Kuwait: Official says Saudis arrested policeman who shot soldiers

A Kuwaiti police officer said to have a history of mental problems was arrested Friday in Saudi Arabia, a day after he allegedly shot two American soldiers and fled across the border, a Kuwaiti official said.

The suspect, Khaled al-Shimmiri, was picked up in eastern Saudi Arabia near the border, the state-run Kuwait News Agency reported. He was expected to be extradited to Kuwait, the agency said.

Al-Shimmiri, who allegedly shot and seriously wounded the two men Thursday along a desert highway , had been a patient at a Kuwait psychiatric hospital, an Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. It was not clear whether he was a former patient, and there was no explanation of why he was on patrol duty if he was still receiving treatment.

Jerusalem: U.N. worker killed in crossfire

A United Nations relief official working at a refugee camp in the West Bank was shot to death Friday during a pitched gun battle between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians, the first foreign U.N. aid worker to be killed in two years of fighting.

It was unclear whose bullet killed Briton Iain Hook, 50, a senior manager for the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees. Just minutes before he was shot, Hook was on the telephone with the agency’s Jerusalem office trying to arrange a safe exit from the area for his staff.

The United Nations said Israeli soldiers prevented an ambulance from immediately reaching Hook at the U.N. compound in Jenin. The Israeli army said he was evacuated as quickly as possible.

Also killed Friday in the camp was a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who was shot by Israeli forces. In the Gaza Strip, an Israeli soldier died under sniper fire and a Palestinian was killed as he tried to enter an Israeli settlement.

Apparently worried about the situation’s volatility, U.S. diplomats asked the Israelis to withdraw from Bethlehem as soon as possible.