NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge on Monday set a trial date of Nov. 3 for a suspected Syrian arms dealer extradited from Spain on charges of planning to supply weapons, including surface to air missile systems, to Colombian rebels. Monzer al-Kassar, 62, is a long-time Spanish resident known as the "Prince of Marbella" for his extravagant lifestyle. Kassar and two other men, Tareq Mousa al Ghazi, 61, of Lebanon, and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, 59, also of Marbella, Spain, will face trial together on charges of conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). During the hearing in Manhattan federal court, Kassar's lawyer Ira Sorkin told U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff that he needed time to travel to Romania, Beirut and Spain to gather information for the trial. Sorkin is a former U.S. prosecutor and former director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Kassar was extradited from Spain to New York on Friday. The U.S. Embassy in Madrid said Kassar had been selling weapons since the 1970s to the Palestinian Liberation Front and clients in Nicaragua, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq and Somalia. The U.S. government has designated the left-wing FARC as a foreign terrorist organization. Latin America's longest-running insurgency, it has at times run large swathes of Colombia. (Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Michelle Nichols and Xavier Briand)
An Israeli soldier gestures beside an ambulance carrying a box, containing what Hezbollah says are remains of Israeli soldiers, at Rosh Hanikra along the Israel-Lebanon border June 1, 2008. Hezbollah said ...
