Chatter: Bhutto murder prosecutor gunned down

NEED TO KNOW

Shot in broad daylight. It was true of Benazir Bhutto, and now it's true of the lawyer Pakistan hired to prosecute the former prime minister's assassins. Chaudhry Zulfiqar, the main state prosecutor for Bhutto's 2007 murder, was gunned down in Islamabad today as he made his way to court.

No one yet knows why the lawyer was killed. But his work put him at loggerheads with some powerful people: not only former military president Pervez Musharraf, currently under house arrest on charges that he failed to provide Bhutto with adequate security, but the Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for India's 2008 Mumbai attacks. Before his death, Zulfiqar was believed to be close to submitting final evidence against seven of the group's members. What happens in those cases without their chief prosecutor is yet to be seen.

Five hundred and one. That's where's the death toll stands in Bangladesh, a week and a half after a multi-story factory building collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka with thousands of workers inside. The disaster now has the grim title of the world's most deadly structural failure of modern times.

Nine people have been arrested, most recently an engineer who swears blindhe warned the building was unsafe. Labor activists say there are many more culprits, not least the Western retailers who bought cheap clothes at what would turn out to be a very high price.

WANT TO KNOW

The Independence Day bombings that weren't. The bombs that killed three and wounded hundreds at the Boston Marathon were originally intended for another of the city's biggest celebrations, according to police: the 4th of July.

Prosecutors say the two suspected bombers thought an attack on Independence Day would send a stronger message, but eventually brought the plan forward when they completed their home-made explosives sooner than expected. What would make two long-time American residents want to send a message like that? GlobalPost looks to the suspects' birthplace, Russia's North Caucasus region, in search of the roots of terror. 

What's the going rate for a baby? Ask India. When police in the north Indian state of Punjab announced the arrest of a grandfather for allegedly selling his infant grandson on Facebook, the news immediately went viral. But the real story is hidden behind the headline: the buying and selling of children is shockingly commonplace.

GlobalPost reports on the fate that the so-called Facebook baby was lucky enough to escape, but which awaits tens of thousands of Indian children each year. 

STRANGE BUT TRUE

North Koreans could do with some sweetness in their lives. In times chock-full of missiles and gulags, how about some real choc? We're talking Choco Pies, the sugary, marshmallowy, diabetes-y snack beloved of South Koreans – and increasingly, their northern neighbors. So popular are "South Korea's Oreos" across the border that North Korean factory workers used to receive them as bonuses.

As edible proof of South Korea's prosperity, some observers even think the treats could help wake North Koreans up to the misinformation their leaders feed them about their rivals. Democracy never tasted so sweet.