WASHINGTON, D.C.
Biden warning on Israeli attack
Vice president’s comments underscore a widening gap between the new Israeli government and the White House
Amid growing concern that Israel might attack Iran, Vice President Joe Biden warned Tuesday that Israel’s new government would be “ill-advised” to launch such a strike.
Biden also said in a CNN interview that he does not believe newly installed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would take such step.
Even so, the high-level admonition from the Obama administration underscored a widening gap between the new Israeli government and the White House.
While the Obama administration has made a series of recent overtures to Tehran, the Israelis have grown more confrontational out of concern about the Islamic republic’s increasing nuclear know-how.
In the interview, Biden was asked whether he was concerned that Netanyahu might strike the Iranian nuclear facilities. “I don’t believe Prime Minister Netanyahu would do that. I think he would be ill-advised to do that,” Biden said. “And so my level of concern is no different than it was a year ago.”
Also Tuesday, Israel’s Defense Ministry said it had successfully tested an anti-missile system designed to protect the country against Iranian attack, The Associated Press reported.
— Paul Richter, Washington Bureau
MOLDOVA
Election protesters storm parliament, president’s offices
This tiny, poverty-racked European nation slipped into chaos Tuesday as thousands of stone-hurling youths, demonstrating against what they said were rigged national elections, overran parliament in the capital city of Chisinau. Police were unable to keep an estimated 10,000 protesters from ransacking the building that houses the country?s legislature and storming offices of President Vladimir Voronin. It was unclear whether Voronin was in the building at the time. Fueling the violence were allegations by opposition leaders that Voronin’s Communist-led government had falsified legislative elections Sunday in a bid to maintain power. Legislative elections in Moldova are pivotal because the president is selected by parliament and not by popular vote. Read Tribune correspondent Alex Rodriguez?s full report at chicagotribune.com/moldova.
PERU
Prison for ex-president
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LIMA — Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison Tuesday for death squad killings and kidnappings during his 1990s struggle against Shining Path insurgents.
Outside court, pro- and anti-Fujimori activists fought with fists, sticks and rocks. About 50 people chanted “Fujimori killer!” while several hundred chanted “Fujimori innocent!” before riot police separated them.
The court convicted the 70-year-old former leader, who was widely credited with rescuing Peru from the brink of economic and political collapse, of “crimes against humanity” including two operations by the military hit squad that claimed 25 lives. None of the victims, the three-judge court found, were connected to any insurgency.
Iraq
Time cut for shoe thrower
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s highest court on Tuesday reduced the prison sentence for an Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at former President George W. Bush from 3 years to 1, a court spokesman said.
Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar, the spokesman, said the decision was made because the journalist had no prior criminal history.
The defense had appealed the original ruling to the Federal Appeals Court, citing an Iraqi law stipulating a maximum sentence of only 2 years for publicly insulting a visiting foreign leader.
The decision came as President Barack Obama made his first official visit to Iraq as commander in chief.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi was sentenced to three years in March after pleading not guilty to a charge of assaulting a foreign leader. He described his action as a “natural response.”
Utah
Papers pulled after typo
PROVO — Thousands of issues of Brigham Young University’s student newspaper were pulled from newsstands because a front-page photo caption misidentified leaders of the Mormon church as apostates instead of apostles.
An apostate is a person who has abandoned religious faith, principles or a cause.
The photo in The Daily Universe on Monday was of members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at the weekend general conference.
The caption called the group the “Quorum of the Twelve Apostates.” The mistake happened when a copy editor ran a computer spell check and apostate was suggested as the replacement for a misspelling of apostle.
ILLINOIS
Oprah e-mail a fake
The FBI has issued a warning that an “Oprah Millionaire Contest Show” e-mail is a scam. The fake message says the recipient has been nominated to be on an Oprah Winfrey show during which a winner of $1 million cash will be named. Then it asks for contact information.
As the scam-busting Snopes.com Web site discovered, those “chosen” for the show are told they must purchase an airline or train ticket to Chicago and pay to get into the show. The senders of the e-mail say to send the money for the travel and show tickets to them.
Oprah.com, the official Web site of Winfrey’s media empire, has posted a warning that there are several “sweepstakes scams” and that no such program is scheduled.
— Tribune news services