Bomb in Beirut kills policeman

A bomb tore through a car in the hills east of Lebanon's capital, killing a Druse politician who recently helped reconcile rival factions within that minority community, police said.

The bomb that killed Sheik Saleh Aridi, a senior member of the Lebanese Democratic Party, was planted in his car in the village of Baissour.

It was the first political assassination in about a year in Lebanon and came less than a week before planned reconciliation talks among rival Lebanese factions.