大象传媒

This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 1 February 2011. Listen to the programme.

Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be taking your questions on World Have Your Say on Tuesday.

Released in November after seven years under house arrest, Ms Suu Kyi has become an icon of the democracy campaign against Burma's military junta. She won the 1990 election in the country, but the result was ignored.

She recently lost a court case to have her NLD party reinstated after it was dissolved for boycotting last year's election.

Since her release, she has been reunited with her son Kim for the first time in 10 years, and gone online for the first time.

What would you like to ask her? Leave your question here on the blog and we will try and put as many of them as possible to Ms Suu Kyi during the show.

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This topic was discussed on the programme on Mon 31 Jan. Click here to listen.

Washington and European capitals want to keep Egypt stable and allied to the West. Up until now, President Mubarak has been viewed as .

But now it seems they are if they should back him and push him to change, or to support an alternative.

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An American supermarket has caused outrage after US Weekly magazine which showed Elton John, his husband David Furnish and their new baby Zachary.

The Arkansas Harp supermarket censored the image with a cover which read: "Family shield: To protect young Harps shoppers." To view the picture click .

One shopper expressed her fury by taking a photo of the covered magazine and posting it on Twitter, sparking a debate on the social network site.

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This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 28 January 2011. Listen to the programme.

As protests continue across the Middle East, another in Egypt is due to take place after Friday prayers.

The internet and mobile phone signals have been interrupted and riot police have been deployed onto the streets of Cairo to keep control.

One told Al Jazeera he expected one million people to participate in the protests

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This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 28 January 2011. Listen to the programme.

Nelson Mandela has from hospital after treatment for an acute respiratory infection.

As the world watched and South Africa held its breath, officials moved to quell 48 hours of growing panic over the condition of the frail 92-year-old. In a press conference Kgalema Motlanthe, the deputy president, said and had been joking with him this morning.

There has been huge speculation this week after a has turned out to be more serious. Reuters say that Mr Mandela was suffering from a

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This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 27 January 2011. Listen to the programme.

Protests in Egypt are entering their third day, torched a police post and up to a thousand people have been detained. There is a pledge for more people to take the streets again tomorrow. Similarly protests have broken out in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa calling for the President to step down.

Like those in Egypt, they say they have been inspired by events in Tunisia earlier this month. In the past week there have also been rallys in Jordan calling for the government to resign over rising prices and unemployment.

While many of the protestors are drawing strength from one another, each country in the region has different challenges and pressures and political set ups. It's far from a foregone conclusion that what happened in Tunisia will create a domino effect.

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Protests have broken out in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa calling for the president to step down.

On Monday several activists who were detained at the weekend were in an attempt to pacify the protestors.

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As protests in Egypt enter their third day, the Egyptian authorities continue to crackdown on anyone involved. estimate that at least six people have been killed and 860 have been detained.

remains blocked and mobile phone networks have been disrupted.

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This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 26 January 2011. Listen to the programme.

It's a strange day at Bush House today after the 大象传媒 announced that it will be cutting 650 jobs out of 2,400 from the World Service. One colleague described it as if someone had died. Staff are digesting the news that five of the World Service's 32 language services will be closed; Macedonian, Serbian, Albanian, English for the Caribbean and Portuguese for Africa.

Here are the details of the cuts. It will also be the end of radio programmes in seven languages, including services to Russia and China, and medium and short wave transmissions will be reduced.

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This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 26 January 2011. Listen to the programme.听

Thousands of people were out on the streets of Cairo on Tuesday against the Egyptian government. Protests also took place in Suez, where two protestors are reported to have died, and in other cities around the country.

Many of the protestors said they had been inspired by the , where President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was forced from power earlier this month .

Social media is being used to spread information about what is happening. The Egyptian authorities have now blocked Twitter but images of the protests and messages of support are still being spread.

This talks about a growing street campaign in Cairo to support the protestors.

A spontaneous street campaign has also arisen around Tahrir Square, with verified reports surfacing of residents unlocking their WiFi signals so users can get around mobile phone outages and of restaurant owners giving the protesters free food and water.

