QUETTA, Pakistan

Worker for British Red Cross held in Pakistan found dead

The body of a British Red Cross worker held captive in Pakistan since January was found in an orchard Sunday, his throat slit and a note attached to his body saying he was killed because no ransom was paid, police said.

Khalil Rasjed Dale, 60, was managing a health program in the city of Quetta in southwestern Pakistan when armed men seized him from a street close to his office. The identities of his captors are unknown, but the region is home to separatist and Islamist militants who have kidnapped for ransom before.

Also Sunday, American missiles killed three suspected Islamist militants sheltering in an abandoned school in North Waziristan, said intelligence officials, who did not give their names because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

Pakistan’s government strongly condemned the attack.

The strike came as the U.S. is trying to rebuild its relationship with Pakistan, which opposes the missile attacks and has demanded that they stop.

WASHINGTON

Obama pokes fun at Romney, Secret Service, GSA at dinner

President Obama poked fun at his GOP rivals Saturday night, but didn’t spare his own Secret Service as he delivered remarks before a glittery crowd of Hollywood stars, political power brokers and journalists.

Obama’s verbal jabs included a 2 for 1 at his presumptive challenger Mitt Romney and the federal General Services Administration, recently rocked by a scandal over excessive spending on a conference in Las Vegas.

“It’s great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent Hilton ballroom – or what Mitt Romney would call a little fixer-upper,” Obama said, poking fun at Romney’s taste for pricey homes. “I mean, look at this party. We’ve got men in tuxes, women in gowns, fine wine, first-class entertainment. I was just relieved to learn this was not a GSA conference.”

He closed with a joke, riffing on the scandal involving Secret Service agents who brought prostitutes to their hotel in Colombia.

“I had a lot more material prepared,” he said. “But I have to get the Secret Service home in time for their new curfew.”

The night’s entertainer at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, comedian Jimmy Kimmel, got in a few digs at Obama, joking that “there’s a term for guys like President Barack Obama. Probably not two terms.”