From Our Own Correspondent

Kate Adie introduces dispatches from writers and correspondents around the world. In this edition: Tim Ecott reports from the Seychelles in the week the president shocked the affluent island nation by his resignation; amid the growing lawlessness in Venezuela, Jake Wallis Simons is taken to the lair of a gangland boss who explains why he orders so many kidnappings in the district of Caracas where his group's writ runs; Chris Simpson in Mauritania considers the reasons for the persistence of the historic racial divides which characterise its society; Jane Labous reflects on the splendid September spectacle of gathering shell-fish on the Normandy shores - and the colourful characters who do it; while Philip Sweeney samples both the cuisine and the political temperature in Iran now that direct flights between London and Tehran have resumed.