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Progressive Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, a new member of the "The Squad," faced waves of mockery on Twitter about his "thirst strike" protest lasting less than 10 hours. "Yesterday was incredible. I was honored to be joined at my thirst strike by workers in Texas and across the nation - and by lots of colleagues pushing for federal heat safety protections," the congressman tweeted Wednesday. "9 hours without water or food, but I’m more energized than ever to get this done." Many commentators across Twitter saw the demonstration as far less of an achievement, with some claiming the premise of...

President Hugo Chavez Has Died

Acting Knesset head Binyamin (Fouad) Ben-Eliezer has asked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to urge United States President Barack Obama to address the Knesset during his upcoming visit to Israel. “The nation of Israel definitely thirsts to hear the United States President speak to them directly,” he argued. “There is no more appropriate venue than the Knesset for the U.S. President to speak.” “I believe that this act, of a direct address to Israel in the Knesset assembly… during this visit, specifically, would carry tremendous importance,” he added. MK Reuven Rivlin, speaker of the last Knesset, agreed. “The Knesset is the...

Doctors are prescribing drinking water for neglected elderly patients to stop them dying of thirst in hospital. The measure – to remind nurses of the most basic necessity – is revealed in a damning report on pensioner care in NHS wards. Some trusts are neglecting the elderly on such a fundamental level their wards could face closure orders. The snapshot study, triggered by a Mail campaign, found staff routinely ignored patients’ calls for help and forgot to check that they had had enough to eat and drink.

Tomorrow is Tax Day, and conservatives across the country are planning "Tea Parties," intended to be grass-roots "revolts" against the Obama administration's economic policies thus far. Though organized independent of the Republican Party, a number of officeholders and candidates are planning to attend local events. At the White House, Robert Gibbs said that he's not sure if President Obama is aware of the planned demonstrations. He will, however, mark the day with a White House event "to signal the important steps in the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment plan that cut taxes for 95 percent of working families in America," Gibbs...

March 1, 2008 5.9 million Chinese short of drinking water BEIJING - THE number of people facing drinking water shortages in China has more than doubled to 5.9 million because of a severe winter drought, state media reported. The figures released late on Friday jumped from 2.43 million a week earlier, the Xinhua news agency said, citing figures from the State Flood and Drought Relief Headquarters. A spokesman was quoted saying the situation was due to lingering and severe winter drought. The number of livestock without sufficient drinking water had jumped to 5.67 million from 1.89 million, and 15.8 million...

A Thirst for Meat: Changes in diet, rising population may strain China's water supply Sid Perkins China's rapid industrialization and increasing population, along with a growing dietary preference among its citizens for meat, are straining the country's water resources to the point where food imports will probably be needed to meet demand in coming decades. Economic growth in China is brisk: Over the past 2 decades, the country's gross domestic product has risen, on average, about 8 percent per year. That's the highest rate of development in recent world history, says Junguo Liu, an environmental scientist at the Swiss Federal...

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had taken sleep medication and a prescription anti-nausea drug that can cause drowsiness. Kennedy, D-R.I., addressed the issue after a spate of news reports. His initial statement said: "I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident."'Later, however, he issued a longer statement saying the attending physician for Congress had prescribed Phenergan on Tuesday to treat Kennedy's gastroenteritis.Kennedy said he returned to his Capitol Hill home on Wednesday evening after a final series of votes...

People in southern Somalia are starting to die from thirst in the worst drought in over 40 years in some parts of the country, says aid agency Oxfam. Oxfam says assessment teams found seven people who died of dehydration, and that tens of thousands are now at risk. People are surviving on the equivalent of three glasses of water a day, in temperatures of over 40C (100F). Oxfam reports an almost unprecedented situation, where people beg for water along the sides of the road. All surface water has gone, boreholes are running dry, and people are walking up to 70km...

Game park's wildlife dies of thirst as Mugabe lives in luxury By Peta Thornycroft in Harare (Filed: 31/10/2005) Wild animals in Zimbabwe are suffering and dying as the sun beats down during the year's hottest season. Like so many humans, they are victims of President Robert Mugabe. This dehydrated buffalo reached water but was too exhausted to drink and collapsed and died in the trough In Africa's most densely populated game park water from underground bores is now available only intermittently because there is no money to fix engines pumping it to the surface. Plains animals, in particular buffalo, are...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. soldier serving in Baghdad died after collapsing while on guard duty, the American military said Monday. The soldier in the 1st Cavalry Division lost consciousness and stopped breathing around 11 a.m on Sunday. Medics attempted to resuscitate him and took him to a military hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The soldier's death is under investigation. Daytime temperatures are already over 100 degrees in Iraq.

Michael Schiavo in Hell (a play in one paragraph) By Tom Smith MS: Where am I? Gosh it is so hot here! Man with No Eyebrows: But I think you will agree it is a very dry heat. MS: Dry! I'll say! I'm so thirsty! I don't think I've ever been so thirsty! MNE: Just you wait. MS: What? MNE: You said you were thirsty? MS: So thirsty . . . MNE: Would you like some nice, cool water? MS: Please! MNE: Let me just check outside. (Goes to door.) Why, how curious. There are hundreds of people out here...

At some point, perhaps in the not too distant future, the Terri Schiavo case may prove to be the seminal event that sparked the final days of the once-respected and essential soul of America. That which makes the Terri Schiavo case and controversy unique is neither that she has been on feeding and hydration tubes, nor that they were removed so that she would finally and inexorably die. Rather, it is that we, as a nation, have been intimately involved in the death watch and a media event…that of the murder of an innocent woman. I have heard estimates that...

Today, as Good Friday looms tommorow with another innocent victim being crucified by a mob on the liberal's cross of "laws" (that a hate-filled judge says can be ignored) and "laws" (that a hate-filled judge says can be ignored "must" be followed to the letter. The media is promoting her death, and is ignoring contrary news and information. That, we may not be able to overcome. But the publicisn't the only Witness to this murder. So, while she is being slowly starved to death to "preserve" our rights to abortion, hatred, revenge, pride, and to conceal previous assaults, let us...

Code: ZE04110520Date: 2004-11-05Last Seven Words of Christ Are Full of "Spirit and Life"Gloria Crucis Chair Inagurates a New Year at Lateran UniversityROME, NOV. 4, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The last words of Christ, more than the rest, are full of "spirit and life because in some way they contain and express the truth of all the others" and "put a seal on them," explained Msgr. Piero Coda. The professor of Trinitarian theology spoke at the inaugural session of the Gloria Crucis Chair at the Pontifical Lateran University on the last seven words of Christ from the cross. Established in 2003 in collaboration...

Athletes and sportsmen are warned today against drinking too much water to replace lost fluid, because it could kill them. Current advice is based on assumptions not backed by medical evidence, according to Dr Timothy Noakes, professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Prof Noakes says the advice that athletes should replace all the liquid they lose through sweating while exercising, either by drinking as much as they can tolerate or something between one and two pints, may be dangerous. In a paper for the British Medical Journal, he writes that there have...

RIYADH, July 29 (Reuters) - A young Saudi prince died of thirst in the desert on Monday, the official media reported. Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Saud al-Kabeer, 25, was travelling through the kingdom's Rimah area, where temperatures in some areas can rise above 45 degrees celsius (113 F) in the summer. No other details were given. ((Gulf newsroom, +971 4 391 8301, fax +971 4 391 8335, dubai.newsroom@reuters.com)) © Reuters Limited.