CARE FOR AIDS PATIENTS: Chinese President Hu Jintao shakes hands with two women infected with HIV/AIDS. He asked questions about the patients' health and living conditions at Ditan Hospital in Beijing on December 1, World AIDS Day (MA ZHANCHENG)

AIDS Day

President Hu Jintao called for spreading AIDS prevention knowledge to the public and helping AIDS patients, during his visit to a Beijing hospital on December 1, World AIDS Day.

A joint investigation by Chinese health officials, a UN agency and the World Health Organization found that there were about 700,000 Chinese living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2007, about 85,000 of whom were AIDS patients.

By the end of September, medical institutions had treated more than 54,000 AIDS patients, the traditional medical treatment for AIDS had been adopted in 15 provinces and more than 90 percent of the AIDS orphans had been helped to continue their studies.

The theme of this year's AIDS Day is "stop AIDS, keep the promise."

Graduates Recruitment

The Ministry of Education (MOE) said on December 1 it would recruit 30,000 college students as rural teachers next year, a move intended to ease employment pressure in China amid the global financial downturn.

The move is part of a larger drive by the MOE that aims to channel next year's estimated 6.11 million college graduates into jobs that need filling in the country's remote, less-developed west.

China introduced a plan to send college graduates to rural schools as teachers in 2006, and it is set to employ 100,000 graduates in villages over five years starting in 2008.

China has also offered government help in paying educational loans and fees for those willing to serve in the west.

Cuts for Cabbies

Officials in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, have cut the monthly fees that cab drivers must pay to their employers by 800 yuan ($118) effective on December 1, a local government spokesman said.

It was approved by the city government, the spokesman said.

A survey of cabbies found that those who rent their vehicles from taxi companies pay a monthly fee of about 10,200 yuan ($1,481). Drivers who own their cabs and have five-year operating agreements with taxi companies pay 5,000 yuan ($726) each.

High rental fees and competition from unlicensed cabs have been a factor in several taxi drivers' strikes in recent weeks. Strikes were reported in Chaozhou and Shantou, both in Guangdong; in the city of Chongqing; in Sanya, Hainan Province and Yongdeng, Gansu Province.

Satellite Launched

China launched a new remote sensing satellite Yaogan IV on December 1 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province.

The satellite will be used for scientific research, land resources surveying, crop yield estimates and disaster prevention and relief, according to its chief developer, Chinese Academy of Space Technology.

The satellite was launched on a Long March-2D carrier rocket. This was the 113th launch of China's Long March series of rockets.