You're listening to a download from the BBC, this is from our own correspondent.

You can hear the version of the program we make for the BBC World Service by visiting our site

at BBC online.

But here's the latest edition broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and introduced by Kate Adi.

Today sunset in Vegas and a stroll down the famous strip as the US presidential campaign descends on America's beleaguered casino capital.

The Nigerian girls who say they've been forced to give up their babies for adoption.

We meet a rebel commander in Syria who'd rather write poetry than fight, and visit

the tiny island in the South Pacific which inspired the classic castaway tale, Robinson Crusoe.

Reviving the housing market is proving a key theme of the election campaign in the United States.

Mitt Romney's been explaining how the Republicans would do it in Nevada, a state which has suffered more than most

from the housing meltdown.

Addressing a rally in Las Vegas, he spoke of getting credit going again and reigniting

the housing economy. The polls suggest

Barack Obama currently has a small lead in Nevada, but the state has a larger than

average number of unemployed and the Republicans reckon it's fertile ground for them.

In the 70s and 80s, Las Vegas grew at astonishing speed.

Every day saw new houses going up, shops, restaurants and casinos, all thanks to cheap and abundant

credit. But the subprime crisis and then the recession brought an end to all that.

Justin Rowlett, who's just been there, says the signs of the

crash are everywhere, even on the famous strip which continues to welcome tourists from

around the world. Las Vegas illustrates just how varied casino design can be.

Pyramids, medieval castles, circuses, pretty much anything goes, says Paul Steelman, but there is one iron rule, he tells me. No mirrors.

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