The Iraq veteran seriously wounded Tuesday night at "Occupy Oakland" sustained minor brain damage and has been rendered unable to speak, doctors said Friday, adding that he will likely be able to make a full recovery in time.

Scott Olsen, 24, was said to be otherwise lucid and able to communicate with his family by writing notes, but his ability to spell is also damaged, according to sources who spoke with The Guardian. He is, however, able to understand what's being communicated to him.

Keith Shannon, Olsen's roommate who served with him in Iraq, explained that "He cannot talk right now, and that is because the fracture is right on the speech center of his brain," the paper added. "However, they are expecting he will get that back."

Mayor Bloomberg is planning Draconian new measures to crack down on what he calls the "disruption" caused by the protesters at Zuccotti Park, and he is citing neighbors' complaints about noise and mess. This set of talking points, and this strategy, is being geared up as well by administrations of municipalities around the nation in response to the endurance and growing influence of the Occupation protest sites. But the idea that any administration has the unmediated option of "striking a balance," in Bloomberg's words, that it likes, and closing down peaceful and lawful disruption of business as usual as it sees fit is a grave misunderstanding -- or, more likely, deliberate misrepresentation -- of our legal social contract as American citizens.

Some kinds of disruption in a free republic are not "optional extras" if the First Amendment governs the land, as it does ours, and are certainly not subject to the whims of mayors or local police, or even DHS. Just as protesters don't have a blanket right to do everything they want, there is absolutely no blanket right of mayors or even of other citizens to be free from the effect of certain kinds of disruption resulting from their fellow citizens exercising First Amendment rights. That notion, presented right now by Bloomberg and other vested interests, of a "disruption-free" social contract is pure invention -- just like the flat-out fabrication of the nonexistent permit cited in my own detention outside the Huffington Post Game Changers event this last Tuesday, when police told me, without the event organizers' knowledge and contrary to their intentions, that a private entity had "control of the sidewalks" for several hours. (In fact, the permit in question -- a red carpet event permit! -- actually guarantees citizens' rights to walk and even engage in political assembly on the streets if they do not block pedestrian traffic, as the OWS protesters were not.)

Two of the mysterious 12 feet that have washed ashore near Vancouver recently have been identified as belonging to a missing Canadian woman.

The woman, whose name was withheld at the request of her family, jumped to her death from the Pattullo Bridge in New Westminster, B.C., in April 2004, according to the Coroners Service.

The woman's right foot was found in May 2008, and the left was in November 2008, at two different points in the Fraser River near Richmond, B.C. The feet, which police said detached naturally from the body over time, were in New Balance running shoes.

The Coroners Service identified the woman through a postmortem investigation and DNA analysis, according to a statement.

When outraged carnivore Clara Peller shrieked "Where's the beef?" back in 1984, she never would have meant to inspire acts of violent retribution for paltry fast-food portions.

But a Georgia man kicked Old Peller's rally cry up a notch early Sunday morning when he fire-bombed his local Taco Bell for skimping on the meat in his two Chalupas. Returning home from the drive-thru, the customer opened his less than satisfactory tostadas and called the taco chain, demanding to be made whole.

The manager, Cynthia Thompson, explained to him that since the restaurant was closing, the matter couldn't be resolved that night.

The customer responded as any galloping racist would by allegedly saying, "You must be one of them n*ggers up there," and added (presumably with a wink), "That's alright, I'll just come and redecorate the place."

Oakland's police chief on Friday defended officers involved in a clash with anti-Wall Street protesters, saying they used what they believed to be the least amount of force possible to protect themselves.

Interim Chief Howard Jordan said he takes full responsibility for the actions of his officers, whom protesters accused of injuring an Iraq war veteran during the clash Tuesday night. Scott Olsen remained hospitalized in fair condition with a fractured skull after he was struck in the head by an object fired by police, fellow veterans said.

Jordan's comments came amid continued protests in large cities across California, including in Oakland where many re-established camp outside city hall despite police attempts at dismantling it. Across the bay in San Francisco, hundreds of demonstrators maintained a tent city in a public plaza, while 51 people were arrested in San Diego as police there cleared them from a park. Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore was scheduled to appear at the Oakland protest later Friday.

