TIME TO MOURN: People pay tribute to victims of the Wenchuan earthquake at a memorial service on the damaged site of Beichuan County, Sichuan Province, on May 12. The 8.0-magnitude earthquake killed nearly 70,000 people in Sichuan and neighboring provinces (LI QIAOQIAO)

Supporting the Disabled

The State Council passed a five-year development plan for the country's 83 million disabled people on May 11, pledging better social security and public services to them.

The government plans to provide 1 million more job opportunities for disabled persons in urban areas and give aid to 10 million impoverished and disabled people in rural areas. It also aims to improve a network for rehabilitation of the disabled so as to ensure every disabled person gets access to the service by 2015.

China's disabled population exceeded 83 million at the end of last year.

Museum Theft

Beijing police said on May 11 they have apprehended a person suspected of stealing several art pieces from the Palace Museum on May 8 and recovered some of the stolen items.

The suspect, Shi Baikui, is a 28-year-old man from east China's Shandong Province.

Shi confessed he had stolen the relics in the Palace Museum and he has been detained, the police said. The stolen items were on loan from the Hong Kong-based Liang Yi Museum, including small Western-style make-up cases encrusted with jewels.

No New Viruses

The Ministry of Health said on May 10 no new or unknown viruses had been found in the country's self-proclaimed "HIV-Negative AIDS" group, and the cause of their AIDS-like symptoms have yet to be determined.

The conclusion was based on tests by domestic and overseas authoritative facilities, said ministry spokesman Deng Haihua.

The "HIV-Negative AIDS patients" said they displayed symptoms very similar to AIDS, such as swollen lymph nodes, subcutaneous bleeding, joint pain, fatigue, night sweating and loss of weight. They termed it "HIV-Negative AIDS," thinking they might have been suffering from a mutation of the AIDS virus, or a new unknown virus.

Citing the latest tests on 60 such "patients," Deng said no evidence suggested they were suffering from an infectious disease.

However, the tests found the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a very common virus of the herpes virus family, in 55 percent of the patients, according to Deng, who said further research needs to be conducted in order to determine whether the EBV is the cause of the group's symptoms.