China official
denies knowledge of missing AIDS activist

Chinese vice health minister Wang Longde says he has no knowledge of the whereabouts of missing activist Hu Jia. Hu, who has been highly critical of the government's AIDS strategy, went missing over a month ago. Hu's wife and friends have been unsuccessful in trying to locate him, and police and state security have refused to say whether they are holding him. "There are 1.3 billion people in China, and you ask me where one person is? How am I supposed to know?" Wang, who is China's top AIDS official, told reporters at an AIDS meeting this week. The World Health Organization's chief representative in China, Henk Bekedam, said the agency is following up on its inquiries to the Chinese government about Hu. "We have not received any specific details about [Hu's] whereabouts," Bekedam noted. (Reuters)