Daybreak: Madoff Speaks

• In his first prison interview, Bernard Madoff said he was surprised how long regulators let him continue his Ponzi scheme. He also apparently looks healthy and “seems to be working out.” [ABC News]
• The simmering back-and-forth continues with reports that Lebanon has placed its army on high alert following the movement of Israeli tanks toward a border crossing. [JTA]
• Out of 25 countries polled, only Israel had lowered rather than raised its view of the United States since President Obama assumed office. The U.S.’s Israeli approval rating of 71% is still higher than most of the others’. [Haaretz]
• One of the 44 people arrested last week in connection with charges of money-laundering among New Jersey’s Syrian Jewish community, a political consultant named Jack M. Shaw, was found dead in a suspected suicide. [NYT]