And in the Middle East.....

Kuwaiti women have been allowed to vote and to stand in parliamentary and local elections.

This article from the BBC will give you some idea as to the spread of democracy in the ME.

And not so much 'in' the Middle East but concerning it...the power of the press. It seems that Newsweek magazine has changed its mind and retracted its story regarding the Koran being desecrated at Guantanamo Bay.

The power of the press in today's world is amazing.

There was a similar case in March in Jordan, whereby one of the Arabic papers in Amman reported that the market place bombing in Hilla,Iraq was carried out by a Jordanian from Salt. As a result there was a terrible backlash against Jordan and Jordanians in Iraq. Eventually the story was retracted as incorrect (the person in question had apparently been involved in a suicide bomb attack - not Hilla, and his family had not celebrated as was originally reported) and the editor of the paper lost his job. Unfortunately the Jordan Times links for this story are now all gone, however Natasha at Mental Mayhem covered the story well, if you start reading at "Al Ghad article update" and move upwards.