo on Monday reported quarterly gross domestic product of US$1.286 trillion (S$1.74 trillion), behind China's US$1.335 trillion reported earlier. With a population of 1.3 billion, China ranks among the poorest countries per person, with an average income of US$3,600 last year, compared with Japan's US$37,800.

China's government is in the midst of a marathon effort to spread prosperity from its thriving eastern cities to the poor countryside and west. Communist leaders are trying to diffuse tensions over a huge wealth gap between an elite who have benefited most from three decades of reform and the poor majority.