´óÏó´«Ã½

Brazilian President Lula after polls on Sunday. The favourite didn't quite make the 50% needed to avoid a second round run-off with his opponent Geraldo Alckmin. He was the first left-wing president to hold office in Brazil for 50 years, and is still the poor man's favourite despite a series of corruption scandals involving his Workers party. So what do Brazilians make of the election result? What do they make of Lula?

, but this time its because of fighting between factions loyal to Fatah and Hamas.
Clashes broke out as militiamen loyal to the ruling party Hamas tried to break up protests by police and civil servants against unpaid wages. Is there any hope of any kind of peace in Gaza? Is the place falling apart? What can be done?

The Zambian election, which took place on Thursday, has been relatively peaceful and fair affair - with international observers praising them as being generally efficient and transparent. But on Sunday, violence broke out as the interim results began coming through. The opposition leader Michael Sata slipped into 3rd place from 1st. Protestors took to the streets and riot police moved in. The results may be announced today - but will anyone accept it? Would be good to hear from Zambians themselves - do they feel there was any fraud? Or was the trouble a minor blip in an otherwise exemplary election?

It has got me thinking... with one election after another across the world, how many can be called truly democratic? Or fair? What does "democratic" mean to you? Is there ever an election where there aren't claims of fraud by the losing party? How does it work in your country?

For example, after their disputed July election, for decades the Egyptian presidential election consisted of one candidate, the incumbent President Mubarak, of its annulled April election, and even in the UK there were allegations of .

There is the Republican senator to a 16 yr old messenger boy - Mark Foley resigned when confronted about it last week and police are investigating whether he has broken the law. And he is no ordinary senator, but the man who introduced legislation against adults who prey on vulnerable children and even set up a hotline so people could report suspect websites to the police. Democrats and Republicans are now bickering over who knew about this for how long.

Italy is talking about a 10 year old from Belarus who says she was abused in an orpanage there. She hoped to stay in Italy with a couple who wanted to adopt her, but the Italian courts agreed to send her back. The case had even sparked between Italy and Belarus.

Well a new shcool of excellence in Britain is being set up to achieve just that. Can standing around throwing a sharp object a few feet really be a sport? What other events do you think should be made into an Olympic sport?

after 4 Russian soldiers were arrested in Georgia for spying. The Russians in turn halted the withdrawal of their troops (a leftover from the days when the Georgia was part of the Soviet Union). Things appear to have settled down as the soldiers (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe)

We wonder how Georgians and Russians feel about the row.... is what some of the European press think.

And back the US, where mid-terms elections are approaching. On one front from the opposition is being led by a revitalised Bill Clinton who has stepped off the lecture circuit to take a swipe at Bush and the Republican party. He has done several strong interviews recently, here is one on .

And on another front, hopes to win the seat of Texas governor as an independent. We'd like to hear from Texans about the prospect of "KInky" being in charge...

Oh and . It says this was enforced by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope. The Vatican is unsurprisingly angry at this... But with one scandal after another revealing itself, often after many years have gone by, does anyone believe there was cover up?