Hi, this is Alan Johnston. We make two editions of From Our Own Correspondent.

If you'd like to hear the version I introduce on the BBC World Service,

you can find it by going to the BBC Eye Player. But here's the one broadcast on BBC

Radio 4. It's presented by Kate Adi.

Today we hear that China's economic muscle is crushing blue-collar America.

Some excitement as we visit South Asia's largest religious school, an oxbridge of Islamic learning.

A plea for independence from a corner of Somalia, where democracies

functioning, the economy thriving and the people romantic.

And in South Africa we're told how love and happiness can be bought with a herd of cows.

President Hu Jintao has arrived home after his four-day visit to the United States.

He flew out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport a few hours ago after promising to help create

much-needed American jobs. The two nations signed a series of deals. There was talk of

quelling anti-Chinese sentiment in the US.

The visit came at a time when many Americans are finding it hard just to get by.

Nowhere is it tougher than in the decaying industrial heartlands of the Midwest.

And as Justin Rolatz has been hearing, some there believe their problems are quite literally

made in China.

It is a mixed blessing when Bruce Springsteen decides to

immortalise your town in a song. Of course you'd be chuffed that someone had

taken notice, but let's be honest, optimism and hope aren't really the strong suit of America's

poet of blue-collar life. So I was surprised when everyone I spoke to in Youngstown loved his song about the city.

Youngstown was the crucible of the American Industrial Revolution.

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