Erstellt am: 7. 10. 2011 - 15:26 Uhr

Three Wise Women: the Nobel Peace Prize

Reality Check: The Nobel Peace prize, Occupy Wall Street movement spreads, Panama Climate Conference, A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan, blind athlete Henry Wanyioke

With a record 241 nominations, deciding who should receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize must have been a tough task. But for the Norwegian Nobel Committee, it eventually came down to three remarkable women: Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; her compatriot, peace activist Leymah Gbowee and activist Tawakkul Karman - a leading figure in Yemen's pro-democracy movement. All have been recognised for their non-violent struggle for peace and democracy.

The decision to honour two Liberians comes against the backdrop of the country's brutal civil war - a drawn-out conflict which started in 1989 and left about 200,000 people dead. Sirleaf-Johnson became Africa's first democratically elected female president and was seen as a force for peace when she took office. Gbowee was honoured for mobilising and organising women across ethnic and religious lines to bring an end to the conflict and to ensure women's participation in elections.

32-year old Tawakkul Karman has been a prominent activist and advocate of human rights and freedom of expression for the last five years, leading protests against the rule of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Only 15 women have won the peace award since it was set up in 1901. Gennie Johnson spoke to Kristian Berg Harpviken, Director of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo and asked him about the message behind this year's prize.

Also in today's programme:

Occupy Wall Street movement gets presidential attention

As the Occupy Wall Street movement spreads across the United States with protests in major cities coast to coast, President Obama tries to turn the public anger to his advantage. Joanna Bostock spoke to political analyst Stephen Hill about the new momentum the movement has been gathering.

Panama Climate Change talks

Panama is the latest stop on the seemingly never ending merry-go-round of climate talks. The idea is to pave the way for the major conference in Durban, South Africa, that kicks off at the end of November, but some climate scientists and even conference delegates are becoming disillusioned with the process. One of them is Hector Guzman from the Smithsonian Institute in Panama. He says the climate conferences have become albout blame throwing and talk, at at time when action is urgently needed.

"A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan"

"A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan" is a moving collection of images by Irish photographer, Seamus Murphy, taken on his wide travels in Afghanistan. Starting in the early 1990s as the Taliban came to power, Seamus Murphy captures the humanity of daily life against the backdrop of war and violence. 10 years on from the NATO invasion of Afghanistan, Riem Higazi talks to Seamus Murphy about his experiences there.

Blind long distance runner Henry Wanyoike

Henry Wanyoike lost his sight at the age of 21 folliwng a stroke - but 10 years later he was named Kenya's Sports Personality of the Year after winning 3 gold paralympic medals and breaking 3 world record. He's taking part in tomorrow's Night Run for Licht für die Welt in Vienna

FM4 Reality Check

Monday to friday from 12 to 14, and after the show via Podcast or fm4.orf.at/realitycheck.