大象传媒

Rhod Sharp with stories from around the world.
Syria is in a state of civil war according to the UN's head of peacekeeping. Herve Ladsous says the government has lost control of large parts of many cities. Joshua Landis, the Director of the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma, agrees. He tells us it looks like Syria is in for a long and bloody battle, and says it's a test for President Obama's diplomatic skills.

People living in the Falklands are going to take part in a referendum which will ask them if they want to stay British. It's all to try to end the row about whether Argentina has any claims on the islands' sovereignty. Gavin Short, the chairman of the Legislative Assembly on the Falklands Islands Government, predicts a very high turnout.

A crackdown on football corruption in China has led to the former head of China's football association being sentenced to ten and a half years in jail for taking bribes. Nan Yong will also have to pay 200 thousand yuan in fines. John Sudworth in Shanghai tells us that four players have been sentenced too.

The Vatican has criticised an organisation which represents 80 per cent of American nuns. They've been accused of adopting radical feminist themes and ignoring church teaching. Professor Kathleen Cummings from the Cushwa Centre for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana says the row doesn't look like it'll go away soon, because nuns groups are getting more powerful and more left-wing, and there doesn't seem to be much room for negotiation on the Vatican's part.

The British rower, Charlie Martell, is a very lucky and very thankful man. He's on a ship heading to Vancouver after trying to row across the Pacific. He got caught up in a storm and capsized 12 times before being picked up. He tells us he's glad that he was able to recover his rowing boat, even though it's been bashed about a bit. But it's going to be another 7 days until he gets to Canada.