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This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 25 January 2011. Listen to the programme.

It did not take long to establish that the attack at Moscow's airport on Monday was the work of a suicide bomber.

Aviation analysit Chris Yates told the 大象传媒 it was "an accident waiting to happen."

"Sooner or later, because of the way terror tactics have evolved, someone was going to enter an arrivals hall and blow themselves up."

Effectively, suicide bombing has become the method of choice for those wanting - for whatever reason - to destroy themselves, and other people, for their cause. But why? What has it ever achieved?

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- the idea that social media is distancing people from reality and each other is part of what some are calling an 'intellectual backlash' against the values and methods of modern communication.

That's what MIT professor Sherry Turkle argues in her new book, . She thinks people are being made "less human" by sites like Twitter and Facebook:

technology is threatening to dominate our lives and make us less human. Under the illusion of allowing us to communicate better, it is actually isolating us from real human interactions in a cyber-reality that is a poor imitation of the real world.

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Lots of you are getting in touch with the 大象传媒 after the explosion at Domodedovo Airport in Moscow.

At least 35 people have been killed: is following the very latest developments.

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**THIS BLOG POST CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE WHICH MAY OFFEND**

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Here's a transcript of a conversation about female assistant referees in football. It's between main football anchor Richard Keys and their star pundit (and former Everton and Scotland striker) Andy Gray. You can hear an edit of the exchange here. It wasn't broadcast on Sky, but it was recorded and leaked. Neither has been sacked.

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This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 20th January 2011. Listen to the programme.

A year ago he was hauled before the Chilcot inquiry in London to answer questions about decisions made in the run up to the war in Iraq in 2003. Today former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been there again to fill in some 鈥済aps in his evidence鈥�

So far today that Tony Blair privately assured US President George Bush 鈥測ou can count on us鈥� in the run-up to the Iraq war. And that he disregarded a warning from his legal adviser Lord Goldsmith that attacking Iraq would be illegal without further UN backing because it was 鈥減rovisional鈥�. It鈥檚 also been revealed that a year before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Tony Blair told his chief of staff the West should be 鈥済ung-ho鈥� on toppling Saddam Hussein.

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Baroness Warsi is seen as a fast rising political star in the UK, she鈥檚 the chairman of the Conservative party, which is part of the ruling coalition,听and the first Muslim woman to be a Cabinet minister. Yesterday she Islamophobia is not just rife in Britain but it鈥檚 also the last socially acceptable form of bigotry.

For far too many people, Islamophobia is seen as a legitimate, even commendable, thing. You could even say that Islamophobia has now passed the dinner-table test. So when people get on the Tube and see a bearded Muslim, they think 'terrorist'; when they hear 'Halal', they think 'That sounds like contaminated food'; and when they walk past a woman wearing a veil, they think automatically 'That woman's oppressed'. And what's particularly worrying is that this can lead down the slippery slope to violence.

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Hi, I'm posting this on behalf of Nicola Rattray, communications manager at St Christopher's Hospice in south London.

World Have Your Say will be broadcasting from St Christopher's Hospice on Thursday 20th January as part of the 大象传媒 Extremes series. A report by the , published in July 2010, said that due to the quality of palliative care on offer, the UK is the best place in the world to die.

We'll be talking to patients and their families to ask them how they feel about facing their illnesses and what St Christopher's has been able to offer them.

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St Christopher's Hospice was founded in 1967 by Dame Cicely Saunders and is now regarded as the first of the 'modern hospices'.

We provide palliative care delivered by specialist doctors and nurses to dying people from five south London Boroughs, covering a diverse population of around 1.5 million people.

We care for people with cancer as well as other serious illnesses, including Motor Neurone Disease, heart failure, chest and kidney disease. Everyone is welcome at St Christopher's, whatever their race, religion or lifestyle.

