Erstellt am: 21. 9. 2011 - 15:46 Uhr

Reality Check: Troy Davis.

A controversial death penalty case from the US state of Georgia.

Troy Davis - "Serious doubts about his guilt remain"
according to Amnesty International.

The fate of Troy Davis, who is due to be executed in the United States tonight, has drawn wide condemnation in Europe. Parliamentarians and activists are making a last-minute appeal to the state of Georgia to refrain from executing Davis, who was convicted of killing an off-duty policeman in 1989. Davis insists he did not commit the crime and his lawyers say there are doubts about the prosecution’s case which have not been resolved. More than a million people around the world have signed petitions for clemency in Davis’ case. On today's show we went to the US for a llive report from our US correspondent Priscilla Huff .

Also on today's Reality Check.....

Afghanistan

As people in Afghanistan mourn assassinated former president and chief peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani fears mount that his death could deepen ethnic divisions and nudge the country towards civil war. Rabbani was killed on Tuesday by a suicide bomber posing as a Taliban peace envoy. The former president was the head of the Afghan government's peace council, which has the job of trying to negotiate with the Taliban. The killing is seen as a strong statement of Taliban opposition to peace talks and it is the latest in a string of high-profile assassinations to shake the confidence of ordinary Afghans that security can be maintained as foreign forces withdraw. Chris Cummins finds out more from international security analyst Paul Rogers.

Italy & earthquake scientitsts on trial

Seven scientists and other experts are on trial in Italy on manslaughter charges for allegedly failing to sufficiently warn residents before the 2009 earthquake that killed more than 300 people in the town of L’Aquila. The defendants are accused of giving «inexact, incomplete and contradictory information» about whether smaller tremors felt by L’Aquila residents in the six months before the April 6, 2009, quake should have constituted grounds for a quake warning. The case is being closely watched by seismologists around the globe who insist it's impossible to predict earthquakes and dangerous to suggest otherwise, since seismologists will be discouraged from issuing any advice at all if they fear legal retaliation. Rome correspondent Josephine McKenna

Iran alleged hacking of Google

When you create a website, there is a certificate to go along with your website to say who you are. It comes from certificate authorities, of which there are about 650 around the world. One of these authorities - DigiNotar in the Netherlands - got hacked into and the hack meant that many fraudulent certificates for major domains, including Google.com, Microsoft.com, and Yahoo.com were issued.
This led to thousands of Internet users in Iran being spied on by hackers using stolen certificates. Daniel Sokolov, who writes for the German magazine c’t explains what happened.

Back to school cosmetic surgery

Statistics in the United States show that more and more teens are preparing for college by getting a cosmetic touch up to their bodies or faces. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 15 percent of all procedures last year in the United States were performed on patients under the age of 21. The most popular operations include breast augmentation, rhinoplasty (or nose job) and octoplasty – having ears pinned back. The ASAPS also reckons that the 18 to 24 age group is more likely than any other age group any other to consider plastic surgery now and in the future. Riem Higazi speaks to Dr Vivian Diller, is a psychologist who practices in New York City and the author of "Face It - what women really feel as their lookschange".