Israelis won’t warn US of attack on Iran

Israelis won’t warn US of attack on Iran

WASHINGTON

Israeli officials say they won’t warn the U.S. if they decide to launch a pre- emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, according to one U.S. intelligence official familiar with the discussions. The pronouncement, delivered in a series of private, top-level conversations, sets a tense tone ahead of meetings in the coming days at the White House and Capitol Hill.

Israeli officials said that if they eventually decide a strike is necessary, they would keep the Americans in the dark to decrease the likelihood that the U.S. would be held responsible for failing to stop Israel’s potential attack. The U.S. has been working with the Israelis for months to convince them that an attack would be only a temporary setback to Iran’s nuclear program.

Girl’s death after fight ruled homicide

LONG BEACH, Calif.

What began as an after-school fight between two young girls over a boy exploded into a homicide investigation Monday, when authorities said a 10-year-old died of a head injury after the confrontation with an 11-year-old classmate.

The finding rattled the already shaken school community at Willard Elementary, where student Joanna Ramos attended the fifth grade. She died Friday, about six hours after a brief fight with another girl in an alley near the school in a working-class neighborhood in the port city of Long Beach.

Police dismantle Occupy camp

LONDON

Police and bailiffs began dismantling Occupy London’s campsite outside St. Paul’s Cathedral late Monday, clearing one of the longest- surviving encampments inspired by the New York protest against capitalist excess.

The protesters said vans loaded with police arrived at the site before midnight.

The local authority, the City of London Corp., confirmed the eviction was under way by bailiffs, backed by police.

Civic authorities have an eviction order allowing them to remove the activists’ tents, though not the protesters themselves.

Colo. voters to decide on nonmedical pot

DENVER

Colorado voters will decide this fall whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use when the state becomes the second in the nation to put such a proposal on ballots this year.

The secretary of state’s office said Monday that supporters of the legalization initiative collected enough signatures to get their measure before voters, meaning Colorado will join Washington state in putting a recreational-pot question on November ballots.

Afghan turmoil won’t change plans

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration is sticking determinedly to its stay-the-course message in Afghanistan despite a week of anti- American riots, the point-blank killing of U.S. military advisers and growing election-year demands to bring the troops home.

In an echo of the Bush administration on continuing the unpopular war in Iraq, the White House and Pentagon insisted Monday that the wave of violence against Americans will not derail the war strategy in Afghanistan or speed up the calendar for bringing American forces home.

“We work alongside thousands of Afghans every single day to ensure a better future for the Afghan people. And nothing that has happened over the past week is going to deter us from that goal,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said.

Associated Press