Police kill groom on wedding day

A man has been shot to death on his wedding day by New York City police.


It happened early this morning outside a strip club in Queens.


Police and witnesses say officers shot three people who had just left a bachelor party. The groom later died at a hospital. Another man is in critical condition, and the third is listed as stable.


It's not clear what sparked the shooting. The mother of one of the wounded men says the men's car had hit an unmarked police vehicle. Police haven't confirmed that, but two damaged cars could be seen.


Police cordoned off more than a block in the largely residential neighborhood.

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Iran and Syria Helping Hizballah Rearm




As Lebanon's government tries to maintain its shaky grip on power, sources tell TIME that Tehran and Damascus are shipping weapons to the militant Shi'ite group.b

Iran is smuggling weapons through Syria to re-arm Lebanese allies Hizballah, despite renewed efforts by United Nations peacekeepers and the Lebanese army to seal off the mountain borders with Syria in the wake of last summer's war between the Shi'ite militia and Israel, according to reports by Saudi and Israeli intelligence sources that have been confirmed by western diplomats in Beirut.

Israeli military officials in Tel Aviv say that Hizballah replenished nearly half of its pre-war stockpiles of short-range missiles and small arms. But western diplomats in Beirut say these calculations under-estimate the weapons flow and that Hizballah has now filled its war chest with over 20,000 short-range missiles -- a similar amount fo what they had at the start of the conflict, during which the group is believed to have fired over 3,000 rockets at Israel. "The Iranian pipeline through Syria was already working during the war," despite constant Israeli bombing raids on the roads into Lebanon from Syria, this Beirut source said. Officially, Syria and Iran deny that they're supplying weapons to Hizballah. As for the Shi'ite group itself, when asked about receiving a new shipment of arms from Syria and Iran, a spokesman told TIME, without elaborating, "We have more than enough weapons if Israel tries to attack us again."

Over the past three months, according to a knowledgeable Saudi source, Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers have been operating out of a military base on the outskirts of Damascus. The Iranian government has dispatched shipments of small arms and what appear to be missile components to this military base, according to the source. From the secret base, weapons have been shipped by truck across the border into Lebanon. Western diplomats say that the Lebanese army has posted over 8,000 troops along the border, forcing smugglers to use mountain passes instead of the heavily-monitored crossing on the main Beirut-Damascus road.

The Saudis, in particular, are alarmed at Iran's spreading influence in Lebanon. "There has been a serious increase in (Iranian and Syrian) activity in the rearming of HIzballah," says Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi security advisor who is managing director of the Riyadh-based Saudi National Security Assessment Project, a consulting group that advises the Saudi government and has access to government information. Obaid contends that "a huge stream of trucks" has been crossing the border from Syria into Lebanon, ferrying thinly disguised shipments of arms.

Moreover, Obaid says, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) are using the Iranian embassies in Damascus and Beirut as command and control centers -- an allegation that was also confirmed to TIME by Israeli military sources. Obaid says there appear to be direct communications links between the Iranians and Hizballah, via Hizballah officers working inside the Iranian embassy in Beirut, and Iranian officers in the field with Hizballah fighters; in the past, some Middle East analysts have rejected the popular notion that Hizballah takes direct orders from Iran.

Iran's apparent efforts to destabilize Lebanon and to expand Shi'ite influence in Iraq and throughout the region are of major concern to the Saudi government, a leading power in the Sunni Muslim world that presumably would like to see the U.S. take a more active stance in Lebanon against its regional rivals. Obaid says that when Vice President Cheney visits King Abdallah bin Abd Al Aziz Al Saud Saturday in Riyadh, the Saudi king is expected to tell Cheney that "the Saudi leadership will not and cannot allow Iran, through Syria and Hizballah, to bring down the Lebanese government and overtake the levers of power in Beirut." Obaid says the Saudi king is also expected to discuss with Cheney the kingdom's worries about Iranian activity in Iraq and the Palestinian territories as well as its alliance with Syria.

