TV News LIES

A fire fed by huge piles of acrylic products used to make sweaters killed eight people at a Bangladesh garment factory, barely two weeks after a collapse at another garment factory building where the death toll was approaching 1,000 on Thursday.

The dead in Wednesday night's fire included a ruling-party politician and a top official in the country's powerful clothing manufacturers' trade group. But unlike the collapse at the Rana Plaza building, which was blamed on shoddy construction and disregard for safety regulations, the Tung Hai Sweater factory appeared to have conformed to building codes. A top fire official said the deaths were caused by panic and bad luck.

In an attack that shocked this usually sedate capital, gunmen on Friday morning shot to death the Pakistani government’s top prosecutor in a case accusing former military ruler Pervez Musharraf of involvement in the 2007 assassination of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto, police said.

The gunmen opened fire on state prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfikar’s car as he was leaving his home here en route to an anti-terrorism court in nearby Rawalpindi for trial proceedings in the Bhutto case. The shooters used either a taxi or motorbike in the attack, police said in conflicting reports.

In a groundbreaking ruling, the Jerusalem District Court upheld an earlier decision of the magistrate’s court that women who wear prayer shawls (“tallitot” in Hebrew) at the Western Wall Plaza are not contravening “local custom” or causing a public disturbance, and therefore should not be arrested.

The issue of equal prayer rights at the site has risen to the forefront of public debate in recent months due to the frequent arrests of women participating in the prayer services that the Women of the Wall activist group holds there.

Former President George W. Bush steered clear of any detailed reflection on his legacy during a recent interview with USA Today, saying that his actions over eight years in the White House largely speak for themselves.

"There's no need to defend myself," Bush said in an interview published over the weekend, in anticipation of an opening ceremony for his presidential library at Southern Methodist University. "I did what I did and ultimately history will judge."

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel assured Israel on Monday that the Obama administration is committed to preserving and improving the Jewish state's military edge in the Middle East.

Hagel, on his first visit to Israel as Pentagon chief, also declared that it is Israel's right to decide for itself whether to attack Iran to stop it from building a nuclear bomb.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad quit on Saturday after months of tension with President Mahmoud Abbas, leaving the administration in disarray just as the United States tries to revive peace talks with Israel.

Abbas, who has been unhappy with Fayyad's handling of the cash-strapped government, accepted the resignation and asked Fayyad to stay on as caretaker until a new government is formed, according to official Palestinian news agency WAFA.