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Robert talks with Sunday Times reporter Cornia Pretorius in Johannesburg, South Africa about recommendations by a committee of teachers to stop the use of certain books -- including some by Shakespeare and Nadine Gordimer -- in high schools and college.

In South Africa, where an AIDS crisis is raging, activists are working -- against the pharmaceutical companies who make AIDS drugs -- to get remedies to victims of AIDS. NPR's Brenda Wilson tracks the competing interests of those who make, and need, one particular AIDS drug: fluconazole.

NPR's Brenda Wilson reports on a court case starting this week to block South Africa from importing cheaper AIDS drugs. The pharmaceutical industry is trying to strike down a law allowing the government to bring in the generic medicines.

Hidden in the dense forest of central Africa lies a clearing where each day and night, dozens of elephants gather. African forest elephants are elusive, and such a clearing is rare. NPR's Alex Chadwick takes you there on the latest Radio Expedition, for Morning Edition.

The court case brought by the world's pharmaceutical companies against the South African Government has been postponed until mid April. The companies are trying to block a law that allows South Africa to import generic drugs or authorize their manufacture. The postponement gives the companies time to respond to the inclusion in the case of testimony by the country's leading AIDS activists. Brenda Wilson reports from Pretoria.

NPR's Alex Chadwick has the last of three reports on the megatransect: a year-long journey across part of Africa undertaken by field scientist Michael Fay. Fay is walking from the northern Congo basin to the Atlantic coast, following animal trails where there are no roads, foot paths, or villages. Today, he talks with Chadwick by satellite phone as he camps out in the mountains of southwestern Gabon .

Host Bob Edwards talks to Sen. Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee. The surgeon and Chairman of the African Affairs subcommittee says the United States needs to provide significantly more money to fund AIDS treatment programs in developing countries, especially in Africa. He says the U.S. has "a moral obligation to do everything possible to have AIDS drugs flow to those countries at as low a price as possible."

Stephan Micusc is a German musician who collects obscure instruments from around the world, and then learns to play them. He's been making records for twenty years, featuring lush combinations of instruments that, to his knowledge, have never been played in an ensemble before. His latest CD, The Garden of Mirrors, features a harp from Gambia, an Irish tin whistle, a Japanese flute, and steel drums from Trinidad, just to name a few of the instruments. Micus has multi-tracked his own voice to accompany his unique compositions, creating a choir that evokes the black township choirs of South Africa. Charles de Ledesma has a review of the disc. (4:30) The Garden of Mirrors, by Stephan Micus is copyright 2000, ECM Records.

Will he or won't he? South African President Mbeki is scheduled to speak to parliament tomorrow, where he may make a historic pronouncement regarding the AIDS health crisis. During the question time, he will be asked why the government hasn't yet declared a state of emergency, which would allow it to bypass international trade agreements and allow the importation and manufacture of cheaper, generic AIDS drugs. NPR's Brenda Wilson reports from Johannesburg.

A consortium of AIDS drug makers is suing the South African government, trying to block a law they say will erode their patent rights...and their profits. The law would allow the government to import generic drugs or authorize their manufacture, if needed drugs are priced too high. AIDS activists want the government to implement the law, so that the estimated four million infected with H-I-V will have access to life-sustaining drugs. NPR's Brenda Wilson reports from Johannesburg.