Today's Story Line

If crime is going global, so must the FBI. The G-men are taking their international operations to a new level: US agents are now permanently based in Hungary to fight the Russian mafia.

For the first time in 25 years, Indonesia's government is scheduled to meet with Aceh separatists for peace talks today.

Fleeing the fighting, thousands of Sierra Leoneans are arriving in Freetown. But there is little food, water, or shelter. And international aid agencies have pulled out of the country.

David Clark Scott World editor

REPORTERS ON THE JOB..

FRIEND OF NEWTS: Reporter Alexander MacLeod first met Ken Livingstone, the new mayor of London, 15 years ago during a BBC radio interview. "If you saw him on the street, you wouldn't give him a second look. He wears a dirty raincoat," says Alex. "When campaigning from his purple bus, he often seemed ill at ease with voters, even a bit shifty - the kind of chap you might expect to keep newts as pets, which in fact he does." But, says Alex, Livingstone has a powerful presence on radio and television. "He comes across as personable, witty, and credible."

FOLLOW-UP ON A MONITOR STORY..

MEDICAL COSTS FALL: On April 12, Corinna Schuler reported that South African rape survivor Charlene Smith had collected 600,000 signatures as part of her campaign to get pharmaceutical companies to lower prices of medicines for treating AIDS and HIV. Yesterday, five leading pharmaceutical companies agreed to slash prices of these drugs sold in developing nations, announced the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). In sub-Saharan Africa, where some 80 percent of the world's cases of HIV are reported, the cost of "cocktail" medicines used to ease suffering is prohibitively expensive for most people.

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