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Ask staff as Outlook, , The World Today and here at WHYS which producer delivers the goods in East Africa more often than not they'll say Michael Kaloki. He's AHYS's man in Nairobi but kindly helps us all out from time to time and it's great to have him here. My first encounter with Mike was when I made a reporting trip to Nairobi and Mike was to put me up. Sadly his new flat wasn't ready so we stayed next door in a little hotel which served goat and Guinness and didn't go in for much bedding. We saved cash and got the one room and shivered away in our single beds a few feet apart and, well, where do you go from there? To our small cold office here in London it seems.

OK, here the stories that have made it and those that, for the moment, haven't.

1. First things first, yesterday we recorded a discussion between three women whose lives have been affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2 years ago. Because of the oil pipeline explosion in Nigeria yesterday, we ran out of time to play it to you. Breaking news allowing, we'll play it to you today.

2. Tributes to President Ford
He's the only to have been President of America but not to have been elected and . You've been emailing and we'll hear more of them on the show.

Will President Ford will be remembered for, as Pres Bush has said, 'helping to heal our land'?

3. Ethiopia continues military operations in Somalia
We talked about this last night, and since we came off air the town of Jowhar in central Somalia , with the Union of Islamic Courts withdrawing further. There's clearly plenty more to discuss here.

Last night we asked should the Ethiopians be in Somalia, and should the African Union say its actions are acceptable? But two other questions arose...

Do you accept Ethopia's assertion that there are foreign militia fighting in Somalia?

Do you agree with the people who called us yesterday to say Ethiopia is fighting a proxy way against Islamic militants on behalf of America? And that Eritreans are using the Union of Islamic Courts to fight a proxy war against Ethiopia?

We're also going to try and hear some of you in Somalia because the last few times we've talked aboput the UIC you've told us that life is better under them. So are you angry that Ethiopia is forcing them to retreat (though of course, Ethiopia says it's attacking foreign militia, not the UIC)?

THE STORIES THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT:
1. Why can the Gaza ceasefire never hold?
Paul's emailed: Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is coming under to react against rockets being fired from Northern Gaza into Israel despite a supposed ceasefire which went into effect on November 25th. I'd like to do another of our 'one-sided' debates and hear from predominantly Israeli or predominantly Palestinian voices. We should concentrate strictly on why ceasefires never hold when everyone seems to think they are the precursor to any kind of long term settlement.

2. A rewards those having babies with generous payments.

More from Paul: Pretty much most of Western Europe and several Far Eastern countries such as Japan, suffer from falling birthrates. A healthy replacement rate according to the experts is 2.1 babies per couple but Germany and many other nations average about 1.5 - it's dangerously low according to some. As many commentators have pointed out, there's no way you can enjoy your pensions if there are no youngsters around to create the wealth for it.

How can Europe get around this demographic time bomb? Can financial incentives from the state work?

Several ideas now from Pete....

3. Israel plans West Bank settlement
Israel announced plans on Tuesday to , prompting Palestinian anger and American concern. It's the first time in 10 years that a settlement has been announced - what does it say to you coming days after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had offered a series of gestures to the Palestinians? here's on the matter.

4. Pakistan looks to secure the Afghan border
Peter suggests the story that Pakistan has plans for a . Afghans often accuse Pakistan of not doing enough to secure the border, but how will this be received? Islamabad says the move would stem the flow of militants across the border, and it maintains that Afghan permission is not required.

5. …and staying in Pakistan
And we won't do anything about this today, but since we visit the subject of living with disabilities on the programme every now and again Peter thought some of you might be interested in the story on that

6. Can relations between China and Japan be restored?
Chinese and Japanese scholars have just finished the first in a aimed at mending strained ties between the former World War II enemies. Because of the time differences we rarely hear from these two countries, but it might be worthwhile speaking to some of the large diaspora around the world