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Men accused of police, IRA members convicted of a aimed at the UK Prime Minister and now Charles Taylor. For thirty years Courtenay Griffiths QC has made his name as a leading barrister who's prepared to defend the notorious. On Wednesday he'll be taking your calls and questions on WHYS.听

Mr Griffiths has been called one of the most influential people in British law, he's outspoken on a range of issues and is now lead counsel for the first African leader to be tried for war crimes.听

Charles Taylor stands accused of 11 counts of terrorism, murder, rape and torture. Those of you who listened to the programmes broadcast from Sierra Leone in December will remember all too well the details of the civil war. The former leader of Liberia is charged with arming and directing rebel groups from the neighbouring country in order to take control of Sierra Leone's diamond fields. 听Charges Mr Taylor denies.

The court case is by no means over but you'd have already seen the headlines, particularly when Naomi Campbell and Mia Farrow testified. At the time Courtenay Griffiths was noted for his flamboyant style, one newspaper even printed a list of his "killer put-downs."听

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This programme was broadcast on January 18th 2011. Listen to the programme.

Those of you who know of Thilo Sarrazin are certain to have strong opinions on him. When his name came up during yesterday's programme in Berlin, there was a notable frisson among the group. He talks about subjects - Muslim integration, racial groups varying in their ability to learn, the dilution of national culture - that have been off-limits in the mainstream media in Germany. They aren't anymore.

His book - Germany Abolishes Itself - has sold in the region of a million copies and has shifted the whole debate on immigration in Germany. Thilo Sarrazin will be on the programme for the full hour taking your questions. We can't tell you which studio we're using in Berlin because of security reasons which tells you all you need to know about the potency of his opinions.

His book calls for various measures to tackle what he sees as a failure to integrate or contribute adequately. They include:

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I've been part of World Have Your Say for a while now so I thought it was about time I properly introduced myself. I joined the 大象传媒 World Service just over a year ago, fresh out of university and extremely excited to be part of such a well respected news institution.

I've worked on several other programmes in the department but World Have Your Say is where i'm happiest, and not just because of the abundance of snack food always on offer!

I talk A LOT, something which always got me into trouble at school and at home but which serves me extremely well on World Have Your Say. It's great to have a job where I spend large parts of day talking to interesting people from all over the world about such a huge variety of subjects.

When I'm not working I'm usually busy doing something. In my spare time I like to travel. I've lived in Argentina and Portugal and go back to Portugal often to visit friends and surf.

Apart from surfing I love most sports, although I am definitely 'jack of all trades, master of none' when it comes down to it.

Perhaps unusually for a girl, I'm a huge football fan. I watched nearly every game of the World Cup in 2010 and felt generally let down the day after the final when I realised that there was still a month to go before the football season started again in the UK. For my sins I support a team that doesn't play in the Premiership - Derby County - but I'm still hopeful that we will one day return to our former glorious selves!

One final thought: 'A family is a place where minds come together'. I forget who said that but it sums up really well what it's like to be part of the World Have Your Say team.

This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 17 January 2011. Listen to the programme.

We鈥檙e in Berlin, setting up for Monday鈥檚 programme which comes from theexhibition at the German History Museum, just opposite the Brandenburg Gate. Such an exhibition, in such a place, could not escape . Before its opening in October some warned it would become a shrine for neo-Nazis. Others accused museum authorities of seeking to glorify a tyrant.

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Update: All afternoon we have been hearing of new developments in Tunisia. President Ben Ali sacked the government before declaring a state of emergency in his country, which says that gatherings of more than three people are banned.

The latest reports from Al-Jazeera say that has left Tunisia and the army has taken over and the Prime Minister is now in control.

The situation in Tunisia is changing rapidly. For the latest updates, .

President Ben Ali has been President of Tunisia for almost 25 years; he won his fifth term with ninety per cent of the vote. Opposition groups said the vote was unfair, human rights activists claim his government jails opponents and clamps down on free speech.

Protestors fed up with the situation and angry at the lack of opportunities have taken to the streets. The government reacted with lethal force leaving 23 dead.

However, despite all this, last night the President appeared to make a dramatic In a speech to the nation Mr Ben Ali expressed 鈥渄eep and massive regret鈥� and went on to announce political change.

