HIV is sometimes referred to as a disease of the gut because of the voracity with which it attacks a victim's gastrointestinal tract. As researchers look at ways to limit the disease's affect on the body, a simple, stomach soothing solution came to mind: yogurt. More precisely, yogurt infused with friendly bacteria. Scientist Gregor Reid joins The Takeaway to talk about his work with HIV patients in Africa. There, in Tanzania, he has helped teach a group of "yogurt mamas" how they might serve up disease protection one cup at a time.

For more information, head to the pilot yogurt program's website, Western Heads East. Read more about the group, as well as other probiotic research, by checking out the article, A cultured response to HIV, in the June 2009 issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

Photos from Gregor Reid's trip:

After a group of Somali pirates seized a freighter sailing under an American flag, the U.S. navy and the FBI have moved in to negotiate for the captain's freedom. The captain is being held hostage in a small life boat after the rest of the crew was released. The New York Times' East Africa Bureau Chief, Jeffrey Gettleman has been following the dramatic twist and turns of the crimes of the Somali pirates for months now and he joins us from the scene of their latest hijacking.

For more from the New York Times, read the article, Navy Tracking Pirates and Their U.S. Hostage.

Here's the AP report on the American crew taking back the vessel from the pirates:

It's the day after World Water Day, a day highlighting the issues facing countries with scarce water resources. The issue of clean water is clearly important, but Rose George, author of The Big Necessity, The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters, suggests we also need a World Sanitation Day.

For more on the importance of clean water and sanitation, watch the video from the International Federation Global Water and Sanitation Initiative (GWSI) in action at the Zambia Red Cross Society:

Sudan's troubled Darfur region has been in turmoil for years in a dispute that has killed over 300,000 people and displaced more than 2.2 million. Now there is word that the Sudanese government has signed a tentative agreement that could pave the way towards a cessation in violence. For more we are joined by the BBC's Karen Allen in Nairobi.

How would you react if you returned to your home to find that your neighbor had murdered your brothers and sisters? African musician Jean Paul Samputu experienced exactly that when he came home to his native Rwanda after touring the continent. While most would be dragged into anger and hatred, Jean Paul Samputu found the strength to forgive. He now travels the world preaching forgiveness. He joins The Takeaway before he arrives at an international conference on forgiveness taking place in Rwanda.

Obama-mania is hitting the world as the inauguration of the 44th President gets underway. But outside of the United States, change has already started to come to Iraq. For a look at how Iraqis are viewing the change in power in the United States, we are joined by BBC Correspondent Jonny Dymond from Baghdad.

Charles ''Chuckie'' Taylor Jr., the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, is scheduled to be sentenced in Miami today. In October he was convicted of torture in the first test of a 1994 law allowing the prosecution of U.S. citizens for alleged acts of torture committed abroad. Prosecutors are seeking a 147 year term. The federal courts reporter for the Miami Herald Jay Weaver joins The Takeaway to discuss this historic case.

For more information, read Jay Weaver's article 'Chuckie' Taylor faces life sentence in landmark torture case in the Miami Herald.

One of South Africa's most celebrated anti-apartheid campaigners has died at the age of 91. Helen Suzman passed away at her home in Johannesburg. For 13 years, she was the only member of parliament to openly condemn South Africa's whites-only apartheid regime. Here to talk about her life and legacy is BBC Africa editor Martin Plaut.

The Somali president, Abdullahi Yusuf, has announced he's resigning. Mr. Yusuf has come under increasing pressure since he tried to sack the Somali prime minister in a power struggle nearly two weeks ago. BBC's Africa editor, Martin Plaut, joins us now to explain more.

Somali pirates have been grabbing headlines for months for hijacking tanker after tanker. The Somali government is in shambles and its president is resigning and they are in no position to stop the insanity. But the international community has had enough and the snatch-and-get-paid schemes of Somali pirates may be coming to an end. Last week German fighter ships thwarted an attempted hijacking and now China has sent two destroyers to escort and protect its merchant ships. Chris Hogg, a reporter for the BBC, is in Beijing covering this aspect of the story.

To outsiders Zimbabwe seems to be in crisis. A cholera epidemic has killed over 1,000 Zimbabweans and the economy is in collapse. On Monday, the U.S. and Britain demanded that President Mugabe step down but Mugabe says he will never surrender. For insight into this transcontinental power-struggle, we turn to journalist Heidi Holland, the author of "Dinner With Mugabe: The Untold Story of a Freedom Fighter Who Became a Tyrant."

From Sudan to Somalia to Zimbabwe, nearly all of the news from the African continent seems to center on fractured leadership in nations torn apart by violence and mired in poverty. But Charles Stith, former U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania and editor of the book "For such a time as this: African Leadership Challenges," says there's a lot of good news to be found on the continent as well.

Hours after the death of the President in the West African state of Guinea, a statement from the military said it was dissolving the government. An army officer went on radio and television to say the army had taken over, and a body called the National Council for Development and Democracy had been set up to root out corruption.

The Takeaway gets a first-hand update on the worsening situation in Zimbabwe from U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee. He shares his thoughts on president Robert Mugabe, the cholera epidemic and the possibility of a power-sharing deal between Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition MDC.

A raging outbreak of cholera has struck thousands in the troubled African nation.

The BBC's Martin Plaut explains the close race in Ghana and a breakaway faction in South Africa.

There are major political developments across Africa.

A cholera epidemic and growing food shortages add to the problems in Zimbabwe.

A doctor in the Congo performs an amputation with the help of a text message.