France
commemorates World AIDS Day

The Paris branch of the nearly 20-year-old AIDS activist group ACT UP staged a protest on the eve of World AIDS Day, Le Monde reported Friday. Activists marched through the Place de la Bastille, a large square that commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison during the French Revolution in 1789, carrying blown-up photographs of French presidential candidates. They challenged politicians such as Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal to explicitly outline the actions they plan to take in response to the pandemic.

Jacques Chirac, the current president of France, spoke on Friday to remind audiences that despite significant therapeutic and educational progress, 7,000 French citizens seroconverted last year. He urged citizens not to normalize the disease as simply a fact of modern society. (The Advocate)