Only this week the President called the protestors 鈥渢errorists鈥� but now claims he was misled by advisors and troops have been ordered to only fire in self-defence. Measures to scrap censorship and slash food prices were also revealed.

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More than 500 people are now known to have died in the floods in south-eastern Brazil.

As we heard in our programme on Thursday, there have been desperate scenes as people tried to avoid the mudslides that engulfed towns such as Petropolis and Teresopolis.

And now with police saying the death toll will rise even further, questions are beginning to be asked about why the casualties are so high - particularly in contrast with Australia, which has also seen widespread flooding but with far fewer people killed.

Brazil's President Rousseff has touched on the subject, saying the destruction is an "act of God" - but also expressing anger at illegal construction:

"We saw areas in which mountains untouched by men dissolved. But we also saw areas in which illegal occupation caused damage to the health and lives of people."

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You鈥檝e probably heard of El Nino or 鈥淟ittle boy鈥� well there鈥檚 another equally damaging weather pattern called La Nina or 鈥渓ittle girl.鈥� The reason people have suddenly started talking about it is because it鈥檚 causing havoc on a .

There鈥檚 massive flooding in , Sri Lanka, the Philippines and now with many hundreds dead and millions affected. Meanwhile, drought is leading to a in food prices in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.听

Experts say the cooling of the tropical seas in the Pacific is having a knock on effect around the world. For a good explanation have a look at this 大象传媒 . La Nina is a regular weather pattern but it hasn't caused a major event like this since 1989.

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On Monday we asked if the shootings in Arizona reflected the state of political debate in the US, many acknowledged a problem with the type of language used but there was much discussion about whether it was new or dangerous.

Speaking at a memorial service yesterday, President Obama entered the debate. Mr Obama urged people to talk to each other in a way that healed, not in a way that wounded. The President said blaming opponents for 鈥渁ll that ails the world鈥� was unhelpful.

As the debate rages over the impact and nature of political debate in the US the question is will people listen to the President? We鈥檝e heard many liberal commentators label this shooting a wake up for America 鈥� but will anything change?

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This听topic was discussed on the 12th of January 2011. Listen here听

As of right now, Haiti will never rebuild. I mean I don't see any sign. For something to rebuild you have to see signs. You have to see hands put in. You have to see actions. You have to see talks. I don't see any of it.

That's Astrel Jacques speaking to Mathew Price on the 大象传媒. It was a year ago, that the Caribbean nation of Haiti was struck by a powerful earthquake that killed up to 300 000 people, and injured hundreds of thousands more. Since 12 January 2010, Haiti has also suffered a hurricane, floods, cholera and election violence.

WHYS has broadcast from and the in Port-au-Price.听On today's show, 大象传媒's James Fletcher in Haiti will be with Dris who blogged for us, and other Haitians you have come to know over the past year. We'll also have a local politician and aid workers take your questions. WHYS plans to go back to the Terrain Acra camp in the coming weeks, one year since we broadcast there. Here are some .

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Marcellin (right) with his mother (left) and sister (centre)

GUIDANCE: The blog contains harrowing descriptions of violence which some readers may find upsetting.

Some stories are better untold.

The genocide in my country (Rwanda) affected the lives of many, and its legacy is still being felt 17 years later.

I had believed that I could one day get away from the experience. But; for me, the nightmare still continues.

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This听topic was discussed on the 12th of January 2011. Listen here听听

Unfortunately WHYS all too often discusses violence between ethnic or religious groups. After a long civil war Sudan thinks it may have the solution to its tensions; split into two. It鈥檚 a little more complicated than that but dividing the Christian and Muslims populations is the essence of it.

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Like on Facebook for updates

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This topic was discussed on 11th January 2011. Click here to listen to the programme.

Amy Chua, a professor from Yale University certainly thinks so. In an published in the Wall Street Journal, she sets out why Chinese parents demand greater success from their off-spring and how they desire their kids to show success academically and musically.

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Western mums on the otherhand听are so scared of failure and their kids having low self-esteem that they allow mediocrity to be praised.

Like on Facebook for updates

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This topic was discussed on 10th January 2011. Click here to listen to the programme.

