Saudi Arabia Eases Laws on Solo Women
BBC: The authorities in Saudi Arabia have decided to end a ban on unaccompanied women staying in the country's hotels.

A woman can now stay in a hotel alone as long as she carries identification.

Based on a royal decree, the move marks a break from religious codes requiring women to be accompanied by a male guardian at all times.

The decree allowed the Ministry of Trade to outline new regulations simply requiring women to show photographic ID to hotel managers.

This must then be registered with local police.

The decision was reported by the local daily al-Watan newspaper, which is considered close to the Saudi government, on Monday. S Arabia eases laws on solo women >>>

THE TELEGRAPH:
Saudi Arabia to lift ban on women drivers

BBC:
Senior Saudi royal demands reform

BBC:
Campaign for release of Saudi blogger

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Omar bin Laden Wants Bush – bin Laden Talks
MSNBC: CAIRO, Egypt - President Bush doesn’t need to capture Osama bin Laden, he needs to talk to him, the terrorist leader’s son, Omar bin Laden, told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Tuesday.

Wearing a black, leather biker jacket, black polo shirt and faded blue jeans and with his long hair pulled back in tightly braided dreadlocks, Omar bin Laden, 26, spoke via satellite from Cairo with his 52-year-old British wife at his side. The fourth-oldest son of the world’s most wanted man has recently been in the media, saying he wants to use his name to be an “ambassador for peace” between Islam and the West. While he has renounced his father’s methods, he does not call him a terrorist.

“They do some meeting and talk together,” he said in heavily accented English of Bush and Osama bin Laden, suggesting that a meeting could be facilitated by other world political and religious leaders. “Find the middle ground between everybody – that’s my goal, to find it for every civilian people,” he said. Bin Laden’s son urges talks to bring peace: Al-Qaida leader’s kin says dialogue may be best way to end violence >>>

MSNBC INTERVIEW:
Omar bin Laden Wants to Bring Peace to the World!

PRESS TV:
Bin Laden son wants dad-Bush talks

ABC NEWS:
Bin Laden's Son Wants to Make Up for Father's 'Mistake': Omar bin Laden Left Afghanistan After Six Years' Training as al Qaeda Fighter

NEWSBUSTERS:
ABC Reporters Fawn Over Bin Laden Son and His 'Curious Proposal'

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The Myth of Islamic Civilization

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”Wilders Should Leave the Netherlands”
EXPATICA: The National Coordinator for Anti-terrorism advised politician Geert Wilders that it might be a good idea for him to leave the Netherlands temporarily after the release of his film on the Koran.

AMSTERDAM - National Coordinator for Anti-terrorism Tjibbe Joustra has advised politician Geert Wilders that it might be a good idea for him to leave the Netherlands temporarily after the release of his film on the Koran. ”Wilders should leave the Netherlands” >>>

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Let Us Reason Together

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Does ‘Islam’ Mean Peace?

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Who Is Allah?
Hat tip: Always On Watch for drawing this to my attention:


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Nervousness in the Dutch Expat Community because of Geert Wilders’ Film
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: Dutch people living abroad are worried about the effects of right-wing politician Geert Wilders' anti-Qu'ran film. In recent weeks Dutch embassies have been busy making emergency plans, a move which many people have judged as an over-reaction. However, Dutch expats in Islamic countries in particular say that they are already having problems as a result of comments made by Wilders and that they are beginning to fear for their personal safety.

More than 1000 Dutch participants in Radio Netherlands Worldwide's World Panel - all of them living outside the Netherlands - have responded to questions put to them about the commotion surrounding the Wilders' film, which has yet to be released. 

The Dutch embassies' fears of a possible violent reaction seem to have escaped the attention of the majority of the respondents. However, of those living in Islamic countries, nine percent say they had been approached by or received relevant information from their embassy.

For the rest, most of the Dutch expats seem fairly calm and believe the media have devoted too much attention to Mr Wilders' comments. Furthermore, there was no talk of any of them returning - temporarily or otherwise - to the Netherlands in connection with this issue.



Danger


Geert Wilders, leader of the new Freedom Party, has been major news in the Netherlands for weeks with his anti-Qu'ran film, even though no one has seen a single second of it and it's not yet known where and when it will be released. 



