SMOOTH FINISH: An artist paints Thangka at the Third Thangka Art Exhibition in Lhasa on August 3. More than 230 paintings of the Tibetan Buddhist silk canvas tradition were shown at the exhibition (XINHUA)

Nuclear Transparency

China's largest nuclear power company announced it would hold annual open house events every August 7 to make its operations more transparent.

The China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), operator of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant in Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province, said on August 7 the move will help boost public trust in the safety of nuclear power.

The 2011 leakage of radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has raised concerns about nuclear safety in China.

A planned CGN nuclear fuel processing project in Guangdong's city of Heshan was cancelled in July due to opposition from local residents.

CGN supplies 53 percent of China's nuclear power. It is the largest builder of nuclear power plants in the world and its Daya Plant is currently China's largest.

Free HIV Therapy

Authorities have set up a pilot program in 12 counties and cities in nine provinces to provide free one-stop antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS patients, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on August 2.

Patients in areas where the trial is being conducted will receive rapid access to antiretroviral therapy if they are diagnosed with HIV, the center said.

According to the center's AIDS Treatment and Care Division, HIV/AIDS patients used to spend two months traveling between local disease control centers and hospitals to receive the therapy.

According to statistics from the center's nationwide surveillance network, China has more than 390,000 registered HIV/AIDS patients.

Misinformation Control

Five portals and Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging service, jointly launched a website on August 1 to refute online misinformation. The portals include Qianlong, Sogou, Sohu, Netease and Baidu.

The website collects statements from microblogs, news portals and China's biggest search engine, Baidu, to refute false rumors and expose phishing websites.

The site operates under the instruction of the Beijing Internet Information Office and the Beijing Internet Association, a non-profit social organization.

The first phase of the new website has been completed. Operators of the platform will spend another year finishing the second phase. Once complete, entertaining and interactive programs will be introduced to encourage the public to report online false rumors.

Family Planning Shift

The National Health and Family Planning Commission denied a timetable had been determined to relax the country's family planning policy by 2015 to allow more couples to have two children, China Daily reported on August 7.

The commission, however, did confirm media reports that an update is on its way. In the new plan, couples will be allowed to have a second child if at least one parent has no siblings.

Currently, the policy permits couples to have two children if both parents are the only children. It is one of several exceptions to the rule in which most couples have been restricted to just one child since the late 1970s.

In most rural areas, families can apply to have a second child if their first-born is a daughter.

The commission also announced that there will be favorable measures for families that adhere to the current policy in respect to elderly care and medical care services.