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Another grey morning in London today,听Nuala wrote about the shooting in Arizona over the weekend and I鈥檓 spending the early part of my shift moderating your blog posts and looking over comments on and . It wasn鈥檛 long before many of you started to draw a link between the tragedy and tone of political debate in the US.

London Ring Rules posts

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Politics desperately needs to right itself with truthful, civilized discourse conducted by honest brokers to avert worsening tragedies.

However many of you don鈥檛 see it in the same way, Jennifer writes:

The shooter was just crazy; and he is responsible for his actions. Sarah Palin should not be blamed for this shooting. I got the same email contribution request with the crosshair graphics that some are saying incited this violence. The implication that the crosshairs meant anything violent is inaccurate.

Of course Jennifer is referring to a much criticised campaign run by 2008 Vice President Nominee Sarah Palin. The campaign used to target key campaigns in the recent midterm elections. Mrs Palin is no stranger to using gun metaphors, she鈥檚 often used the phrase 鈥淒on鈥檛 retreat, reload.鈥�

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Commentators are saying it鈥檚 this kind campaigning that鈥檚 contributed to a highly charged atmosphere in US politics. Even Gabrielle Giffords herself warned of the repercussions of this kind of debate:

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The way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district, when people do that, they have got to realize there are consequences to that.

What do you think? Can you draw a link between the tragedy and angry political debate? The Sheriff investigating the shooting is quoted as saying 鈥淭he anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is .鈥� Is he right or is this simply the act of a deranged gunman? Is it wrong to read too much into this?

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Hi, I'm posting this on behalf of Anthony. He is another of our regular contributors in Ivory Coast.

A few days ago Toorey wrote a piece on life in Abidjan (you can read his post here) and we invited Anthony to do the same. He paints a different picture of the situation in the city. All these words are his own.

The latest development in the stand off

The status quo in the post electoral crisis in Ivory coast is one of the ugliest chapters of our democratic history. This impass has generated a fearful atmosphere in the mind of Ivorians.

Innocent people are threatened by the pityful military intervention issued by the international community to exterminate the Ivorian people.

At this moment, Ivorian whish the situation will go better having in mind that they belong to the same country.

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It's Saturday evening in London and I've just read about the Representative Giffords was shot in the head at a public meeting outside a shopping centre in Tucson, Arizona. She is in critical condition, surgeons have said they are optimistic about her recovery. Six others were killed by the gunman including a nine-year-old girl and a federal judge named John Roll. In addition at least 9 more have been wounded in the attack which took place in front of hundreds at the gathering. The shootings immediately raised questions about potential political motives, but officials did not speculate about what might have provoked the shooting. There is, as you can, imagine a massive response to the event across the United States. Some are finger-pointing, others expressing shock and sympathy. Here's a as it unfolds from the New York Times. 听And here's a round-up of what the US media are saying.

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This topic was discussed on 7th January 2011. Click here to listen to the programme.

Naomi Wolf, author of is causing quite a stir with her latest and she'll be with us today from New York to take your questions and comments.

Wolf argues that Julian Assange's sex-crime accusers deserve to be named and that the shielding of sex-crime accusers is a Victorian relic. Women are moral adults and should be treated as such and that feminism doesn't mean special treatment, it means equality. Wolf also believes when accusers are identified, it becomes clear that rape can happen to anyone. Stereotypes about how "real" rape victims look and act fall away, and myths about false reporting of rape relative to other crimes can be challenged.

To say it has provoked debate is an understatement. The blogosphere is alive and tweeting. Here's a little of what you are saying:

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This topic was discussed 6th January 2011. To listen click here

There is a new edition of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn in which the offensive racial epithets "injun" and "nigger" are replaced by "Indian" and "slave" respectively and there is a huge debate about the changes.

The debate isn't about whether these words are offensive, but about if it makes sense to retrospectively edit a work of literature so it matches our current view of what words, language and beliefs are acceptable.

