Messages

RIYADH, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Two U.S. nationals were shot at by unknown gunmen in the eastern Al-Ahsa district on Friday, one of them injured, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The two U.S. citizens in a vehicle came under fire on Friday afternoon in the eastern district of al-Ahsa, a major district of Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority, SPA said. The gunmen's IDs are still unknown.

The injured American has been taken to hospital and his condition is stable, according to an official statement.

Saudi Arabia has earlier seen several shootings that targeted foreigners. Last October, a U.S. citizen was killed and another one injured by gunmen in the capital Riyadh.

Read the full article: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2015-01/30/c_127442206.htm

["Aladdin's Cave for those wishing to participate in the UK's political process".]

In five years time secure online voting should be an option for all voters in the UK, concludes a report published today by the Digital Democracy Commission.

The Commission recommends that voter education play a major role in this and that the profile and knowledge of the Electoral Commission be improved in order to create a website that will act as an "Aladdin's Cave for those wishing to participate in the UK's political process".

As well as making sure the UK has an effective online voting infrastructure in place by 2020, the Commission has put forward four other recommendations as part of a roadmap towards targets the House of Commons should meet to help it be more transparent, inclusive and engaging in the digital age.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-01/26/digital-democracy-commission

[Harare]

Two men stand by the the gates of a farm
which they seized from white farmers in
Chegutu in 2009. Zimbabwe's provincial
minister says white farmers who have
been working small parts of their
original land holdings for the past
15 years since the land invasions
began must now go. Picture:
Desmond Kwande

Harare - A newly appointed Zimbabwean provincial minister says all remaining white farmers must abandon land they still use, as he handed over "offer letters" for some farms still operating under white control to traditional leaders.

An offer letter is a document from the government overriding all previous documents or understandings or title deeds about the ownership of any piece of agricultural land.  Joel Biggie Matiza, who was recently appointed a minister in Mashonaland East province, said this week that all of the remaining 200 to 300 white farmers who have been working small parts of their original land holdings for the past 15 years since the land invasions began, must now go.

"We have invited all the chiefs in the province to this ceremony where we are honouring the chiefs by returning land to the ancestors and rightful custodians," he said.  "In this province, we were protecting the very people who yesteryear were our erstwhile oppressors."

Matiza was speaking about 90km southeast of Harare during the hand-over of offer letters to 19 of the Mashonaland East province's 33 chiefs.  "This event is going to give a fresh outlook and perception in the way the land reform is going to be conducted in the province," he said.

"Freshly mandated from a cultural perspective, the pro-vince will conduct a programme of land allocation. Chiefs, youths, war veterans, detainees, women, civil servants, diplomatic service and ordinary people will be considered.  "The white farmers who are carrying out farming activities on gazetted land will not be tolerated, as it is illegal in terms of the laws of the country. Farms that exceed the recommended sizes will also be down-sized starting in February, so that their sizes comply with government legal requirement on maximum size."

The chiefs each got between 60 and 80 hectares of land. Matiza said the province had 20 000 people on the waiting list for land.  Only white commercial dairy and cattle-breeding farmers or those who openly support Zanu-PF would be spared, he said.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/zim-white-farmers-told-to-go-1.1808168

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w-n40wMCzQ

http://forward.com/articles/213261/sheldon-silvers-fall-signals-end-of-a-jewish-era-i/

[WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES]

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/artist-depicts-the-simpsons-as-emaciated-jews-in-concentration-camp-for-auschwitz-anniversary/story-e6frfmyi-1227193966465

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
 
AN ITALIAN artist and activist has 'Simpsonised' the Holocaust in a series of unsettling cartoons. aleXsandro Palombo redrew the beloved Simpson characters as Jews in Auschwitz to mark the 70th anniversary of the concentration camp's liberation.

He said the project, called 'Never Again', is "an invitation to reflection, an artwork to raise awareness, an indictment against intolerance, a punch to inhumanity." One image shows Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie emaciated in a gas chamber, while another has the cartoon family looking dejected behind a barbed wire fence.

"We must educate the new generations and tell them what happened. We have to do it without filters, bluntly, over and over again, through the memory of facts and terrifying images that reflect the horror of the Holocaust and the extermination of millions of human beings," the satirical artist explained.

IMAGES DELETED AT SOURCE