TV News LIES

Israel's Cabinet on Sunday approved a deal to allow more EU flights, hours after the country's airlines went on strike out of concerns that the agreement would cost them jobs and possibly even ruin their companies.

The approval of "Open Skies" raised the possibility of a longer, broader strike by Israel's major labor union. Already, hundreds of people scheduled to fly on Israel's three carriers, El Al, Arkia and Israir, have been stranded.

Angry crowds demonstrated in India's capital on Saturday after a five-year-old girl was allegedly raped, tortured and kept in captivity for 40 hours, reviving memories of last December's brutal assault on a woman that shook the country.

Police arrested a man they accuse of the attack from the eastern state of Bihar, and brought him back to New Delhi for interrogation. Doctors say the girl suffered severe injuries and bruising, including to her neck and genitalia.

The Obama administration plans to announce an arms package to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worth as much as $10 billion -- the centerpiece of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s visit to the countries next week, according to U.S. officials.

The arms sold to Israel also will include an unspecified number of V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport aircraft, air defense radar and KC-135 refueling tankers; the U.A.E. will probably buy 26 F-16 jet fighters, and the Persian Gulf nation as well as Saudi Arabia will each buy precision missiles, said the official who provided details on condition of not being named before the deal is announced.

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked a mountainous area of China’s western Sichuan province Saturday morning, killing at least 156 people, injuring thousands and leaving tens of thousands of others homeless less than 100 miles from the provincial capital of Chengdu.

Premier Li Keqiang hurried to the province as Chinese troops picked through ruins to rescue those still trapped in collapsed buildings. The earthquake struck at 8:02 am Beijing time and the epicenter was located just eight miles deep in Ya’an county, home to about 1.5 million people.

Iraq holds provincial elections tomorrow, the first elections since the pullout of US troops, against a backdrop of widening violence, a record number of assassinations of political candidates, and deepening political division.

Although overall attacks are at roughly similar levels as they were for the last provincial elections in 2009, at least 13 candidates and two political party officers have been killed in targeted attacks in the past few weeks – a record number.  Almost 150 candidates have so far been struck off the list of candidates, most of them for alleged ties to the banned Baath Party of Saddam Hussein.

A suicide bomber detonated explosives at a Baghdad cafe crowded with young people late on Thursday, killing at least 26 people and wounding dozens in the runup to provincial elections scheduled for the weekend.

The cafe bomber struck about 9.30pm, a rare evening attack, bringing the number of people killed across the country on Thursday to 30.