Jordan said he and city staff had reached out to the protesters. He also promised that allegations of misconduct and excessive use of force would be thoroughly scrutinized, saying in a statement that he was "concerned about the injuries to protesters and officers alike; the decision to use any level of force is never taken lightly, and certainly was not in this situation."

Oakland officers did not suffer any serious injuries during the clash Tuesday, just "bangs and bruises from bottles and other objects that were thrown at and on them," said Cynthia Perkins, an assistant to the director at the police department.

Two former Transportation Security Administration officers based at John F. Kennedy Airport have admitted to stealing $40,000 in cash from a checked bag.

The Queens District Attorney's Office says 44-year-old Coumar Persad, of Queens, and 31-year-old Davon Webb, of the Bronx, pleaded guilty on Thursday to grand larceny, obstructing governmental administration and official misconduct. They each face six months in jail and five years' probation at their Jan. 10 sentencing.

Authorities say the two TSA officers swiped the cash after spotting it in a piece of luggage while it was being X-rayed. The cash was recovered.

An attorney for Persad said his client understands he made a mistake and wishes to move on with his life.

Source: The Associated Press

On November 19-22, 2011, the trial of George W Bush (former U.S. President) and Anthony L Blair (former British Prime Minister) will be held in Kuala Lumpur. This is the first time that war crimes charges will be heard against the two former heads of state in compliance with proper legal process.

Charges are being brought against the accused by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC) following the due process of the law. The Commission, having received complaints from war victims in Iraq in 2009, proceeded to conduct a painstaking and an in-depth investigation for close to two years and in 2011, constituted formal charges on war crimes against Bush, Blair and their associates.

The Iraq invasion in 2003 and its occupation had resulted in the death of 1.4 million Iraqis. Countless others had endured torture and untold hardship. The cries of these victims have thus far gone unheeded by the international community. The fundamental human right to be heard has been denied to them.

As a result, the KLWCC had been established in 2008 to fill this void and act as a peoples' initiative to provide an avenue for such victims to file their complaints and let them have their day in a court of law.

The first charge against George W Bush and Anthony L Blair is for Crimes Against Peace wherein:

The Accused persons had committed Crimes against Peace, in that the Accused persons planned, prepared and invaded the sovereign state of Iraq on 19 March 2003 in violation of the United Nations Charter and international law.

The body of Rebecca Zahau, the girlfriend of Jonah Shacknai, the CEO of the Scottsdale-based pharmaceutical company Medicis, will be exhumed so a private pathologist can conduct a second autopsy to try and determine whether her bizarre death at a California mansion was a suicide or a homicide.

Read all about Zahau's strange death here.

Police in San Diego ruled Zahau's strange hanging death to be a suicide last month, but the 32-year-old's family doesn't believe she could have killed herself, and has asked Pennsylvania-based pathologist Doctor Cyril Wecht to conduct a second autopsy, despite the California Attorney General's decision to not review the case.

Zahau's body was found by Shacknai's brother in July, just days after the CEO's son, Max, was rushed to a hospital in critical condition after falling down a flight of stairs in the mansion. Zahau was caring for the boy at the time of the fall.

Max Shacknai later died from his injuries. Police suspect Zahau killed herself because she felt guilty over Max's death.

"Were these deaths the result of criminal conduct? Was Max's death a homicide? The answer is no," San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said at a press conference last month. "It was a tragic accident. Was Rebecca's death a homicide? Again the answer is no. It was a suicide ... These deaths were not the result of any criminal acts."

The mother of a Connecticut man facing a possible death sentence for a brutal fatal home invasion broke down crying Friday as she told jurors her son was raped as a teenager and described her frantic efforts to save him after his behavior changed dramatically.

Jude Komisarjevsky said her son Joshua had run away when he was nearly 15 and when he came home, he looked transformed.

"There was tremendous pain in his expression," she said. "His eyes were absolutely dead."

His mother, testifying during the sentencing phase of her son's trial, said she didn't know at the time what happened, but noticed her son grew angry and had satanic symbols in his room along with the words "death, die and suicide." She said she learned years later from her son - when he was in prison - that he was raped by someone he trusted.

Joshua Komisarjevsky was hospitalized a short time later after he set a vacant gas station on fire. The psychiatric hospital recommended he be medicated, but his mother said she was concerned about the drug's effects and that her son would abuse it.