World : Sweden Arrests Convicted Killer as Suspect in Olof Palme Murder

Police detained a suspect today in the assassination nearly three years ago of Prime Minister Olof Palme, and news reports described him as a convicted killer with a long criminal record.

The arrest could be the first break in an investigation that has been marred by internal squabbles and has prompted charges of incompetence.

Prosecutor Anders Helin said the suspect denied being the person who shot Palme on Feb. 28, 1986, while the prime minister and his wife walked home from a movie without bodyguards.

Newspapers described the suspect as a 41-year-old man with a history of violent crime, including a manslaughter conviction for stabbing a drug addict to death with a bayonet in 1970 a few blocks from where Palme was killed. State radio said he had been treated in a psychiatric ward for dangerous criminals.