China is quite literally pulling out the heavy artillery to ensure that this year's Beijing Olympics go off without a hitch.

The event's official had unveiled their plans to seed any incoming clouds in the city with a combination of rockets, cannons, and even aircraft. More details on Beijing's war on clouds are available in the full article.

The next Olympic Games will be held in China and the country's government is doing everything in its power to make sure that it goes well. In an earlier story, we told you that Chinese meteorologists will use "cloud-seeding" to force a sunshiny Olympics. You think that's big? Get a load of this.

We just learned that this time that China is planning to build a highway on Mount Everest to clear the path of those bearing the Olympic torch. The world's tallest peak, locally known as Mount Qomolangma, is located in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

The proposed highway is designed to make the 108 km rough road connecting Tingri County of Xigaze Prefecture at the foot of the mountain to the Base Camp a smooth and paved one. Furthermore, the said highway will be fenced by guardrails and construction will begin from the camp itself (5,200 meters above sea level) downwards.

This project will take around four months to finish and has a budget of 150 million Yuan (US$ 19.7 million). The torch relay, if you want to know, will take around 130 days to finish and has a length of 137 kilometers. After the Olympics, the highway will become the main route for tourists and mountaineers planning to conquer Mount Everest.

You all know that up and coming Olympic Games 2008 will be held next year in Beijing, China. No problem? Well, not really because historical data states that the event will be greeted by rains starting from the opening ceremony on August 8, 2008 and way past the closing ceremony two weeks after.

Chinese meteorologists are saying though that they will force rain to fall way before the Olympics begin with the help of cloud-seeding. The process, basically, cleans up the air to ensure clear skies. But cloud-seeding is not something we can refer to as a scientific process yet as that matter is still being debated by scientists.

Actually, China has been trying to tweak the atmospheric conditions for decades now but the majority of the scientific community maintain that the science behind "cloud-seeding" is just plain weak. In fact, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences had already questioned this way back in 2003.

China, on the other hand, answered back that it is proven to increase rainfall. Last May 2006, Beijing Weather Modification Office claimed that they were able to generate more rainfall by firing seven rocket shells containing 163 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide over the city's skies. This, then, caused chemical reactions that forced four-tenths of an inch of rain.

The point is, we all want a sunny Olympics event. It has not been confirmed yet if cloud-seeding actually works or not. But for the benefit of the event, we well wish that it does.

A grand total of 132 racehorses were diagnosed with a mild strain of herpes several days ago following police investigations of deliberate horse poisoning in the city's racetracks.

Fortunately, the horses were declared out of danger by local veterinarians after appropriate treatment was applied. "The horses are showing elevated temperatures but they seem to have recovered after a couple of days of rest. Overall, the symptoms are very mild," said Brian Stewart.

Containment measures were also conducted to stop the spread of the infectious disease. The quarantine measures are proving to be effective as no additional cases have so far been reported.

Police are still investigating how a device found in one of the city's racetracks could be linked to the outbreak of herpes. A small contraption designed to shoot poison darts into the animals at the start of the race was detected and confiscated by law enforcers.

This places the 2007 Beijing Olympics in a precarious position as equestrian events have been moved to the freeport island from Beijing because of disease-control problems. A growing concern among the ranks of the international jockeys may derail the events or have them moved elsewhere. The Hong Kong Jockey Club which sanctions horse race operations in the area has declined to comment so far.