All of the Iranian and Syrian activity is taking place against the backdrop of growing instability within Lebanon's government and Saturday's upcoming vote among government ministers to bring the assassins of the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri before an international tribunal -- a process that is expected to implicate high-level Syrian officials. Hizballah pulled out of the country's coalition government recently after its push for greater representation was rebuffed; many observers viewed the push for effectve veto power as motivated by its concern that prime minister Fouad Siniora would try to begin the process of Hizballah's disarmament that was reaffirmed in the UN-brokered ceasefire that ended this summer's war. Moreover, some politicians in Beirut suspect that the assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel on Tuesday was plotted by Syria to scare cabinet ministers into voting against the international probe into Hariri's death by a massive truck bomb (other analysts argue the predictable fallout from the killing just ahead of such a crucial vote is precisely why Syria would not have ordered it). Saad Hariri, the prime minister's son and a supporter of the current government, told TIME, "Syria is waging a campaign of intimidation and assassinations to stop the tribunal."

If the Lebanese government approves of the tribunal, it will then go to the United Nations, which could slap an embargo on Syria. This process will drag on for months before it wends its way into the UN Security Council. Moreover, such a confrontational approach would run counter to the expected recommendation of the Iraq Study Group, commissioned by the White House, to engage with Syria. But after the assassination of Pierre Gemayel the notion of US talks with Syria may be off the table, at least for the moment.

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Stoking the Fires in Lebanon

Beirut isn't burning just yet, but if the U.S. continues to cross a red line by pushing for a politically charged trial that Syria won't stand for, a full-scale blaze will surely erupt.


Beirut is boiling, as a Lebanese friend called to tell me. Over the weekend, Hizballah announced it would defy a government ban and hold mass, open-ended demonstrations until the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora resigns — a slow-rolling coup d'etat, if you like. Then on Tuesday, the anti-Syrian minister Pierre Gemayel was assassinated. His father, Amin Gemayel, is the pro-American former president, his grandfather was the founder of the Christian Phalange party, and you can count on his assassination having momentous political consequences for Lebanon. I asked my friend what happens if the government doesn't give into Hizballah and resign. It's simple — Beirut burns, he said.

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Stoking the Fires in Lebanon




Beirut isn't burning just yet, but if the U.S. continues to cross a red line by pushing for a politically charged trial that Syria won't stand for, a full-scale blaze will surely erupt.

Beirut is boiling, as a Lebanese friend called to tell me. Over the weekend, Hizballah announced it would defy a government ban and hold mass, open-ended demonstrations until the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora resigns — a slow-rolling coup d'etat, if you like. Then on Tuesday, the anti-Syrian minister Pierre Gemayel was assassinated. His father, Amin Gemayel, is the pro-American former president, his grandfather was the founder of the Christian Phalange party, and you can count on his assassination having momentous political consequences for Lebanon. I asked my friend what happens if the government doesn't give into Hizballah and resign. It's simple — Beirut burns, he said.

We're a lot closer to a civil war in Lebanon than we were last week. But I think a couple of things have to happen first before the Lebanese start filling sandbags. One likely trigger could be Lebanon's going ahead with an international tribunal to try the suspects accused of assassinating former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005. Neither Syria nor Hizballah will stand for a tribunal, believing it would be little more than a U.S. and French show trial intended to isolate them. And that's not to mention that several Syrian officials are actually implicated in Hariri's murder.

The tribunal aside, the real problem is with Hizballah, which does not consider itself just another Lebanese political party. Hizballah is firmly convinced it won its thirty three-day war with Israel this summer — if only by holding off the Israeli army and not returning the soldiers it kidnapped. The war turned Hizballah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah into an icon of resistance across the Islamic world. One Lebanese Shi'a told me Nasrallah's standing now is higher than that of Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khameini — which if true would be an earthshaking shift in the Middle East. Finally, considering that Hizballah's military forces are stronger and more disciplined than the Lebanese army's, why would Nasrallah defer to Lebanon's government on the tribunal, disarming, or anything else?

