Erstellt am: 9. 2. 2012 - 14:38 Uhr

Children and teenagers targeted in Syria

Reality Check: Life on the ground in Syria, Capello resigns, FPÖ in Chechnya, life sentences for children in US, same sex marriage legalized in Washington State.

UNICEF says that over 400 children have been killed and hundreds more injured in the bloody conflict in Syria. The streets are so dangerous in parts of the country that people are afraid to go out by daylight, even to bury their dead. Food and fuel are in short supply, and power cuts are a daily occurance. Analyst Rime Allaf is herself Syrian, and hears from her family members in Damascus and other cities on a daily basis. In Reality Check, she tells Riem Higazi what life is like in the midst of the bitter fighting.

Fabio Capello's resignation

England's football team manager, Fabio Capello, has resigned amid the furore over alleged racist abuse by team captain, John Terry.

Soccer academic Mark Perryman explains why he thinks there is a generational divide that means racism is not taken so seriously by the senior figures in the game.

FPÖ - the Chechnya trip

The FPÖ's Johannes Hübner und Johann Gudenus, have been ona controversial trip to Grosny to meet the Chechen President, Ramsan Kadyrov. They say the aim was to review the situation in the Chechen capital with a view to the possibility of Chechey refugees returning home. However, the trip was not officially sanctioned, and Kadyrov is a figure who has been accused of multiple human rights abuses.

Professor Reinhard Heinish from the University of Salzburg told Chris Cummins says there were almost certainly commercial motives for the trip, as Kadyrov is seeking to improve the image of Chechnya abroad.

Life sentences for children in USA

The US and Somalia are the only counties in the world that allow sentences of life imprisonment without parole to be handed down to children. Gennie Johnson finds out how the US law operates and about pressure for it to be changed with Rob Freer, a US based researcher for Amnesty International.

Gay rights in USA

Washington is the 7th state to legalise same-sex marriage, following a trends that is slowly spreading across the USA.

Also this week, an appeals court in California ruled that banning same sex marriage is unconstitutional.

Our Washington DC correspondent, Priscilla Huff, looks at how the same-sex marriage campaign is progressing, and how commercial pressures are pushing it forward in some parts of the country.

FM4 Reality Check

Monday to Friday from 12.00 to 14.00, and after the show via Podcast or fm4.orf.at/realitycheck.