Around the world, AIDS fighters unite

World AIDS Day aimed to focus attention on the disease's spread. In a belated commemoration of World AIDS Day, Penn students draped the Button sculpture on College Green in black cloth yesterday -- a symbol of what AIDS can destroy. The Day Without Art, observed across the country Sunday, served not only to memorialize the victims of AIDS but also as a warning. Across the globe, taxi drivers, Roman Catholic priests and activists honored World AIDS Day by urging preventative measures to halt the spread of the HIV virus that has infected 3.1 million people in 1996 alone. In New York's Times Square, an electronic billboard flashed the message Sunday: ''Every second another person is infected with HIV.'' With this year's new HIV reports, the number of people infected with the virus that causes AIDS is up to 22.6 million. The death toll from AIDS is accelerating, according to the U.N. AIDS agency, with nearly a quarter of the 6.4 million AIDS deaths occurring in the past year. In South Africa, retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his fight against apartheid, appeared in a TV advertisement to warn: ''Our wonderful country faces a major crisis with HIV and AIDS spreading so fast. Please use a condom!'' In San Francisco, about 300 people gathered at a new National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park. The 15-acre grove of redwoods, oak trees, ferns and mossy rocks was designated a national landmark in a bill signed by President Clinton on November 12. President Clinton, in a statement, said the serene sanctuary ''will serve as a constant reminder of the vital work that lies before us in the battle to stop the spread of the HIV virus.'' Throughout the world on Sunday, people remembered those who have died. More than 400 people gathered in Tokyo for the lighting of a 20-foot tree bearing 12,000 red ribbons, the symbol of the fight against AIDS. Candles were lit at Madrid's Puerta de Alcala monument in memory of the estimated 5,000 AIDS victims who have died in the Spanish capital. Others demanded government action. In Philadelphia, members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, known as ACT UP, hung banners on the home of a state official to press demands for better care for people with AIDS. Those who help people suffering from AIDS were recognized by the Chinese government. The non-profit Tuesday's Child awarded those who help children with AIDS at a gospel brunch at the House of Blues in Los Angeles.

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