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Karim in Cairo said that government needs to take steps to secure the area. The treaty needs to be amended with Israel to allow Egyptian troops in the Sinai peninsula. Right now, only police are allowed in the area due to treaty obligations with Israel.

Karim Elsahy, an Egyptian in Boston, joined us from the blog, as well as Sam who writes the blog, .

Sam had eye witness accounts of the attacks on his blog. to read them.

Sam condemned that heavy handed tactics of the Egyptian security, but he said that the government needed to consider how it was acting towards the large Bedouin community in the Sinai peninsula.

Karim Elsahy said that the country had been living under emergency measures, which he called 'a pumped up Patriot Act', comparing it to the anti-terror measures in the US.

He said that the country needed to strike a balance between civil rights and security.

Karim Elsahy said that people had toughened up and that Egypt remains safe.

We also spoke to Karim in Cairo. He said that he did not think that the Egpytian tourist industry would suffer.

Just as we were on air, I got this e-mail from the Global Voices blog network. Haitham Sabbah, the Mideast editor for the global blog project had this roundup of about the attacks.

And Fahd in Yemen sent us this text message:

I think in Egypt as well as in most Arab countries attacks of this type are results of the goverments corrupt security policies.

As to whether Egypt was still a safe place to travel to, we had this message from Brenda in Cairo.

I'm British & live here. The streets here r much safer than in London

Brenda might want to know about his debate that we'll be having on youth. Do you feel threatened by youth where you live? Here in Britain, mothers are starting a political campaign to make their neighbourhoods safer.

Nepal celebrates

Prakash was not celebrating on Friday when we spoke to them, but now that the King has reinstated Parliament, he believes that there is a path to a solution.

Bhaskar, another caller who we had spoken to a number of times throughout the crisis said:

This is a happy moment, but it is still not enough.

Still more needs to be done to develop an effective government and to make peace with the Maoist rebels, he said.

Brian in the US e-mailed us to say:

The big losers are the Maoists. The Nepali people have spoken, and they wouldn't want to replace one dictatorship with another.

Land Reform in Africa

Angie Howarth, a Zimbabwean farmer who relocated to France, said that she was harassed off her farm, threatened with death.

She was told in markets in Harrare: "White people go home." She said that she would never go back to Zimbabwe.

Trevor Gifford, one of the Vice Presidents of the Commercial Farmers' Union in Zimbabwe, also joined us.

George Shire, a Zimbabwean analyst in London who fought with Robert Mugabe for that country's independence said that the conflict was not as racial as Angie portrayed it.

Mr Shire said:

No one would want to go back to the pattern of land ownership as it was in 1979.

Angie said she understood that. Maybe you could answer a question for me. The land redistribution was given to the landless people, she said.

Mr Shire said:

The presumption that people are being invited back would presuppose that someone was thrown out.

Angie said that she had no choice to leave. They were farmers, and once it was taken away, they had nothing to do.

Lily from Greater London said she was severely tortured by the Mugabe regime. She said that there is a criminal government in Zimbabwe and both white and black Zimbabweans must fight that.

The regime went to the land issue in desperation when they were losing their grip on power.

Kwame, London sent us this text message:

Mugabe just replaced one injustice with another injustice. It has brought hunger & he is desperately backtracking. He will fail again.

Dr Samuel Kariuki from South Africa said that in his country black farmers owned on average 1.3 hectares while white farmers owned on average more than 1000 hectares. It was a crisis that that South African must address.

I don't want to prescribe to anyone the Zimbabwean solution

But he said that the crisis in Zimbabwe will happen again in South Africa if the inequalities are not addressed.

Don Macadam sent us an e-mail. He had a coffee farm near the Zimbabwean border with Mozambique. We invited him to join the programme. He said:

Farmers would be mad to go back there. (Robert Mugabe) had thrown all the farmers off the land.

Andrew called and said that much of the land confiscated from white farmers ended up in the hands of 'ZANU-PF cronies'.

We had this text message from Ezra in Lagos:

ROBERT MUGABE HAS BEEN A FAILURE SINCE 1980 TILL NOW.HIS LAND REFORM PROGRAM WAS AIMED AT CHEAP POPULARITY.

Frank Obie in Nigeria sent us this text message:

LAND REFORM IN ZIMBABWE.THIS IS A SAD CASE OF ABUSE OF EQUITY.NO ONE WON AND ALL ZIMBABWEANS LOST.50/50SPLIT WOULD HAVE BEEN WISER..

And we had this text message from Chief John in Accra Ghana:

Stolen lands WILL be re taken in South Africa & Namibia too no matter what supporters of land thieves in UK think.

And we had this message from Peter Manwell in Uganda:

I WAS BORN IN ZIMBABWE. IT'S GOOD IF COOPERATION CAN BE ESTABLISHED. WHITE FARMERS CAN HELP AND BLACK AND WHITES CAN WORK TOGETHER.

Richard Pujeh sent us this text message from Freetown, Sierra Leone:

If President Mugabe can fool some people all the time, he cannot fool everybody all the time. This new land reform program aims at consolidating his position on power. We are tired of his double standards.

An overwhelming response from Africa on this subject. Nancy in Kenya sent this message:

How would the indegenous white people in the UK feel if 70 percent of the land was owned by Africans just because the Africans could afford it? It simply isn't right. Mugabe doesn't want the farmers back. He'll throw them out again and Africans won't b sorry. If the west can see a business opportunity in farming, then they should fund and train the indegenous african farmers on how to take advantage of this and hopefully help the countries come out of their poverty. Nancy. Kenya.

Lenard Shilika in Swaziland sent this comment:

The Mugabe reform did more harm than good. Most Zimbabweans have grown thin under Mugabe. Very painful.

Yusupha Dampha sent us this text message from Gambia:

Land is our right and identity.So the people who killed our fathers for our lands should be honest to return it back.

And we had this text message John Arube-Wani in Kampala, Uganda:

You on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ have found a way of bashing Dr Mugabe time and again. Only Zimbabweans will decide when to replace him. Land reform must be dond in Zimbabwe for justice's sake.

Urza called from Nigeria and said that leaders like Robert Mugabe had plunged Africa into chaos. He said that because of endemic corruption in Africa, he doubted that land reform would work.

Kela in Zambia sent us this text message:

Zimbabwe's Land reforms are just a political move that were made by a greedy man, who thrives on power just like a vampire needs blood. Its a brillant idea but it was done 4 all the wrong reasons.

Uche in Enugu in Nigeria:

Mugabe is old and confused.Let Zimbabwean look for a young and vissionary.