ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 1, 1996 TAG: 9604010136
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
U.S., Syria asked to help calm fighting
JERUSALEM - After launching an all-night retaliatory assault on suspected guerrilla hideouts in southern Lebanon, Israel appealed Sunday to the United States and Syria to help avert an escalation of the fighting.
Israel's tank and artillery shelling of 15 Shiite Muslim villages forced hundreds of families to flee, security sources said. A 2-year-old boy in the village of Haris was injured by shrapnel, they said.
The shelling came after guerrillas of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, or Party of God, fired 28 Katyusha rockets at northern Israel on Saturday night. That attack was to avenge the deaths of two Shiite Muslim civilians killed by an Israeli helicopter gunship attack earlier in the day.
Amiram Levine, the army commander in northern Israel, said Hezbollah has repeatedly fired on Israel from the place where the civilians were killed.
Foreign Minister Ehud Barak told U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher that those deaths were a mistake and asked him to intervene to ensure there would be no escalation of the fighting, Israel radio said Sunday. - Associated Press Chinese police stop Tan from speaking
BEIJING - Chinese police prevented American author Amy Tan from speaking at a fund-raising dinner, apparently because the event was on behalf of Chinese orphans, organizers said Sunday.
Police first asked the Holiday Inn Lido to cancel the Saturday night dinner benefiting the Wisconsin-based Philip Hayden Foundation because of permit violations, hosts and guests said.
The authorities then allowed it as long as Tan would not speak, decorations for the charity were removed and the 450 guests were divided among three rooms. - Associated Press
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