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NPR's Richard Knox reports that the debate over AIDS drugs to the developing world is expanding to Latin America. The nations of Central and South America are actually better poised to take advantage of lower prices, because health infrastructures are more advanced. But pharmaceutical giants are already aiming to stop further erosion of their prices. Last week in Quebec City, new anti-generic rules were proposed that would protect patents on brand name drugs in Central and South America.

Journalist MARK BOWDEN His new book is called Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the Worlds Greatest Outlaw (Atlantic Monthly Press.) Its an investigation into the US government's role in bringing down Colombian cocaine kingpin and terrorist Pablo Escobar. BOWDEN will talk about Escobar, the world of drug trafficking and US/Colombia relations. MARK BOWDEN is a reporter with the Philadelphia Inquirer. His previous book was the award winning bestseller Black Hawk Down. A film adaptation is in the works.

The partisan battles of George W. Bush's presidency are swiftly being joined in the evenly divided Senate, where the change of a single seat could change the party in control. That makes every vulnerable incumbent a marked man, and no one is more aware of it than freshman Democrat Max Cleland of Georgia. A narrow winner in 1996, Cleland is already campaigning at full speed for his re-election bid in 2002. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

Three days after the Peruvian Air Force downed a small plane carrying a missionary family, military and diplomatic officials on two continents are still trying to sort out what happened. In Washington today, Bush administration spokesmen said the CIA had been involved in the drug interdiction effort that killed an American woman and her infant daughter. But they said the CIA-operated surveillance plane had no part in the decision that led to the tragedy. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.

President Bush campaigned last year on a promise to restore the power and morale of the United States armed forces. But this year he introduced his first budget with scarcely any increase in spending for the military. The president said he wanted to conduct a strategic review of all U.S. defense needs. That review is nearly complete now, and it appears some weapons systems long sought or supported by the Pentagon are on the chopping block. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports from the Pentagon.

NPR's David Welna reports on moves by some members in Congress to play a leading role on carbon pollution regulation in power plants. Earlier this week President Bush reversed a campaign pledge on limiting such emissions. But today a bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced a "Clean Power Act" legislation, designed to regulate power plant pollutants. The Bush administration is focusing more on anticipated power outages; earlier today, Energy Secretary Abraham predicted blackouts in California this summer.

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.

NPR's Elizabeth Arnold reports that the Bush administration is rescinding environmental regulations that were approved in the last days of Bill Clinton's presidency. The latest rules to be reversed include one that requires the mining industry to post clean-up bonds and another that would reduce arsenic content in drinking water.Earlier, the Bush administration cancelled a rule that would have required lower carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

In the final story in Morning Edition's series on literacy, NPR's Claudio Sanchez reports from Knoxville, Tennessee, on the inability of many college students to write college-level essays. Many four-year colleges are raising admissions standards or scaling back on remedial classes, so a good deal of remedial education now takes place at community colleges. Sanchez examines why American high schools graduate so many students who are ill-prepared for the rigors of college work.

NPR's Kathy Lohr reports on the national debate over minors' access to abortions. Many states have passed parental involvement laws. One mother says if the state had informed her, she could have talked her daughter out of having an abortion. Other parents say they should NOT be notified because the law forces some minors to go underground, where they get illegal and unsafe abortions.