For many people, though, they simply have think back to what happened following the release of Theo van Gogh's film Submission in 2004. He was killed by an extremist Muslim several months later. 



Many Dutch expats are concerned about their own position and no fewer than nine out of ten believe that Wilders' has put his own life in danger too. Around half of the respondents to the RNW survey warn that Dutch firms could soon be boycotted as a result of the film. 



A somewhat smaller percentage fears that there could also be attacks on Dutch targets. However, the most remarkable finding concerns the number of Dutch citizens in Islamic countries who say they are already facing problems or even danger in connection with Geert Wilders: 43 percent.

Politics

Even in Islamic countries, however, the majority of the expats who responded to the survey believe that Wilders should be able to say whatever he wants and that the Dutch government should not take action against the film. While they think that his statements are indeed polarising Dutch society and offensive to a large group of people, nearly two-thirds believe that he is only saying what most people think. Wilders and his film worry Dutch expats >>> By Perro de Jong

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On Geert Wilders
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: "Wilders, Wilders, Wilders" screams another full-page article over Dutch Freedom Party MP Geert Wilders in today's Volkskrant. This time however de Volkskrant is not reporting about the Dutch media, but about the media in Muslim countries.

According to Gulsen Devre who has been working in the Egyptian capital Cairo for the past year as correspondent for islamonline.net, an international Islamic website, "Here they hardly know anything about the film made by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wilders is getting all the attention". She says the Wilders effect first surfaced last February when he introduced his ‘ripping up the Qu'ran plan': "If Muslims wanted to remain in the Netherlands they had to rip up the half of the holy book."

De Volkskrant writes that the Dutch woman of Turkish origin was surprised how well-informed Egyptians were about Wilders. Now his plans to make a film about the Qu'ran have led to even more attention in the Egyptian media. She says much of the image of the Netherlands is being formed by the Freedom Party leader. "While many Dutch people have an extreme image of the Muslim world, many Egyptians have the same kind of image of the Netherlands. They think it must be really awful for Muslims to live in the midst of people such as Wilders."

Wilders spreading through virtual Muslim world at 'speed of lightning'


De Volkskrant reports that Wilders' ‘provocations' are spreading through the virtual Muslim world ‘at the speed of lightning'. "All of his statements - from the banning of the Qu'ran to that comparing the Prophet Muhammad with Hitler - are getting a lot of attention. They are being reported in quality newspapers and forum users air their rage on the Internet. " The paper writes that while coverage in serious media such as Al Jazeera is usually fairly balanced "the Netherlands still doesn't look so good".

The ultra-conservative Iranian newspaper Keyhan had a full-page anti-Dutch article in December that described the Netherlands as "the cultural NATO against Islam". A member of a pro-democracy and human rights group in Iran told de Volkskrant that people in Iran and dictatorial Arab countries "don't make a difference between the government, parliament, political parties and the media. They don't understand that governments can't ban a cartoon or film."

Wilders scores big in hits on Arabic-language Internet


The newspaper Trouw has scanned the Arabic-language Internet and writes that "Wilders doesn't have anything to complain about when it comes to having his name recognised in the virtual Arab world." So far the populist MP can claim 66,000 hits on the Arabic-language version of Google, most of them concerning his controversial statements about Muslims and the Qu'ran. Dutch Press Review (January 22, 2008) >>> By Frank Scimone

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Simon Heffer Wants Out of the “Neo-Soviet Cartel” that is Europe
THE TELEGRAPH: For the avoidance of doubt - and I would never want you to have any of that - let me state where, for what it is worth, I stand on the European Union. I am against it. This is not a johnny-come-lately position. I have been against it since before we were in it.

I was against it when many of those now against it were actually rather for it. I can still recall the visceral disappointment when, in June 1975, we missed the chance to come out of it. I look at Third-World and collapsing economies such as Norway and Switzerland, and think wistfully of what might have been.

The root of my opposition is straightforward. I wish to live in a country that governs itself. I wish to vote for people who, if elected, have power to take decisions and to alter the policies with which we are governed. I am not sure that is too much to ask.

I grew up believing that was why my father and grandfather fought in two world wars. I have never understood why so many of our politicians, who bang on about "rights" and "democracy" when they stand in our elections seem quite happy to forgo the same where Europe is concerned.

