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President Bush's 2004 budget proposal includes major new health initiatives to address the AIDS epidemic in Africa and the Caribbean, as well as changes to Medicare and Medicaid. NPR's Julie Rovner reports.

For a brief history of Ivory Coast, Linda talks with Jeanne Maddox Toungara, Professor of History at Howard University in Washington D.C. Toungara lived and taught in the Ivory Coast for fifteen years, and has written extensively on the country. She says Ivory Coast is a former French colony. Its capital city was once thought of as the "Paris of Africa."

Palestinian peace negotiator Hanan Ashrawi. She is a member of the advisory board for the Council on Foreign Relations, the World Bank Middle East and Africa Regions and the UN Research Institute for Social Development. Ashrawi is the author of several publications supporting an independent and self-governing Palestine.

NPR's Joe Palca reports on today's partial eclipse of the sun. It's the first time since 1954 that there's been a partial solar eclipse on Christmas Day, but the last eclipse was only visible in South Africa. Today's partial eclipse will be visible across North America. More information on times the eclipse will be visible in your area is on the NPR website.

NPR's Melissa Block reports on the federal trial of four men believed to be involved in the bombings of two U.S. Embassies in Africa. One of the suspects, who claims he played no part in the 1998 attacks, says he was instructed to leave the country four months before the bombing even occurred.

1.2 billion of the world's six billion people live on less than a dollar a day, according to the World Bank's annual report on global development, released today. Sub-Saharan Africa is suffering the world's most dire poverty, while conditions in East Asian and Pacific nations are improving. NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports.

In Pretoria this week, court action resumes in a lawsuit that pits 39 major pharmaceutical companies against the South African government and AIDS activists. The drug companies hope to block a law that allows South Africa to import or manufacture cheaper generic medications. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports on what's at stake for each of the major players in the case.

NPR's Jon Hamilton reports on the 20-year patents Canada gives to pharmaceutical companies. The wealthy firms have powerful influence over which drugs are developed, and who can get them. The issue is at the center of a contentious trial in South Africa over that country's laws which allow generic drugs for AIDS.

A group of scientists reported finding a six or seven million-year-old skull in Chad, Central Africa. The specimen, the oldest hominid skull ever found, will shed new light on a mysterious period in human history. The new species has been nicknamed Toumao, a name for children born before the dry season in the African desert.

Africa is littered with the wreckage of international projects that started with pomp and hope, and then died as foreigners lost interest. Now, in Uganda, activists are trying out a model they hope will last: a health care system paid for and run by the people it serves. For All Things Considered, NPR's Joanne Silberner reports.