Briefly

EGYPT

Mubarak: Abducted Israeli soldier ‘fine’

CAIRO | Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Tuesday that he thought an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants three years ago was well and hoped the issue would not take a long time to resolve.

Militants of the Hamas Islamist group and other gunmen launched a raid into Israel in June 2006 from the Gaza Strip, killing two soldiers and capturing Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit. Egypt has sought to mediate a deal for his freedom between Hamas and Israel.

“I believe there were contacts [with Sgt. Shalit] and that soldier Shalit is fine,” Mr. Mubarak told a joint news conference with visiting Israeli President Shimon Peres in Cairo.

“I hope that in the coming period, maybe, not in the long term, the issue of soldier Shalit will end,” he added.

IRAQ

Dutchman named U.N. envoy

UNITED NATIONS | U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has chosen Ad Melkert, a Dutch politician who later worked for the World Bank and United Nations, as his new special envoy in Iraq, a U.N. spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Mr. Melkert, 53, replaces Staffan de Mistura, who is joining the U.N. World Food Program.

Mr. Melkert rose to prominence in the Dutch Labor Party, becoming minister of social affairs and employment in the 1990s under Prime Minister Wim Kok, whom he succeeded as party leader in 2001.

He resigned after the party fared badly in elections the next year and a few months later joined the World Bank, where he served for more than three years on the board of directors.

In 2006, he became deputy head of the U.N. Development Program, a position he has held until now.

U.N. officials live and work under heavy security in Baghdad after a truck bomb at the former U.N. headquarters there killed 22 people in 2003, including special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

SAUDI ARABIA

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