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The South African government, responding to public pressure, now plans to offer a medical treatment to pregnant women who are HIV positive. The treatment reduces the chance of the mother transmitting the virus to her child. Robert talks with Jon Jeter , Southern Africa Bureau Chief for the Washington Post.

The United Nations reports that some 14 million people in southern Africa are at risk of starvation, due mostly to drought and the effects of AIDS. But in Zimbabwe, the food shortage is made even worse by a government land-reform plan that has shut most of the nation's most productive farms. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports.

Africa has been rooting for Democrat Barack Obama from the very moment he announced he was running for U.S. president. Now the election victory of this son of a Kenyan father is being celebrated and savored all over the continent.

While the number of Catholics is dwindling in other parts of the world, the figure in Africa has doubled in the past two decades, to more than 100 million. Nearly 30 million Congolese are Catholic, and Pope John Paul II visited the Democratic Republic of Congo twice during his papacy. A look at the pontiff's legacy there.

More than 600 Florida guardsmen are on their way to the horn of Africa. They’ll participate in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pope Benedict's resignation kicks off a closely watched process to choose his successor. Some have put the odds on the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church coming from the Southern Hemisphere, and possibly from Africa, the fastest growing region for Catholicism in the world.

NPR's Kenneth Walker reports that South African authorities are attempting to seize white-owned farms, but more than 85-percent of the country's farmland remains in the hands of white people.

In the Horn of Africa, a drought is killing livestock across a wide swath of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. The United Nations estimates that more than 6 million people in the region are at risk of running out of food and water as a result of the drought if aid doesn't arrive soon.

It's been 10 years since South Africa held all-race elections and ended apartheid. The country has been been more successful than other African nations in its transition to democratic rule. Its stability is due in large part to Nelson Mandela, the man who ended apartheid and became the nation's first post-apartheid president. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports.

Carlos Santana is having a big year: the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the 20th anniversary of Supernatural, and now a new album featuring Spanish vocalist Buika, Africa Speaks.