Erstellt am: 13. 10. 2011 - 15:16 Uhr

Tall story or sinister plot?

Reality Check: Alleged Iranian assassination plot, King Abdullah Centre in Vienna, Barrosso's plan to save the Euro, Floods in Thailand, Reporter 12 competition

If it were a film, you'd almost certainly say the plot was incoherent, fantastical and full of holes. It's a story that from start to finish doesn't make sense - but it appears to have won over the US administration, and they are now selling it on to the world as hard fact.

The outline of the story goes roughly like this. For reasons unclear to any of us, the Iranian government wants to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. This, in itself, seems very unlikely. While they are not exactly best buddies with the Saudis, an attack like this would hardly serve anyone's interests - but maybe they have a reason that no one has yet fathomed. Tehran charges the Iranian special operations agency, Quds, with the job. Quds, a normally highly professional and deadly organisation, appear then to have a complete lapse of standards and common sense, and contract the job on to an Iranian-American used car salesman. He then brings in a Mexican drugs cartel to carry out the actual bombing - the plan being to bomb a restaurant frequented by the Ambassador. Now, while Mexican drug cartels generally have no problem whatever with violence, bombing isn't one of their favoured techniques. Apart from which, the alleged assassination fee of 1.5 million dollars is small change to a Mexican drugs cartel - so why would they get involved? They have far more profitable corruption and extortion rackets going on at home.

Congratulations if you've followed the story so far. You'll probably enjoy the film, when it comes out. Now it gets even more complicated. The Mexican cartel hit-man turns out to be an under-cover US Drugs Enforcement Agency informant - and he spills the beans to his bosses and the whole plot is uncovered. It sounds like something Robert Rodriguez would have a ball with, doesn't it?

Our Washington correspondent, Priscilla Huff, agreed with Steve Crilley that the story is far-fetched, but says there may be a few grains of truth mixed up in it somewhere.

Controversy surrounds the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural dialogue in Vienna

Today sees the official founding of the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural dialogue in Vienna. The centre says it aims to bring together religious leaders from all faiths and denominations to discuss solutions to world problems - but some people are sceptical. The Saudi Vice Minister for Education, Faisal bin Abdulrahman bin Muammar, explains what the centre is all about, and critic, Thomas Schmidinger, political scientist and lecturer at the University of Vienna, tells Riem Higazi why he is not convinced that the centre is a good idea.

A solution to the Euro problem

European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barrosso, says he has a plan to get Europe out of the financial crisis. Vanessa Mock in Brussels tells Chris Cummins about his plans and their likelihood of success.

Floods in Thailand

Floods are threatening the Thai capital of Bangkok as well as the country's agricultural land including livestock and the invaluable rice crops. Tony Cheng tells Steve Crilley about the scenes he is witnessing and the problems facing the people of Thailand in the next days and months.

Reporter 12

Die Presse's search for new journalistic talent continues as it launches its "Reporter 12" competition. One of last year's winners, Mara Simperler, tells Joanna Bostock about her story, on happiness in Bhutan.

FM4 Reality Check

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