CNS PHOTO/JORGE DAN LOPEZ, REUTERS

Combatting AIDS

A nurse uses a syringe to give liquid medicine to a young HIV patient at San Jose Hospice in Sacatepequez, Guatemala.

Pope Benedict XVI, speaking about World AIDS Day Dec. 1, said his thoughts and prayers were with "the great number of children who contract the virus every year from their own mothers, despite the fact there are therapies for preventing it."