June 1, 2006, BOSTON —Northeastern University on Thursday appointed Joseph Aoun, a dean at the University of Southern California, as its seventh president.Aoun, dean of USC’s College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, takes over Aug. 15 for Richard Freeland, who announced last summer that he would step down at the end of this academic year after 10 years as president.

by Salim Yassine

BEIRUT (AFP) – Israeli fighter jets bombed Palestinian and Lebanese militant targets in Lebanon after guerrillas fired rockets into Israel in the fiercest cross-border violence seen this year. A fighter with the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and a member of a Syrian-backed radical Palestinian group were killed in the Israeli raids, while attacks from Lebanon left two Israeli soldiers wounded.

Each side blamed the other for the tit-for-tat attacks on the border, which remains highly volatile six years after Israel ended its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in May 2000. UN peacekeepers later said they had brokered a ceasefire, and calm appeared to have returned to the volatile area by early evening.

"Following intensive contacts with all parties throughout Sunday, UNIFIL has succeeded in obtaining a ceasefire which should take effect on the ground," Milos Strugel, spokesman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, told AFP.

Residents of the northern Israeli towns of Kiryat Shmona and Nahariya were ordered into shelters for several hours amid the fierce shelling but were later given the all-clear.

By Leila Hatoum

BEIRUT: The speaker of Lebanon’s Parliament insisted Thursday that Damascus "welcomes and encourages" the Lebanese national dialogue and "has no problems with it." Nabih Berri, who made the comments during a celebration of Liberation Day six years after the Israeli withdrawal from most of the country’s Southern territories, said: "Lebanon is being used to besiege Syria and Syria is being used to hit the last vestiges of resistance and defense line against Israel in Lebanon.

"This way we will all be losers," he warned. "I call for the establishment of a true Lebanese-Syrian dialogue.

"I wonder why things are always portrayed in such a way that Syria is the one that stands as a barrier in the face of demands imposed on it," he added. "Lebanon, on many occasions has refused proposals as well."

Lebanese participants at the national dialogue table – as well as UN Security Council Resolution 1680 – have requested that Syria establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon and demarcate the countries’ border.

Syria has not yet given Lebanese Premier Fouad Siniora the green light to visit Damascus to discuss these matters, despite the fact that Resolution 1680, issued last week, "strongly encourages the Syrian government" to do so.

Berri had stormed out of a Parliament session Tuesday after a heated debate with MP and former Minister Bahij Tabbara, suspending it less than an hour after its start. The conflict with Tabbara was over Syrian-Lebanese relations, when Tabbara asked: "We want to know if the open doors to our officials in Syria were those of Syria’s prison doors, or what?"

Berri had made a statement on Monday that "Damascus’ doors are open for any Lebanese official," referring to a possible open road for Siniora to visit Damascus.