News In Brief

US clergyman who works in Beirut is kidnapped

Three kidnappers overpowered an American clergyman on a west Beirut street Tuesday, forcing him into a car and speeding off, police reported. A police spokesman identified the man as Benjamin Weir, a Presbyterian minister.

The Rev. Mr. Weir works at the Near East School of Theology in Muslim-controlled west Beirut and has lived in Lebanon for 35 years, his colleagues said.