California IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : March Honors AIDS Victims

Thousands of people gathered for an evening march and rally to remember those killed by AIDS and to call attention to the plight of those fighting the incurable disease. The candlelight procession, the eighth annual observance in San Francisco, was organized by Mobilization Against AIDS. The group also helped to organize AIDS awareness events and memorials in more than 200 cities in 47 nations, beginning earlier Sunday in Wellington, New Zealand. In New York, about 26,000 participated in the 10-kilometer annual AIDS Walk New York and raised $4.15 million in the fight against the deadly disease, the sponsors of the event said. The San Francisco marchers gathered downtown at Market and Castro streets, in the heart of the city’s gay community, for the march to City Hall. Coinciding with the San Francisco AIDS memorial and march was the fourth National AIDS Update Conference. The four-day meeting at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium runs through Wednesday.