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NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports that a U.S. government agency has promised one-billion-dollars a year in loans to help countries in Sub-Saharan Africa buy AIDS treatments from U.S. companies. But AIDS experts say the money represents only a small step toward addressing the huge problem of HIV infection in Africa.

NPR's Joanne Silberner reports that use of a more extensive screening test for colon cancer could greatly improve doctors ability to catch the disease in its early stages. But some health experts say it's not clear yet that the test is worth the cost and effort. The research appears in this week's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The diamond industry is proposing strict measures to stop the funding of African wars through diamond sales. So-called "conflict diamonds" from countries like Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have helped to fund bloody wars. A proposal to stop the practice was made at a conference called the World Diamond Congress today in Belgium.

Negotiations in the strike between members of the Screen Actors' Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the advertisers who hire them for TV commercials resume tomorrow. Strikers claim they've disrupted the industry. Ad companies say everything is humming along fine with non-union actors, and commercial production has moved to Canada and abroad. NPR's Aaron Schachter reports.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports that at the heart of the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians is insistence on ruling the tiny, one-mile-square old city of Jerusalem, a site sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians. Since its conquest of the city in the 1967 war, Israel has ruled the old city insisting that it must remain the undivided capital of the state of Israel. Palestinians are demanding sovereignty over, at least, the areas of old Jerusalem where Arabs are a majority.

Commentator Bailey White remarks on her niece's wedding. To get ready, the gal does a massive amount of cleaning, mending and building. This work strikes White as at odds with the bride dressed in innocent white.

NPR's Martin Kaste reports on a toxic oil spill that has poisoned a river in southwest Brazil, threatening wildlife and potentially ruining one of Brazil's most famous natural wonders, the Iguazu Falls.

During 36 years as a pipeline inspector, Stanley Rychlicki walked an estimated 136,887 miles. He received a certificate this week from Guiness and may be entered into the next Guiness Book of Records as a World Record Holder.

Linda talks to NPR's Howard Berkes about the indictment of two officials who had headed Salt Lake City's Olympic Committee. The two are being charged with conspiracy, racketeering and mail and wire fraud.

At the World Exposition in Hannover, Germany, organizers are disappointed at the number of visitors. NPR's Guy Raz reports that the failure to draw large crowds could be in part due to globalization and modern technology that makes travel to World's Fairs seem less remarkable. The poor turnout may also be due to bad press and high prices.