The Wrold

Lebanon’s rival Christian militias agreed to halt fighting for the second time in as many days. The militias issued separate statements in Beirut, saying they had agreed to stop the battles and to meet today to discuss ways of healing widening political rifts. This latest agreement, like the one the day before, was mediated by the Maronite Christian church. At least six people were killed and 20 wounded in the fresh fighting, security and hospital sources said, after the two sides--in defiance of that earlier truce--began fighting with artillery, mortars, rockets and machine guns in residential areas.