US: About 200 activists swarmed into New York's Grand Central Station yesterday, hung banners and chanted "Fight AIDS, not war".
Police officers arrested about a dozen people who sat down around the information booth in the train station's main concourse and refused to move at the height of the morning rush hour. Police did not have an exact number of arrests.
"This administration has abrogated its responsibility to the American public and people infected with HIV and AIDS," said Mr Errol Chimloi, of Housing Works, a group that supports poor people with HIV and AIDS. Government money "has been spent on the Iraq war instead of in our communities".
Protesters from the AIDS activist group ACT UP released two banners and balloons in the high-ceilinged concourse as thousands of commuters were arriving in the city for work. The banners said "America has AIDS" and "Cure AIDS".
Then 200 protesters strode into the building chanting "Fight AIDS, not war" and other slogans.
Police said more than 1,760 people have been arrested in a week of convention-related protests, a record for a US political convention.
Yesterday's protest by AIDS activists was the first of a series planned for the day.
They include an anti-war protest near the Madison Square Garden convention arena and a candlelight vigil during Mr Bush's acceptance speech.
The vigil was called by United for Peace and Justice, which accused the Bush administration of exploiting the tragedy of the September 11th, 2001, attacks at the convention. Almost 2,800 people were killed in New York when hijacked planes destroyed the World Trade Center.
"We call on New Yorkers and others to join us to say that we don't want the grief of September 11th to be used as a cry for war," said Mr Leslie Cagan, national co-ordinator of the group.
The same group organised a march on Sunday that drew hundreds of thousands of people to protest at the Bush administration policies.