Referee stops game after rocket in Israel lands near home

JERUSALEM, July 14 (Reuters) An Israeli referee stopped a soccer game saying he could not concentrate after a rocket fired from Lebanon landed near his home, reports said.

''I'm sorry, but I cannot continue,'' referee Yaakov Ben-Hamo was quoted as saying after being told a rocket had landed near his home in Haifa during fighting between Israeli forces and the Hizbollah guerrilla group yesterday.

Ben-Hamo was officiating in a pre-season friendly between Premier League Beitar Jerusalem and second division Hapoel Kiryat Shmona in the northern town of Beit She'an.

REUTERS PM ND1410