This afternoon, CNN announced its coverage plans for World AIDS Day…

CNN and a team of correspondents positioned around the globe provide viewers with a sobering look at the effects of HIV/AIDS upon the world in recognition of World AIDS Day on Friday, Dec. 1. Coverage includes exclusive interviews with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and supermodel Iman as well as a replay of the CNN documentary Where Have All the Parents Gone? hosted by chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

The coverage begins on American Morning, where co-anchor Soledad O’Brien interviews Clinton about progress of the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS Initiative and a World AIDS Day address he delivered in New Delhi, India. O’Brien also interviews Obama about his recent trip to Africa to raise AIDS awareness and Iman about her “I Am African” campaign to raise money to fight the disease across the continent.

O’Brien also provides an in-depth look at Rick and Kay Warren, one of the pre-eminent evangelical couples in the United States, and their efforts to raise money and awareness to fight against global HIV/AIDS. The piece also examines an invitation from Warren, author of The Purpose Drive Life, to both U.S. Sens. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Obama to speak at Saddleback Church during its second annual Global Summit on AIDS in Lake Forest, Calif. Both men have agreed to take an AIDS test as part of awareness campaign.

For American Morning, senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta will provide an overview of the AIDS epidemic worldwide, while Soledad O’Brien and co-anchor Miles O’Brien follow up with CNN correspondents Jim Boulden in London, Alina Cho in New York City and Alphonso Van Marsh in Johannesburg, South Africa, as they provide updates in specific regions of the world.

American Morning broadcasts weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. (ET) on CNN/U.S.

For CNN Newsroom, co-anchors Heidi Collins and Tony Harris talk to Gil Robertson IV, editor of Not in My Family: AIDS in the African-American Community. The collects personal essays, stories, memoirs and polemics from a broad swath of black Americans whose lives have been touched by HIV/AIDS. The morning edition of CNN Newsroom airs from 9 a.m. to noon. (ET)

CNN International will devote its noon simulcast of Your World Today on CNN/U.S. to World AIDS Day coverage, which will include an interview with Robert Gallo, a professor who co-discovered HIV. The program will include reports from Beijing bureau chief Jaime Florcruz about China’s first free AIDS clinic; video correspondent Seth Doane about a brothel in India getting involved in the fight against AIDS; and U.N. correspondent Richard Roth examining efforts of the United Nations to deal with the AIDS epidemic worldwide.

CNN International also will have an exclusive interview with former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, who now serves as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund, and actress Lucy Liu, who serves as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.

For The Situation Room, correspondent Kareen Wynter travels to California to provide live reports about Saddleback Church’s AIDS summit. The Situation Room, anchored by Wolf Blitzer, airs from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. (ET)

For Where Have All the Parents Gone?, Amanpour travels to the slums and villages of Kenya and speaks with children, parents and communities that are all struggling to cope with the AIDS epidemic that is ravaging Africa. To date, HIV/AIDS has left 12 million children orphaned, and, in Kenya alone, more than one million children have lost their parents to AIDS. Where Have All the Parents Gone? airs during the second hour of Anderson Cooper 360° on Friday, Dec. 1, at 11 p.m. and replays on Saturday, Dec. 2, and Sunday, Dec. 3, at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. All times Eastern.

Online at CNN.com, video correspondent Alphonso Van Marsh writes about a prominent Johannesburg-area doctor who quit his thriving practice to set up the first and possibly only HIV/AIDS treatment clinic in South Africa’s rural northwest district. Medical correspondent Christy Feig writes on the “Paging Dr. Gupta” blog about an 80-year-old American doctor, Father Angelo D’Agostino, viewed as a hero amid the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Kenya. D’Agostino, who died recently built an orphanage for children orphaned by AIDS.

CNN Student News has prepared a background report to give educators, parents and students an overview about HIV/AIDS. The report can be found in “Extra!” located in CNN.com’s Education section at http://www.CNN.com/2006/EDUCATION/11/21/extra.aids/index.html.