TV News LIES

Hisham Shouar was 200 metres from his shop when the car bomb detonated, killing six people and injuring three others a short distance from the fortified Green Zone.

The blast tore through his shop, where he sells toys and groceries, as well as a currency exchange and a pharmacy, setting fire to the cars parked around it. The bomb was one of 12 devices to detonate in Baghdad (video) in a deadly wave of explosions by Sunni extremists aimed at Shia areas that left 56 dead and 200 injured.

Father Julio Cesar Grassi was a celebrity in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. The young, dynamic, media-savvy priest networked with wealthy Argentines to fund an array of schools, orphanages and job training programs for poor and abandoned youths, winning praise from Argentine politicians and his superior, Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

Grassi called his foundation Felices los Niños, “Happy Children.”

Today, Grassi is a convicted sex offender who remains free on a conditional release after being sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2009 for molesting a prepubescent boy in his care.

A Jesuit priest whose kidnapping by the Argentine military in 1976 has raised the issue of what role newly named Pope Francis played in that country’s so-called “dirty war” said Friday that he was “reconciled to the events” and wished the pope well, but he did not explicitly absolve the pope of involvement in his detention.

In a statement posted on a website in Germany, where the Rev. Francisco Jalics now lives, Jalics recounted the details of his detention, saying he was held for five months, blindfolded and shackled. At the time, the pope, then the Rev. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was Jalics’ Jesuit superior.

“I’m unable to comment on the role of Father Bergoglio in this matter,” the statement said.

Over a thousand Latvians on Saturday commemorated Nazi-allied World War II soldiers while police used force to prevent violence from erupting between participants and ethnic Russians, who are a minority in the country.

Many Latvians consider March 16, or Legionnaires Day, an opportunity to commemorate war veterans, while Russians see it as an attempt to glorify fascism and whitewash a black chapter in Latvia's history.

EU nations have been unable to reach agreement on proposals to ban the use of three pesticides that have been linked to the decline of bees.

The European Commission had called for a two-year EU-wide moratorium, but a number of nations opposed the plans. A recent report by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) concluded that the pesticides posed a "high acute risk" to pollinators, including honeybees.

The commission is expected to redraft its proposals ahead of another vote.

After weeks of tough bargaining, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reached a coalition agreement with his two major partners, politicians said, paving the way for the formation of a new Israeli government days before a visit by President Obama.

The accord, expected to be signed on Thursday, awards important cabinet posts to two rising stars who emerged from the Israeli election in January: Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, the second largest in parliament, and Naftali Bennett, head of the right-wing Jewish Home faction.