Dallas - On Thanksgiving afternoon, as freshly stuffed Americans prepared for the shopping bacchanal known as Black Friday, hundreds of Walmart workers readied themselves for a wholly different experience: joining strikes and labor actions planned for the next two days at some 1,000 Walmart stores around the country.

Here in Dallas, as well as in Miami and the San Francisco area, Walmart employees were planning to walk off work and demonstrate early Thursday evening, as shoppers began to arrive in pursuit of the ultra-cheap deals known as doorbusters. The strikers sought to protest low wages and a lack of benefits, while also challenging what they allege has been a pattern of Walmart's retaliation against workers who try to organize. They hoped to use the Black Friday spotlight to sway shoppers to their side.

"It's a question of education," said Josue Mata, a maintenance worker at Walmart in Wheatland, Texas, and a member of OUR Walmart, the labor group that is coordinating the strikes. "We have to show people that we're not just a crazy bunch of protesters."

But Walmart, the world's largest retail chain, was banking on the labor actions amounting to not much in the face of enormous consumer demand for what it provides best: a wide array of products at some of the very lowest prices available. "We don't expect this to have a significant impact," Walmart spokesperson Kory Lundberg told The Huffington Post in a phone interview. "The overwhelming majority of our associates are excited for our Black Friday events." (The company calls its workers "associates.")

In short, the protests aimed at Walmart on what is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year may constitute a test of the nation's sympathy for low-wage workers -- many of whom earn so little that they qualify for food stamps -- against the powerful American yearning for a great deal.

The pileup occurred in extreme fog Thanksgiving morning on Interstate 10 southwest of Beaumont, a Gulf Coast city about 80 miles east of Houston.
Beaumont, Texas - Two people died and more than 80 people were hurt Thursday when at least 100 vehicles collided in Southeast Texas in a pileup that left trucks twisted on top of each other and authorities rushing to pull survivors from the wreckage.

The first collision occurred in extreme fog about 8:45 a.m. Thanksgiving Day on Interstate 10 southwest of Beaumont, a Gulf Coast city about 80 miles east of Houston. By 9:30 a.m. both sides of the highway were closed.

A man and a woman were killed in a 2007 Chevy Suburban SUV crushed by a tractor-trailer, the Texas Department of Public Safety told KFDM-TV. Late Thursday, the public-safety agency identified the two as Vincent Leggio, 64, and his wife, Debra Leggio, 60, of Pearland.

Officials at Acadian Ambulance service said at least 51 people were taken to area hospitals and at least eight were critically hurt.

Marie-Louise Schlemm made the woman drink medicine prescribed for the animal, known as Ratzy, and performed 'chakra' on her without her permission, it was said.

Schlemm then got her to chant 'I am not Ratzy' in a procedure she insisted would cure her and her pet, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons heard.

The vet told her the rituals would provide a miracle cure and have the 16-year-old mutt running around as it if were a puppy.

Giving evidence to a misconduct hearing via videolink, the woman, known only as Ms B, said Schlemm had insisted Ratzy was not dying despite the animal refusing food and being unable to stand.

She told the panel: 'Ms Schlemm assured me there was no reason for Ratzy or myself to be ill anymore. She always told me that Ratzy was not dying.

'I was still being told that she was going to get to live and she was speaking to someone on the phone, to Sabrina on the phone, consistently about Chakra and colours.'

Ms B's own ailments have not been revealed during the central London hearing.

Most of the world supported the struggle of African Americans against Jim Crow during the Freedom Movement. Most of the progressive black leadership in this country spoke out against the apartheid regime, advocating boycotts, divestment, sanctions against apartheid South Africa. Where are they today on apartheid Israel?

On Tuesday, November 20, Chicago congressman Danny K. Davis addressed a rally, apparently supporting the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza. I wasn't there and did not hear his remarks. I'm sure he didn't say "Israeli apartheid is fine with me, and so are the blockades and bombings of Gaza." Doubtless he deployed the standard bipartisan phrases about Israel's "right to defend itself", though no such right is accorded Palestinians, and found a way to use the word "peace" in a couple of sentences.

Congressman Davis is no fool. He's well aware of the massive asymmetry of practiced violence and the means to do violence in Israel-Palestine. He knows the Israelis possess US made F-16s and a vast array of American-made and licensed weapons. He voted to give much of it to them. Congressman Davis knows they have attack helicopters, hundreds of tanks, prisons and torture chambers filled to bursting, and nuclear weapons aimed at many capitals in the region, while the Hamas "missiles" are little more than unguided flying garbage cans. Davis knows there are laws disallowing marriages between Israeli Jews and Arabs, and that many roads in Israel-Palestine are for Israeli Jews only, while Palestinians are forced to drive or walk rutted, boulder-strewn paths blocked arbitrary Israeli checkpoints every few kilometers in every direction. He knows that retired archbishop Desmond Tutu is among the South Africans who have pronounced Israel's version of apartheid as more thorough, more brutal and more systematic than what they saw in their home country back in the day.