As for Syria, its interests in Lebanon may not be identical to Hizballah's, but they're just as vital. You have to go back to 1982 to understand what's at stake for Syria. On February 2 the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood seized Hama, one of the country's largest cities. Then Syrian President Hafiz al-Asad (the current president's father), convinced his regime was about to fall to the Islamic opposition, ordered his Special Forces to level Hama. Some 35,000 people were killed, most of them hostages. In the aftermath, what surprised and shook Asad was his discovery that Yasir Arafat and the PLO, then based in Lebanon, were behind the arming and training of Hama's Muslim Brothers. Asad promised himself one thing: He would never allow Lebanon to fall into hostile foreign hands. It is what the Syrians call a "red line," and I would imagine it's a red line for Bashar al-Asad too.

You can't count on much in Lebanon, but my experience has been that if you keep on poking at the red lines, like pushing the Lebanese into holding a politically charged trial when the country is teetering on a precipice, you'd better brace yourself for civil war. With the way Iraq is going, you would think that would be the last thing the White House would want. But apparently not. On Tuesday Bush insisted the tribunal go forward, which means he'll soon have to deal with finding a way to put out Beirut's latest fires.

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Today in history - Nov. 25

Today is Saturday, Nov. 25, the 329th day of 2006. There are 36 days left in the year.


Today's Highlight in History:


On Nov. 25, 1963, the body of President Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.


On this date:


In 1758, in the French and Indian War, the British captured Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburgh.


In 1783, the British evacuated New York, their last military position in the United States during the Revolutionary War.


In 1881, Pope John XXIII was born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli near Bergamo, Italy.


In 1944, baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis died at age 78.

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Today in history - Nov. 25

The Associated Press

Today is Saturday, Nov. 25, the 329th day of 2006. There are 36 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 25, 1963, the body of President Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

On this date:

In 1758, in the French and Indian War, the British captured Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburgh.

In 1783, the British evacuated New York, their last military position in the United States during the Revolutionary War.

In 1881, Pope John XXIII was born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli near Bergamo, Italy.

In 1944, baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis died at age 78.

In 1957, President Eisenhower suffered a slight stroke.

In 1973, Greek President George Papadopoulos was ousted in a bloodless military coup.

In 1974, former U.N. Secretary-General U Thant died in New York at age 65.

In 1986, the Iran-Contra affair erupted as President Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.

In 1999, 5-year-old Elian Gonzalez was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off Florida, setting off an international custody battle between relatives in Miami and Elian's father in Cuba.

In 2002, President Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security, and appointed Tom Ridge to be its head.

Ten years ago: President Clinton won a victory on the trade front by getting Pacific Rim leaders meeting in the Philippines to accept the year 2000 as a deadline for cutting tariffs on information technology. Testifying for a second day at a civil trial, O.J. Simpson again denied killing Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, but couldn't explain how blood believed to be the victims' got into his Bronco, or how he'd suffered hand cuts.

Five years ago: As the war in Afghanistan entered its eighth week, CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed during a prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, becoming America's first combat casualty of the conflict. Scientists in Worcester, Mass., claimed to have created the first early human embryo clones, none of which survived.

One year ago: Palestinians took control of a border for the first time with the festive opening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, a milestone on their rocky path to independence. Susanne Osthoff, a German aid worker and archaeologist, was kidnapped in Iraq; she was released more than three weeks later. Nine inmates escaped from the Yakima County Jail in Washington state; all were recaptured, although one was at large for three weeks. George Best, one of the most dazzling players in soccer history, died at a London hospital at age 59.

Today's Birthdays: Former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet is 91. Actor Ricardo Montalban is 86. Actress Noel Neill is 86. Actress Kathryn Crosby is 73. Actor Matt Clark is 70. Singer Percy Sledge is 66. Actor Tracey Walter is 64. Author, actor and game show host Ben Stein is 62. Singer Bob Lind is 62. Actor John Larroquette is 59. Movie director Jonathan Kaplan is 59. Singer Amy Grant is 46. Rock musician Eric Grossman (K's Choice) is 42. Rock singer Mark Lanegan is 42. Singer Stacy Lattisaw is 40. Rock musician Rodney Sheppard (Sugar Ray) is 40. Rapper-producer Erick Sermon is 38. Actress Jill Hennessy is 37. Actress Christina Applegate is 35.

Thought for Today: "The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart." — Mencius, Chinese philosopher (371 B.C.-289 B.C.).

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