News In Brief
| Beirut
Lebanese factions meet to bolster cease-fire
A fragile truce between the Lebanese Army and Shiite Muslim militiamen held Wednesday as a special security committee met in an effort to consolidate the cease-fire.
The committee met for the first time this week after the representative for the Shiite Muslim Amal (Hope) militia agreed to suspend his boycott of the sessions. The committee also includes representatives from the Lebanese Army, the Druze leftist Progressive Socialist Party and the Christian right-wing coalition known as the Lebanese Forces.
In Damascus, Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said he had serious doubts about the possibility of a peaceful solution in his country.
And in southern Lebanon, one Israeli soldier was killed and two others wounded when they were ambushed near the village of Jazzin.
