Search results for

During last day of his two-day visit to Nigeria, President Clinton was confronted with one of Africa's most desperate problems: the spread of infectious diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS. At a gathering of AIDS activists and health care workers, the president heard from Nigerians who have AIDS and from children whose parents who have died of the disease. NPR's Mike Shuster has more from Abuja, the Nigerian capital.

This is a great weekend to be selling used furniture in Burlington, Vermont. About 12,000 college students flood the area this time of year, and like most students on a budget, they are looking for an affordable way to decorate rooms and shared houses. Host Jacki Lyden speaks to Todd Myers, co-owner of Myers New & Used Furniture, about the annual boom in furniture sales.

Host Renee Montagne talks with Allison Des Forges, a consultant to Human Rights Watch Africa, about the on-going Burundi peace talks. President Clinton, as a personal favor to Nelson Mandela, will address the peace talks later today as part of his trip to Africa. Mandela was hoping to have an agreement from both the Tutsi-controlled government and the Hutu rebels before Clinton's visit, but that agreement has proved elusive.

Koreans living in this country watched with mixed feelings earlier this month when South Korean families were briefly reunited with their North Korean relatives after 50 years. There are no diplomatic relations between communist North Korea and the United States, and currently U.S. the government does not offer assistance to Korean-Americans seeking reunification with their families. Host Jacki Lyden visits the Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Vienna, Virginia, where she speaks to Koreans who hope the U.S. government will change its policy and begin assisting them in trying to locate their lost relatives.

Last week, the National Institutes of Health issued long-awaited guidelines that will allow scientists receiving federal funds to study stem cells taken from frozen embryos. The embryos used will only be those that are formed as a result of in-vitro fertilization, and are then abandoned at private clinics. Their use has been a deeply-contested issue. Host Jacki Lyden discusses the ethical concerns over this type of research with Dr. Arthur Caplan, Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennyslvannia.

This summer the World Health Organization rated the French healthcare system best in the world. Instead of crowing, French researchers questioned the methodology of the WHO study. The high cost of the health system has plagued the French government for a decade. Still, as NPR's Sarah Chayes reports from Paris, if you have the misfortune to get sick, France is a good place to be.

Commentator Jonathan Kaplan surprised a lot of people when he quit his day job to train full-time for a triathlon. He tells us about his decision.

Irish author, playwright and comedian Brendan O'Carroll speaks to host Jacki Lyden about his best-selling Agnes Browne trilogy, comprised of The Mammy, The Chiselers, and The Granny. The entire set is now available in U.S. The Angelica Houston film adaptation of The Mammy, called Agnes Browne, is available on video this month. (Putnam Penguin Publishers, 2000)

Tom Banse reports from Seattle that Americans living along the Canadian border have the option of watching live, unedited Olympics coverage on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

NPR's Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg reports that the creators of Curious George are about to introduce another character...an adventurous penguin. The penguin was actually invented before Curious George, but his stories have never been published...until now.