From Our Own Correspondent - 25/09/2010

Saturday's From Our Own Correspondent hears despatches from a small fishing town in Venezuela, the rainy uplands of Yemen, the brightly-lit streets of Las Vegas, an ancient church in eastern Turkey and a smart Chinese restaurant by a racetrack in Nigeria. It used to be a rather less reported corner of the Middle East. But lately Yemen has been attracting some unwanted attention. A branch of Al Qaeda has taken root in its rugged, lawless countryside. And this has added to problems caused by rebels in the north, and seccessionist tensions in the south. But on a journey into the mountains, Paul Harper saw quite a different .....much less troubled.... side of Yemen.. For the first time in nearly a century, a service has been held in an ancient Armenian church in eastern Turkey. The Turkish government allowed the act of worship to go ahead as a gesture of reconciliation towards the Armenian minority -- which was subjected to mass killing and deportation during the First World War. Jonathan Head was there to watch the service in the church in the province of Van, and he's been reflecting on local attitude's towards the past. It's fifty years since Nigeria became an independent nation. The British colonialists handed over power, and sailed away in October, 1960. But preparations for that parting of the two nations had brought two men together -- one British, and one Nigerian. They forged a friendship that's endured down through the decades. And Anna Horsbrugh-Porter was there when they met again, back in northern Nigeria all these years on.. The elections in Venezuela on Sunday are for new MPs rather than a new president. But no-one there's in any doubt the people will actually be giving their opinions on ten years of rule by their controversial leader Hugo Chavez. At the moment the National Assembly is made up, almost entirely, of parties loyal to the president. This is partly because the opposition boycotted the last poll five years ago. This time around the opposition's taking part and concentrating its efforts on one big issue, rising crime. As the campaign reached its climax, Will Grant sought a little peace and quiet in the coastal village of Puerto Maya: These are bleak economic times in the United States. Just lately, its capitalist game has seemed much harder to play. More people have wound up feeling like losers, than winners... But there's nowhere in America that better understands the business of winning and losing than Las Vegas..... And in the decline of one of Vegas's legends, Kevin Connolly found further evidence of the fading of the American Dream....