TV News LIES

More than 70 people were killed in a wave of bombings in markets in Shi'ite neighborhoods across Baghdad on Monday in worsening sectarian violence in Iraq.

No group claimed responsibility for the blasts. But Sunni Muslim Islamist insurgents and al-Qaeda' s Iraqi wing have increased attacks since the beginning of the year and often target Shi'ite districts.

Hoping to use economic promise as a bridge to a peace deal between Palestinians and Israel, Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced an estimated $4 billion economic development proposal for the West Bank on Sunday that he said could cut the 21 percent unemployment rate by two-thirds.

“The greatest existential threat and the greatest economic threat to both sides is the lack of peace,” Kerry said. “To not try to head these off would be tragic, and it would be irresponsible.”

Two rockets hit a Shi'ite Muslim district of Beirut on Sunday, driving home the risk of spillover from Syria's civil war, after the head of Lebanese Shi'ite militant Hezbollah said it would keep fighting on the Syrian government's side until victory.

It was the first attack to apparently target Hezbollah's stronghold in the south of the Lebanese capital since the outbreak of the two-year conflict in neighboring Syria, which has sharply heightened Lebanon's own sectarian tensions.

At least 16 children and their teacher have been killed when their school bus caught fire in eastern Pakistan, police say.

At least seven more children were taken to hospital after the incident on the outskirts of the city of Gujrat. It is not clear how the fire broke out. Early reports that a gas cylinder exploded have been discounted.

The man who most strongly defended Toronto Mayor Rob Ford against allegations he was filmed smoking crack cocaine is now himself facing a claim he once dealt in hashish.

The Globe and Mail alleges in a story published Saturday that the mayor's brother, Coun. Doug Ford, was once a drug dealer in '80s — a claim denounced by his lawyer as false.

An equipment malfunction at a Japanese research center exposed at least four scientists to radiation, regulators said Saturday.

The researchers suffered internal radiation exposure when the output of a proton beam increased unexpectedly and vaporized part of a gold target, resulting in radioactive substances leaking from the controlled area, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency said.