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Renee Montagne brings us an update on the memorial service for the late president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.

Mike Shuster talks with James Hersov, who's just produced The Great Dance: A Hunter's Story. The film is said to be the first production made in collaboration with the San, the first people of Africa. Hersov says the San still practice much of their indigenous culture, but elements of modern society are creeping into their lives. He says The Great Dance is an attempt to show how the San view their world.

The U.N. special envoy for AIDS in Africa praises President Bush's pledge to combat global AIDS. Half of the $15 billion program would be spent on treatment, a third on prevention and the rest on care. NPR's Bob Edwards talks to Rachel Swarns of The New York Times.

In part two of our series on the "Megatransect", an attempt by wildlife biologist Mike Fay to walk from the center of Africa to its eastern coast, Fay describes his journey through the Congo Basin. The region is filled with dense jungles and swaps. And it harbors some of the deadliest diseases known to man. Through his recorded field diary, Fay relates the difficulty his team faced as it trekked through a part of the world no human has seen in more than a century. (8:49

A former U.S. Army sergeant pleaded guilty today to conspiring with Saudi-born dissident Osama Bin Laden to bomb two American embassies in Africa. Ali Mohamed, an Egyptian native, is among seventeen people indicted for the attacks on the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 220 people in 1998. Appearing in federal court in New York City, Mohamed admitted to working with the organization known as Islamic Jihad to attack Western targets. Mohamed left the U.S. Army in 1989.

The cost of AIDS drugs keeps going down in the countries hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic. Yesterday, the giant pharmeceutical company Merck announced that it would lower prices for three important AIDS drugs, and just after that, two other companies that make generic AIDS drugs offered to sell their versions to the government of South Africa. There's a price war going on. NPR's Brenda Wilson in Johannesburg talks with host Robert Siegel about the issue.

NPR's Brenda Wilson reports on 11-year-old Nkosi Johnson, South Africa's youngest AIDS activist. At last summer's International AIDS conference, Nkosi made a moving speech, a plea really, for acceptance of people with AIDS. Now, he's in a coma, dying of the disease. But his courage and activism have left a mark on the country.

Later this month, the Democratic Republic of Congo is scheduled to hold its first free elections in almost a half a century. They're the most expensive elections ever held in Africa, with international donors spending more than $400 million on the polls.

Fernando Meirelles, director of the Brazilian film City of God, joins us to talk about his latest movie The Constant Gardener. Based on the John Le Carre novel, the movie tells a story of love, betrayal and big pharmaceutical companies set in East Africa.

Near the southern tip of Africa, penguins have taken over some of the most valuable real estate on the continent. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports.