Obama warns both Israel and Iran

Obama warns both Israel and Iran

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama delivered his most explicit threat yet that the United States will attack Iran if that’s what it takes to prevent it from developing a nuclear bomb. At the same time, he warned Israelis they would only make a bad situation worse if they moved pre-emptively against Iranian nuclear facilities.

The double-barreled warning, in an interview published Friday, came before Obama’s high-stakes meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and a speech Sunday to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israeli lobby. Obama said an Israeli strike would stir sympathy for the Islamic republic in a region where it has few allies. But he made clearer than before that Iran could face attack from the United States.

Woman sues school over roommate’s sex

BOSTON

A former student at a Roman Catholic college has filed a lawsuit against the school, claiming administrators didn’t do enough to help her when she complained that her roommate was having too much sex in their dorm room.

Lindsay Blankmeyer said in a federal lawsuit that she suffered from depression and attention deficit disorder before she enrolled at Stonehill College, but was driven into a suicidal depression after school officials wouldn’t give her reasonable housing alternatives to get her away from her roommate at the school in Easton, Mass.

N. Koreans skeptical of US nuclear deal

PYONGYANG, North Korea

A nuclear deal with the United States may have raised hopes that tensions on the Korean peninsula could ease soon, but rare interviews Friday by The Associated Press with Pyongyang residents suggest deep cynicism of U.S. intentions. North Korea’s military, meanwhile, repeated threats of a “merciless sacred war” against South Korea — highlighting the lingering animosity between the divided Koreas despite the North’s diplomatic breakthrough with Washington.

Mormons to be warned on baptisms

SALT LAKE CITY

Mormon church leaders say the church’s policy of not performing posthumous baptisms of Holocaust victims and others unrelated to its members will be reiterated worldwide during Sunday services.

The announcement this week follows outrage over recent claims that Mormon temples posthumously baptized the family of Holocaust survivor and Jewish-rights advocate Simon Wiesenthal, along with Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager forced into hiding in Amsterdam during the Holocaust and killed in a concentration camp, and other notable Jewish figures.

Dahmer tour stirs backlash in Wis.

MILWAUKEE

A planned walking tour of the Milwaukee haunts where serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer trolled for victims has drawn protests from victims’ family members and others, prompting online deal-maker Groupon to cancel its promotion for discounted tickets.

Critics of the tour, including family members of some of the young men Dahmer murdered, say the it is an attempt to exploit an ugly part of the city’s history and want it stopped before the first sightseers hit the sidewalks.

But tour-organizer Bam Marketing and Media has said it’s not deterred. Each of the company’s first two trips through the Walker’s Point neighborhood, scheduled for Saturday, had nearly reached the 20-person capacity by Thursday, said spokeswoman Amanda Morden.

Associated Press