Sniper

Hundreds of Syrians fled to Lebanon and three people were killed by snipers in the western border town of Tall Kalakh on Saturday, activists said, as President Bashar Assad claimed to have begun arranging talks with opposition figures in the face of protests that have shaken his regime. Activists released the names of the three men they said were killed Saturday, but the deaths could not be independently verified. Another person reportedly died after fleeing across the border, activists said.

The doctors rushed through a white outdoor tent where several pale, bloodied men were being operated on. Inside the Hikma hospital, it was a similar scene. One patient, blood dripping from his mouth, was being propped up by two companions. Nearby rooms were packed with seemingly catatonic men, their faces swollen and bruised. Seventeen people had died Sunday in Misurata, the doctors said, many of them victims of rocket attacks from government forces loyal to longtime Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi.

Law enforcement snipers will watch from rooftops. Motorists will be checked at roadblocks across Athens. And at the courthouse, inside a maximum security prison on the eastern outskirts of the Greek capital, hundreds of plainclothes officers will patrol surrounding streets to shield against militant attacks. Riot police armed with percussion grenades and tear gas will also be on alert as part of the security measures planned for the trial scheduled to begin Monday of 13 suspected members of the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire, a militant anti-authority movement known as SPF. "We are prepared for everything," said Athanassios Kokkalakis, spokesman for Greece's National Police.

A man awaiting trial in the killing of an Armenian woman in March was charged Tuesday with the 2008 slaying of the woman's husband and 8-year-old daughter, as well as the fatal, sniper-styled attack on a prostitute on Sunset Boulevard earlier this year. The three additional murder charges against Alberd Tersargyan, 60, on Tuesday, brought together two seemingly separate investigations that had confounded police for months, adding more drama to a case that has shaken Los Angeles' Little Armenia neighborhood.

As expected, the NHL Players' Assn. filed a grievance Monday over the league's rejection of the 17-year, $102-million contract between Ilya Kovalchuk and the New Jersey Devils. The NHL last week refused to approve the contract on the basis that the deal circumvented the collective bargaining agreement, apparently because it was dramatically front-loaded and tapered dramatically to $550,000 a year for the last five years in order to get a low average annual value. "The grievance is not surprising or unexpected.

Free agent Ilya Kovalchuk , who arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday for meetings with Kings executives, left town Tuesday afternoon without a new contract, but his agent stayed behind to continue negotiating a long-term deal for the dynamic left wing. Jay Grossman , Kovalchuk's New York-based agent, met with members of the Kings' hockey operations department before leaving Los Angeles on Tuesday night. It's not clear if Grossman and Kovalchuk made any concessions on their initial $100-million price.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who is vying to once again lead his nation, on Sunday accused unnamed figures in the current government of being involved in a plot to kill him. Allawi, whose Iraqiya bloc won the largest share of parliamentary seats in March elections that have still not produced a new government, did not name the alleged culprits but provided an April 29 letter from the U.S. military to back up his contention that his...

Following the deadliest day yet for coalition forces seeking to drive the Taliban from the town of Marja in southern Afghanistan, another Western service member was killed Friday by small-arms fire, military officials said. Surprisingly accurate Taliban snipers, together with intricate webs of roadside bombs, slowed the progress of the offensive as it neared the end of its first week. Commanders say key goals are being met, but they acknowledge that clearing operations around the town probably will take about a month.

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan — Following the deadliest day yet for coalition forces seeking to drive the Taliban from the town of Marja in southern Afghanistan, U.S. Marines took aim Friday at the threat posed by insurgent snipers. Surprisingly accurate fire by Taliban marksmen, together with intricate webs of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, has slowed the progress of the offensive, now in its seventh day. Commanders say key goals are being met, but acknowledge that clearing operations will probably take weeks.

Re "D.C. sniper set to die Tuesday by injection," Nov. 9 In filing an appeal, Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad's lawyers complained that the case had moved too quickly. Muhammad was arrested on Oct. 24, 2002, and was executed on Nov. 10, 2009. That's seven years and 17 days. By comparison, when Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was murdered in 1933, it took just 14 days from the mayor's death on March 6 for authorities to sentence and execute his killer. I can personally testify that for ordinary citizens, and in comparison to today, street crime in 1933 was near zero.