A special psychotherapy service that lets people experience death is gaining popularity in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province.

More than 1,000 people have tried this special psychotherapy - being brought back from "death" to life - the Shenyang Evening News reported on Nov 20.

People who suffer from psychological problems or heavy pressure can be "reborn" by simulating death with the help of psychologists, according to Tang Yulong, a consultant of a psychological counseling center.

There is a coffin in a 5-square-meter "death experience room" at the center.

According to Tang, someone using the therapy should write down his or her last words before lying in a coffin covered by a white cloth, and "the deceased" can hear the dirge. Five minutes later, a sound of a baby crying will break the "serene time", and the consultant will open the coffin with a festive song.

A pair of local TV news anchors had a surprise for viewers at the end of their 6 p.m. newscast on Tuesday: They're quitting.

Cindy Michaels and Tony Consiglio, anchors for ABC's WVII affiliate in Bangor, Maine, announced their joint resignations, citing a dispute with management over journalistic practices.

"And finally tonight, this will be Tony and my final show together right here on ABC 7," Michaels told viewers. "The last six years have been an interesting and enjoyable time for us as we have been the longest-running news team in Bangor."

"On behalf of Cindy and me, we have loved every moment bringing the news to you," Consiglio said. "Some recent developments have come to our attention, though, and departing together is the best alternative."

Press Release - The Palestinian Ministry of Health condemns in the strongest terms the continued Israeli outrages against the citizenry of Gaza.

The death toll since 14 November stands at 137, with 1200 injured. 42% of the dead are women, children, and elderly, who also make up 59% of the injured.

The victims of these attacks have been struck down sleeping in their own homes, children have been killed while playing in their garden, adults while driving their cars or motorcycles, shopping at the market, worshipping at the mosque, and going about their lawful work.

Some families have been almost entirely annihilated, such as the Al Dallo family. 19 families have suffered in excess of two deaths, including the Al Dallo family (8 dead, 3 injured), the Abo Zoor family (2, plus 20 injured), the Hejazi family (3, plus one critically injured) while others such as the Salah family suffered large numbers of injuries (8, plus 22 injuries in surrounding families.)

Family homes, schools, clinics, police stations, supermarkets, restaurants, banks, government offices, sports stadiums, parks have all been hit - no facet of Gaza life has been left unscathed by the deliberate targeting of civilian sites and services by the inhuman Israeli aggressors.

Catalonia's leader accused the Spanish ruling party on Tuesday of waging an "all-out dirty war" to derail his campaign for nationhood ahead of weekend elections.

Days before snap elections on November 25, Artur Mas denied as "libel and slander" a newspaper's allegations that he had a Swiss bank account beyond the reach of the taxman.

Mas's nationalist alliance, Convergence and Union, has sued for libel against the conservative daily El Mundo, which published the allegations citing a police report, he said.

In open defiance of Madrid, the Catalan political chief is promising voters a referendum on self-determination as he fights for an absolute majority in the region of 7.5 million people.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy earlier denied Mas' allegations that the state was behind the allegations in an effort to destroy him and derail his plan to make Catalonia a sovereign state.

Puppeteer Kevin Clash, the voice of Elmo on Sesame Street" for the better part of the last three decades, resigned Tuesday amid allegations of a second sexual relationship with a teenage boy. The development was as much a blow for Clash, whose name was unknown to most Americans until the scandal broke, as for Sesame Street, the beloved children's program that in recent months has become a political football.

Clash's departure came as a lawsuit was filed Tuesday in a New York federal court accusing the puppeteer of sexual behavior with a 15-year-old boy. The plaintiff, Cecil Singleton, now a 24-year-old college student, is seeking more than $5 million in damages. In the lawsuit, Singleton claims that Clash met the then-teenager on a gay chat line and that the two later met for sex. Clash could not be reached for comment about the lawsuit.

Madrid -- Tens of thousands of Spanish doctors, nurses and hospital staff marched through the capital Madrid on Sunday to denounce budget cuts and privatizations, the latest protest against deeply unpopular austerity measures.

Dressed in white, the protesters chanted "Public health!" and "Health is a right. We are going to fight."

Many demonstrators in Madrid wore small "For Sale" signs on their coats.

The health sector has been hard hit by the austerity policies implemented by the rightwing government of Mariano Rajoy, which is trying to cut the public deficit in the eurozone's fourth largest economy.

And health sector staff have already hit back.

For several weeks, staff have occupied about 20 hospitals in Madrid and the surrounding area to protest the regional government's decision to privatize six facilities as part of budget cuts planned for 2013.