As Ghana prepares for President Obama's arrival, excitement is running high among Africans both in Africa and in the United States. Will Ross, BBC correspondent in Accra, Ghana, joins The Takeaway to set the scene for President Obama's first official trip to Sub-Saharan Africa. Also, international business editor for The New York Times Marcus Mabry and Owen Kibenge, a journalist who recently left Uganda, discuss the challenges that Obama has faced this week at the G8 meeting in L'Aquila, Italy and will face during his brief stop in Ghana.

In Northern Africa, al Qaeda's affiliate has carried out a series of bombings, killings, and other attacks in recent weeks. The violence has raised concerns in the United States and Europe. Some analysts speculate this may be a criminal gang out for money, with no ideological agenda. Others say these are al Qaeda members fleeing Iraq and setting up shop in the Islamic Mahgreb, who will expand out of Algeria into other Northern African states. New York Times reporter Eric Schmitt joins The Takeaway with more of the story.

For more, read Eric Schmitt's article, Qaeda Branch Steps Up Raids in North Africa, in The New York Times.

President Barack Obama will meet with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican today. Catholics supported President Obama in the U.S. during the elections— he won the majority of their votes. But there continues to be friction between Catholics and the president over the issue of abortion. Joining The Takeaway is BBC Rome Correspondent David Willey who is at the Vatican today. Also joining the conversation is Cathleen Kaveny, the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law and Theology at Notre Dame University.

Scientists may have discovered the key to eternal youth: starving. A new report says that strict adherence to an extremely low-calorie diet can extend length of life. This has been shown to work on fruit flies, but now scientists have found the same results with primates. Joining us to explain the study and its implications for humans is Ricki Colman, associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin, who helped conduct the low-calorie experiments.

Sasha Baron Cohen has made himself famous by mocking himself and others in his roles as Ali G and perhaps most famously as Borat, the Kazakh reporter. Now he's turned his barbs on another group: gay Austrian fashionistas. His film Bruno opens today. Joining The Takeaway to discuss whether Mr. Cohen is mocking homophobia or homosexuals themselves is Alfons Haider, Austrian TV host of Strictly Come Dancing —the number one television show in Austria. Some say he's the person on whom Bruno is based. We are also joined by Rashad Robinson, the senior director of media programs for GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation).

Click through for a transcript of the discussion with Alfons Haider and Rashad Robinson.

To listen to New York Times Film Critic A.O. Scott's review of the film, click here.

Judge for yourself! Here's the trailer for Bruno

To get a sense of the mood in Africa on the brink of the Obamas' trip to Ghana, The Takeaway is joined by Alex Jakana. Alex is the host of the BBC show 'Africa, Have Your Say', which has been receiving messages from people all over Africa discussing the impending visit of the African-American president. The Takeaway also turns to Dr. Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, activist, and author of the book, The Challenge for Africa. Dr. Maathai joins us from Kenya.

Last month's retail sales numbers showed a decline of 6.7 percent. As the recession drags on, one American institution has been particularly hard hit— the mall. The economic downturn is emptying storefronts across America and is causing some owners to get creative, using mall space for new purposes: office space, water parks, classrooms. Joining The Takeaway is Rick Newman, Chief Business Correspondent, U. S. News & World Report and Mark Rowh, the vice-president for planning and advancement of New River Community College in Christiansburg, Virginia. His community college opened an outpost at the New River Valley Mall in 2007, which he says has driven up traffic and sales at the mall.

Robin Sparkles says it best:

Sasha Baron Cohen's latest feature film Bruno opens in theaters nationwide today. The film follows a gay Austrian fashion reporter who travels the world flaunting his homosexuality and his naivete, annoying people and eliciting their offensive—and often funny—reactions. New York Times film critic A.O. Scott joins The Takeaway with his review.

For more, read A.O. Scott's review of Bruno, Teutonic Fashion Plate Flaunts His Umlauts, in The New York Times.

To listen to our conversation with GLAAD's Rashad Robinson and Alfons Haider, the openly-gay Austrian television host (who Bruno might be based on), click here.

Watch a clip from the movie below.

In a gruesome story, police outside Chicago are investigating a scheme by cemetery operators to dig up graves, dump the bodies, and re-sell the burial plots. Over 200 plots in the traditionally black cemetery of Burr Oak in Alsip, Illinois, were opened and re-sold. For more details of the story, we go to Lolly Bowean, a reporter with the Chicago Tribune, who is covering the story.

The swine flu has been out of the headlines lately, but the H1N1 virus has already infected over one million people in the United States. Federal health officials are very concerned about a pandemic when flu season ramps up in the fall. The heads of several federal agencies including Kathleen Sebelius, the head of Health and Human Services, Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, are all working to try and prevent an epidemic. Dr. Fauci joins The Takeaway with his thoughts on beating the virus.

This morning, President Obama addressed the nation and the world from L'Aquila, Italy, the site of the G8 summit. His wide-ranging speech covered topics from climate change to the economy, from Iran to American health care. Joining The Takeaway to parse the president's speech are April Ryan, White House Correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, and The Takeaway's Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich.

Click through to read a transcript of President Obama's speech.