TV News LIES

Palestinians on Sunday called for an international investigation of Israel's treatment of detained Palestinians, after a 30-year-old Palestinian died in custody and a hunger strike by four other inmates sparked a week of West Bank protests.

The death of Arafat Jaradat on Saturday raised new questions about Israel's Shin Bet security service, which has been accused by rights groups of mistreating Palestinians during interrogation.

The Obama administration implored the Supreme Court on Friday to strike out a section from the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as unconstitutional discrimination.

"Section 3 of DOMA violates the fundamental constitutional guarantee of equal protection," the U.S. said in a brief.

An Israeli court has handed a Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike since August last year an eight-month sentence, of which he has another month left to serve.

Samer Issawi's fate, however, remains unclear, as there is still another case pending against him in an Israeli military court.

Issawi, 33, was convicted for violating his parole by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court on Thursday. The court said that he violated the terms of his early release in October 2011 by taking his car to be fixed at a garage in the West Bank, his lawyer Andre Rosenthal told AFP news agency.

The state of Georgia is scrambling for legal permission to proceed with two scheduled executions before its supply of the drug that would be used to kill the prisoners reaches its expiration date on 1 March.

Georgia has death warrants currently served on Warren Hill and Andrew Cook, convicted murderers who have been on death row since 1991 and 1995 respectively. Hill's death warrant runs until 26 February and Cook's until 28 February – the final day before the state's stock of pentobarbital runs out.

Security forces in Mexico have participated in the disappearances of hundreds of people from 2006-12, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch issued a 176-page report, "Mexico's Disappeared: The Enduring Cost of a Crisis Ignored" Wednesday, documenting nearly 250 enforced disappearances during the administration of former President Felipe Calderon.

Toward the end of his presidency, Calderon promised to act on reports of enforced disappearances by the army, navy, and federal and local police, though he failed to do so, a release from Human Rights Watch said.

"Emad Burnat, Palestinian director of Oscar nominated '5 Broken Cameras,' was held tonight by immigration at LAX as he landed to attend the Oscars," documentary filmmaker and Academy branch governor Michael Moore Tweeted to his 1.4 million followers this evening. "Emad, his wife and 8-year-old son were placed in a holding area and told they didn't have the proper invitation on them to attend the Oscars."

According to Moore, Burnat texted him for help after being detained. "Apparently the Immigration & Customs officers couldn't understand how a Palestinian could be an Oscar nominee," Moore continued. "I called Academy officials who called lawyers. I told Emad to give the officers my phone number and to say my name a couple of times."