In Iran's Ambition, Israel's Dark Cloud

An Italian Feast for Troops

Leave it to the Italians to worry about food.

Until May 1, co-owners Hal Koster and Marty O'Brien had organized and helped sponsor free Friday night dinners at Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steak House for recovering American military personnel from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.

Then Fran O'Brien's was evicted from the Capital Hilton because of a lapsed lease.

So when Italy's ambassador, Giovanni Castellaneta , met Koster and O'Brien through an Italian acquaintance, he offered to host U.S. service members undergoing treatment in the Washington area for dinner.

Taking a break from Washington's lavish spring galas, Castellaneta and his staff helped serve 30 military people who were accompanied by family members and aides to a sumptuous Italian dinner of risotto, lasagna, veal roast, and stew made with Barolo wine and vegetables.

Embassy spokesman Luca Ferrari said the dinner was attended by World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz , the former deputy defense secretary who was a frequent guest at the Friday night dinners. The embassy dinner was held in the foyer of the chancery on Whitehaven Street because it was accessible to veterans in wheelchairs or on crutches.

"The meaning of the event was to underline our gratefulness, and our closeness with American servicemen as they serve side by side with Italian soldiers in many theaters abroad," the ambassador said Monday. "It was also done in the hope of creating a precedent within the diplomatic community," he added. "We have had our own dead and our own disabled."

Before the dessert course of tiramisu and fruit salad, Army Sgt. 1st Class Antonio Giuliano sang arias from the opera "Vincero" and others, as well as "Amazing Grace" and other songs, while two colleagues accompanied him on the piano.

French Aid for War Orphans

French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte had his welcome mat out Friday for Aschiana, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the schooling of street children, vocational training and land mine awareness programs in Afghanistan.

Designed to reach out to war orphans and child soldiers who need to be reintegrated into society, Aschiana, which means "the nest," also provides help to thousands of children with hot meals and recreation, according to its founder, Marie Kux , a French American. Kux felt compelled to do something after she visited Kabul a couple of years ago and was moved by the faces of children and mothers fending for themselves in the street.