3 Palestinian police and 1 Hamas militant killed in clash: police

NABLUS: Three Palestinian police officers and one Hamas militant were killed in an exchange of gunfire on Sunday in the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya, Palestinian police said.The policemen were killed while they were attempting to arrest Mohammad Yassine, a member of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, who had barricaded himself in his home. Two other police officers were killed in the exchange of gunfire. A curfew was imposed on the town following the incident, said the police. Hamas, a bitter rival of the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, violently ousted Fatah from the Gaza Strip in June 2007, effectively limiting Abbas's rule to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.