You're about to hear from our own correspondent. We do two versions of the program, one for the BBC World Service, and this one's a download of the latest edition from BBC Radio 4.

It's introduced by Kate Adi.

Hello, today Algeria's leaders say they'll maintain stability by force if necessary after unease

turned to violence in a desert town last week.

American drug offenders walk free from prison after a rethink of sentencing policy.

We dodge lightning bolts, suffer blisters and confront

tarantulas on a pilgrimage in Brazil, and there are strange sound effects

as the drought in California leaves its mark on some of the most productive fruit farms on earth.

Thousands of Algerian police reinforcements have been sent to the desert region of Gardaya,

where at least 22 people were killed last week in clashes between Arab and Berber communities.

The Prime Minister Abdulmalaq Salal says he won't hesitate to use force to restore order to the region.

But Garda is not the only place in Algeria where there's growing

discontent, particularly over a lack of jobs and opportunities.

More than 150,000 people died in Algeria's civil war in the early 1990s and

Lucy Ash who is just back from there says maintaining stability in the country is the

authorities key objective.

In the tangled alleyways of the Casba, you never know what's around the next corner,

veiled women laden with shopping, small boys armed with catapults, or an emaciated cat scratching through piles

of rubbish. There's a whiff of cinnamon and other cooking spices, tantalising on a hot afternoon in the third week of Ramadan when a sip of water, let alone the next meal, is still five hours away.

Down more cobbled stairs and a few more archways, there's another smell, the tang of fresh sawdust.

Khaled, a master woodcarver, is working on a design for a new oak door ordered by the local

mosque. On the wall behind him there's a dusty

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