TV News LIES

Kim Bok-dong and Kihl Wan-ok, two wizened octogenarian women, do not look as if they could pose much of a threat to US grand strategy in the Pacific. Nor do they intend to do so.

But as President Obama tries to put his “pivot to Asia” into effect, making the region key to his foreign policy by directing more military forces and diplomatic efforts there, he has hit a snag: the leaders of Washington’s two biggest allies in Asia, the nations that should be the twin pillars of Mr. Obama’s policy – Japan and South Korea – are barely talking to one another.

And in large part that is because of a few dozen old Korean ladies like Ms. Kim and Ms. Kihl.

Nearly 100 wildfires raged across Australia's most populous state on Friday, killing one person, destroying dozens of houses and forcing hundreds of evacuations as the nation's annual fire season got off to an unusually early start.

Milder conditions were helping firefighters after Thursday's unseasonably hot temperatures and strong winds fanned flames across the parched landscape and threatened towns surrounding Sydney.

The Lebanese military said an Israeli drone entered its airspace Wednesday, the latest in more than a dozen other incidents reported this week.

Lebanon's official National News Agency, operated by the Lebanese Interior Ministry, said an Israeli surveillance drone entered the country's airspace from the southern border region.

At least 93 people died in the Philippines Tuesday from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that also injured hundreds and damaged one of the country's oldest churches.

The earthquake's epicenter was about 32 miles deep near the town of Carmen on the island of Bohol, said Renato Solidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

A bomb ripped through a crowd of Sunni worshippers coming out of a mosque in northern Iraq after prayers at the start of a major Muslim holiday on Tuesday, killing 12 people and wounding 24, Iraqi officials said.

The attack took place in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, said Police Col. Taha Salaheddin.

The bomb went off as worshippers were leaving the al-Qodus mosque after morning prayers for the beginning of the Eid al-Adha holiday, Salaheddin said.

Israel's prime minister on Monday said he is making a "real effort" to reach peace with the Palestinians, but vowed to maintain a hard-line stance in recently relaunched negotiations.

The tough positions laid out by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew jeers from opposition lawmakers, and the Palestinians, already wary of his intentions, questioned his commitment to peace.