Israel PM warns of plot to topple him

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the Jewish state’s president and a former minister of conspiring to have him toppled, triggering charges of “paranoia” ahead of elections. “I know that a former Likud minister has been holding discussions with the coalition and concocted a subversive plot, with me winning a large victory at the next elections and him making sure I am not prime minister,” he told a gathering of his right-wing Likud party on Wednesday night celebrating his 69th birthday. Under the scheme, President Reuven Rivlin would use his prerogative as head of state to name an alternative Likud candidate to head a post-election government.