Code Talker Samuel Tsosie Sr. passes on

WINDOW ROCK

Navajo Code Talker Samuel Tsosie Sr. has passed into the spirit world, according to Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly, who ordered flags flown at half-staff in his honor.

Tsosie, who served in the 1st Marine Division from 1943 to 1945, was 89.

He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 16, forging his mother’s signature on his enlistment papers and gave his age as 19, according to the nonprofit Navajo Code Talkers organization.

In the Marine Corps, Tsosie joined his military brothers as a radioman communicating in every major battle of the Pacific, including Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Guam, Okinawa and Peleliu.

The funeral for Tsosie took place today at the VA Chapel in Prescott, Ariz. He will be laid to rest in the National Veterans Cemetery in Phoenix.

In his Nov. 25 proclamation, Shelly stated, “The Navajo Nation unites and offers prayers for his family and friends during this time of grief.”

Shelly has ordered flags flown at half-staff from sunrise on Nov. 25 to sunset on Nov. 28.

Anonymous to Cleveland Police

San Diego - Protesters block freeway over fatal shooting of a Missouri teenager

SAN DIEGO — Hundreds of demonstrators marching in response to a grand jury decision not to indict a police officer in the fatal shooting of a Missouri teenager twice blocked a freeway in City Heights Tuesday night, later moving to nearby streets, where some threw bottles and rocks at San Diego police officers.

Several officers were struck by rocks and full water bottles and suffered minor injuries, and one officer was spit on, San Diego police Acting Capt. Keith Lucas said. In addition, a California Highway Patrol officer was struck with a rock and spit on, he said. Lucas said he did not know the extent of that officer's injuries.

Six protesters were arrested, one for throwing rocks at officers, one for inciting the crowd and leading them onto the freeway, and four for unlawful assembly, Lucas said.

Civil Rights Defense Organizations Request Arizona Governor’s Book Notes

Civil Rights Defense Organizations Request Arizona Governor’s Book Notes

TUCSON, Arizona – Civil rights defense organizations requested that a judge order Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to turn over the notes she used to write her book “Scorpions for Breakfast” to use in their legal battle against Law SB1070, local media reported Monday.

In her controversial book, Brewer discusses her fight against what she called – the book’s subtitle – “special interests, liberal media and cynical politicos” to secure America’s border.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund subpoenaed the notes and any other documents Brewer consulted in writing her book, published in 2011, including emails and interviews.

The attorneys hope to find in the governor’s notes some kind of indication of racial profiling, and they have requested all of her communications including the words “illegal,” Mexican” and “wetback,” among others.

Law SB1070 was approved in 2010 becoming the first state law to criminalize the presence on U.S. territory of undocumented immigrants.

After a long battle in the courts that ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court, several sections of the law were overturned, although a key portion of it, Section 2(b), authorizing police departments to “question” the immigration status of people they suspect might not have the proper papers, was later revived.

Activists say that this provision is being used to discriminate against Hispanic citizens and residents. 

Severed Heads Found in Western Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Two severed human heads were found Monday on the edge of a village in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, authorities said.

The heads belonged to two unidentified males, the state Attorney General’s Office said.

Agents from the AG’s office transported the heads from the village of Tiamba to the Michoacan medical examiner’s office and a criminal investigation is under way.

Mexico’s criminal organizations often dump victims’ bodies or body parts in public spots to send a message, whether to rival gangs, authorities or local populations they are trying to intimidate.

The Mexican federal government dispatched additional police and military personnel to Michoacan in January amid escalating conflict between the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel and local militias who took up armies to defend their communities against the group.

The offensive has led to a number of Templarios leaders’ being killed or captured. 

ISIS stones 2 ‘gay men’ to death in Syria: observer

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group stoned two men to death in Syria Tuesday after claiming they were gay, a monitor said, in the militant organization’s first executions for alleged homosexuality.
“The ISIS today stoned to death a man that it said was gay,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that the victim was around 20 years old.

He was killed in Mayadeen in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, near the border with Iraq.

The Britain-based Observatory said ISIS claimed it found videos on his mobile phone showing him “practicing indecent acts with males.”

In a separate incident on Tuesday, an 18-year-old was also stoned to death in Deir Ezzor city after the group said he was gay, the Observatory said.

Activists on social media said that the dead men were opponents of ISIS and that the group had used the allegation as a pretext to kill them.

The United Nations said this month the ISIS had carried out several executions by stoning of women in Syria it accused of adultery.

The militants proclaimed a “caliphate” in June after seizing swathes of Iraq and Syria.

Activists say ISIS carries out regular public executions -- often beheadings -- in areas it controls.

Syrian govt bombs ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, 63 killed

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

More than 63 people were killed in militant-held Syrian city of Raqqa after Syria regime war planes struck the militant group’s stronghold on Tuesday, an observer group monitoring the war said.

Half of those killed were civilians, Reuters news agency reported adding that Syrian government officials were not immediately available to comment. 

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Observatory, said 10 war planes struck at least 10 times in Raqqa, a stronghold of the ultra-hardline group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

"The majority of the strikes were in the eastern part of the city," Abdulrahman said. "At least 36 of those killed are civilians. As for the rest, we are not sure yet if they were fighters."

According to the Associated Press, the Local Coordination Committees said the strikes killed at least 70 people.

Additionally, another Raqqa-based collective called Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered said it documented over 80 deaths. 

ISIS, which has seized wide expanses of territory in Iraq and Syria, drove the last Syrian government forces out of Raqqa province in late August. Its fighters seized an air base then, capturing and later executing scores of Syrian soldiers.

An ISIS fighter in the province confirmed that the government carried out the air strikes, which he said killed at least 70 people, Reuters reported. 

The Syrian air force has increased its strikes across Syria since a U.S.-led coalition started attacking Islamic State positions inside Syria in September.

Analysts say the increase could be because the Syrian military wants to weaken rebel groups before they get training and equipment promised by the United States.