News In Brief

A night of Beirut fighting includes heavy shelling

Fierce fighting raged until dawn Monday along Beirut's confrontation lines and radio reports said residential districts, including the presidential palace area, were hit by scores of rockets and mortar shells.

Firing began before midnight and escalated into heavy shelling on both sides of the ''green line,'' where Muslim militias in West Beirut confront Christian militias and Lebanese Army units in the East.

In southern Lebanon, some shops were closed and shipping was hampered because of a Muslim-called strike to protest the second anniversary of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Israeli Army said. An Army spokesman acknowledged that the strike affected the two largest cities in south Lebanon, the ports of Tyre and Sidon.