听in The Guardian:

'the new edition expunges its repeated use of the n-word for understandable reasons, but betrays a great anti-racist novel in the process'

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This topic was discussed on 6th January 2011. Click here to listen

One of our Pakistani guests on yesterday's programme said to me after we'd come off air, 'that was one of the saddest hours of my life'. He was referring to the number of Pakistanis who spoke or emailed to say that Salman Taseer deserved to die. That same despondency can be seen in any number of blogs and articles written by those Pakistanis who shared the former Governor of Punjab's vision for a moderate, liberal and tolerant nation.

We'll bring some of them together to discuss where they go from here.

, by a US presidential panel, has said failures of BP were "systemic" - and were likely to happen again unless there were reforms in the oil industry.

Perhaps most damningly, the chapter of the report detailing the circumstances of the actual explosion is headed with this quote from an internal BP email:

"But, who cares, it's done, end of story, [we] will probably be fine and we'll get a good cement job."

However, from BP's perspective, the key phrase in the report may be that the disaster was due to "multiple causes and multiple companies."

Certainly, it's what they have emphasised in their reaction to the report's findings.

BP's shares as a result of the report. So has BP got away with it?

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Hi, I'm posting this on behalf of Toorey. He lives in Abidjan in Ivory Coast and has been speaking to us on the programme over the last few weeks about what life has been like in the city since the disputed election result.

Toorey is frustrated that the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, will not step down. He believes Alassane Outtara should lead Ivory Coast.

We have also asked Anthony, another regular contributor, who is more sympathetic towards Laurent Gbagbo, to write a piece for the blog. I will be posting what Anthony has to say in the next couple of days.

Money
Abidjan is now the shadow of what it was before.

Since the majority of the population is living on small businesses, small business men are facing a real deadlock. There are no sales because people lack money, partly due to the fact that many companies have closed and those still surviving have paid about 2/3 of the salaries to their employees. So money has broadly become a very scarce resource.

With money missing, the quality of life of Ivorians in Abidjan has declined to alarming proportions. Much more concerned with their survival, many Ivorians are at least two months behind with their rents.

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This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on Wednesday 5 January 2011. Click here to listen.

There are great tensions in Pakistan following the assassination of the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, by his bodyguard yesterday.

Mr Taseer was shot by Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, who is now being held by police. His funeral will be held later on Wednesday. Qadri is reported to have been angered by Mr Taseer's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy laws.

The are a source of great controversy in the country. They prohibit and punish blasphemy against Islam, with the punishments ranging from fines to death.

Mr Taseer knew that by taking them on, he was putting his own life at risk. On his , Mr Taseer had said:

I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightest pressure on blasphemy.Refused. Even if Im the last man standing

as recently as last Friday in protest at his efforts.

So are extremists holding Pakistan to ransom? And if so, are they cause of the country's deeper problems?

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This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on Tuesday 4 January 2011.听Click here to listen.

Update: After an attack on a church congregation in the early hours of New Years day Christians in Egypt are desperate to make a point. They鈥檝e clashed with Police every night since the bombing and in Cairo last night there was a riot in the North of the city.

One protestor said the situation in the country is critical at the moment:

It's driving all of Egypt into a volcano. People need to take initiative, people need to wake up, and people need to look out for our rights. We are not a minority. This is our country just as much as it is the Muslims听 We have a presence in the country, and we have to be considered, but we are completely placed on the sidelines.

Christians make up ten percent of the population in Egypt. This attack has sparked a debate in the country and people are discussing听the role of Christians in the nation and the wider Arab world. What do you think? Do Christians have a future in the Middle East?

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When there was an electoral stand-off in Zimbabwe, power-sharing was the solution and Robert Mugabe remained President. In Kenya, power-sharing was also the preferred route to peace and Mwai Kibaki remained President. (In both cases the opposition leaders, Morgan Tsvangirai and Raila Odinga, became Prime Minister.)

The calculation was made that shared power gave [peace the best chance, and that peace was more important than trying to establish who had won and then implementing the result. Bearing in mind Africa's terrible history of civil wars, the pressure to avoid them is inevitable.

Now, Ivory Coast is choosing an alternative to shared power, but the principle of peace above all else remains.

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