Ö÷²¥´óÐã

We first spoke to David in Kinshasa. After days of fighting, the shops have re-opened he said. David downplayed the importance of the fighting, saying that it happens all of the time.

Timothy in Bukavu in the DRC says that there is still a culture of solving problems through fighting.

Godwin lives in a town near the Rwandan border, and he says there is no fighting where he is. He only hears about the fighting in Kinshasa on the radio. The people are sick of the fighting, he said.

Here are some e-mails that you sent on the conflict in the Congo

Joseph from London, UK

The International community must now understand that the only solution to solve the crisis is to consider the will of congolese people.

Mireille, Ottawa

I have a message for every Congolese around the world to put aside our differences for the moment and pray for our country.

Aurelien, Manchester

Let us make Africa proud and dismantle Congo into more manageable states as the country is too big.

Assumani, Wolverhampton, UK

I would like to congratulate congolese people for taking part in an historical election. As a son of congo,I pray to God to help my country get out of the current situation .

Sanctions for Iran?

Paul in Virginia in the US supports sanctions. He sees this as maybe the only way to avoid military conflict. However, he said that world must agree on sanctions, otherwise they will not be effective.

Nadir in Iran doesn't see the need for sanctions because he believes that the Iranian government is not pursuing a nuclear weapons programme. He said that highly enriched uranium is imported, not produced locally.

But Paul countered that the Iranian president is saying that they are installing more centrifuges to produce highly enriched uranium. does not need to be enriched to the level necessary to produce nuclear weapons. about the difference between enriching uranium for fuel and for weapons.

Nadir felt that there was a double standard and pointed to Israel's nuclear weapons programme, but Paul said that Iran was the only nation that had threatened to wipe out another country, Israel, with nuclear weapons.

But our Iranian callers said that they might agree to a suspension of uranium enrichment for a time as an act of good faith until a negotiated agreement can be reached. Paul thought that might be a good gesture, but he also expressed a lot of mistrust as to whether the Iranians would keep to the agreement.

We just got these text messages. Vivian in Spain says:

Why sanction IRAN and not ISRAEL? ISRAEL has VIOLATED + OCCUPIED Land of all its neighbours.

Kiru in Jamaica says:

Sanctions should not be imposed on Iran. If so, Israel should also get sanctions for having nuclear weapons. The western bias is revolting.

We heard comments from around the world on this topic. Paul in Wales wrote:

Iran should be allowed to sell it's oil because they are a fast becoming a global force.

But Eid in Ottawa, Canada said:

There are a handful of pariah regimes in the world which cause most of the trouble to their own people and the civilized world. Iran is one of these regiemes

Nazanin Mazhari from the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Persian service says that there is almost universal support for the development of a nuclear energy programme as a point of national pride and sovereignty with very little thought given to the impact of sanctions.

Bhaman, an Iranian on business in Riyadh, said that the country has become accustomed to sanctions. The country has faced sanctions from the US since the early 1980s, when he was in school. And a Nazanin said, he supports the right of Iran to develop a civilian nuclear programme.

Jerry Pryde in Stoney Creek Ontario Canada just sent us this e-mail:

If Iran is permitted to sell oil while supporting Hizbollah, this could open the way to a similar scandal to that of the U.N.'s oil for food corruption in Iraq.If sanctions are imosed, strong international support would be the only way it could work. Then, there's the legitimate question as to the UN's ability to enforce any sanctions in a meaningful way.

What does everyone think about rewarding iran for stoping their program instead of punishing them, like maybe recognizing iran as an islamic state, or so me other type of incentive. I would like to see the world embrace radical islam as opposed to alienating all of islam and pouring fuel on the radical fire. This coming from an american jewish student.

Just a little background, the US and the EU have offered Iran a package of incentives, including it is believed support for a civilian nuclear programme. It is not known what the incentive package is, but there is a belief that the US would relax long-standing sanctions. on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã News website.

Steve Strait just sent us this e-mail:

The question has not been answered from those in favor of Iran's nuclear program: Iran has publicly threatened other nations with military action. Any comparison to other nuclear nations, is irrelevant. As long as Iran threatens the security of the world, they should not be permitted to produce weapons of mass destruction.

Tom Cruise out of control

We received calls throughout the programme about the next item: Tom Cruise. Over the past year, his public behaviour has become more erratic, with strange appearances on the and continuing .

Brendon, who writes the blog 'film ick', said that possibly his change in publicists over the last year might have led him to some unguarded behaviour. He believes that Cruise's star is only . He thinks that Paramount has made a collosal financial mistake, saying that Tom Cruise's production company has netted the film studio 15% of its profit over the last 10 years.

People are only enjoying this because of an apparent fall from grace

Rick in Washington is just fed up with celebrity culture. He believes that his celebrity should not give him a platform for his personal views.

Nishand in Ohio in the US says that people should leave Tom Cruise for some mistakes over the past few years.

Kidnapping culture?

As the programme started, we heard that a of two kidnapped US journalists in Gaza. Kidnapping has become common in Gaza, Iraq and in countries like Colombia and Mexico. We were thinking about doing a programme about kidnapping. Has it become frighteningly commonplace?