What is the point of electing governments, if there are vital policies that they cannot alter? That to me has always been the clinching argument against our entering the single currency. We would be slaves to someone else's economic policy. David Cameron must take us out of EU treaty >>> By Simon Heffer

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'Neo-Soviet Carte

Great Radio Broadcast!
Gathering Storm Radio Broadcast, last Friday, with Brigitte Gabriel
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Anti-Islam Film Scares the Hague
MIDDLE EAST TIMES: BERLIN, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The Dutch government is bracing for widespread violence that could be sparked by an anti-Islam film that its producer wants to broadcast sometime this week.

The film, financed by right-wing politician Geert Wilders, will reveal the Koran as a source of "inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror," Wilders said.

The anticipated screening has already sparked international protests.

Although no one has seen the film yet, there are rumors Wilders will tear up or burn the Koran in it. If that was true, Ahmad Badr al-Din Hassoun, the Grand Mufti of Syria, said earlier this month at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, "this will simply mean he is inciting wars and bloodshed. ... It is the responsibility of the Dutch people to stop him."

On Monday, an Iranian lawmaker warned The Hague not to allow the screening of the film.

"If the Netherlands will allow the broadcast of this movie, the Iranian Parliament will request to reconsider our relationship with (the Dutch government)," said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian security and foreign policy commission, according to Iran's federal news agency IRNA. "In Iran, insulting Islam is a very sensitive matter and if the movie is broadcast it will arouse a wave of popular hate that will be directed towards any government that insults Islam."

The Dutch government seems to think in the same terms. It fears a crisis similar to the one sparked by the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad in Danish -- and later European -- newspapers two years ago, when Danish products were boycotted, Danish embassies set on fire and dozens of people died in violent protests all over the world.

To be prepared for all eventualities, the Dutch government over the past days summoned its key ministers and officials linked to security issues. The Hague has compiled a secret document (which the Dutch media said it has obtained) detailing emergency measures in case of riots or attacks, including short-term evacuations of Dutch embassies and citizens from the Middle East. Apparently, imams in several large Dutch cities have already had to calm Muslims angry over the news of the film.

"We are ready to react quickly, it is our role to be prepared for calamities," Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende told journalists at his weekly news briefing.

While a state-funded TV station has already recalled its promise to air the movie, Wilders, the most prominent member of the far-right Freedom Party, or VVD, has vowed to broadcast his film -- on a smaller TV station or on the Internet via YouTube -- whatever the pressure may be. Analysis: Anti-Islam film scares The Hague >>> By Stefan Nicola

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Is this Sultry ‘Lady’, Carla Bruni, REALLY to Become the ‘First Lady of France’?
Photo of Carla Bruni courtesy of Google Images

EL PAÍS:
Carla Bruni

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Islam-West Rift Widens
BBC: Most people in Muslim countries and the West believe divisions between them are worsening, a Gallup poll for the World Economic Forum (WEF) suggests.

The poll also suggested that most Europeans thought more interaction with Islam would be a threat - though most Americans disagreed.

WEF chairman Klaus Schwab said the poll pointed to "an alarmingly low level of optimism" over dialogue.

It surveyed about 1,000 people in each of 21 countries, mostly in mid-2007.

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum begins in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.

Cartoon controversy

Respondents were asked how they thought relations were now and how they thought they would develop.

Describing the position now, majorities on both sides said they did not believe the two sides were getting along.

This belief was strongest in the US, Israel, Denmark - where the publication of cartoons about the Muslim Prophet Muhammad caused worldwide controversy - and among Palestinians. Islam-West rift widens, poll says >>>

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Simply Amazing! - Dutch Women Revert to Islam

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2007 Marked by a Notable Setback for Global Freedom
THE FINANCIAL TIMES: President George W. Bush’s “freedom agenda” has run into the Middle Eastern sand. The president himself will be the last to recognise this. Speaking in the United Arab Emirates on January 13, he hailed a “great new era” of “the advance of freedom”. “My friends,” he proclaimed to the assembled sheikhs, “a future of liberty stands before you.” Then Mr Bush flew on to Egypt and lavished praise on President Hosni Mubarak, who threw into jail the last man to run against him for the presidency.

As Mr Bush traipsed around the Arab world, Freedom House – which monitors political and civil liberties – issued its annual report. It lamented that “2007 was marked by a notable setback for global freedom”. The lobby group pointed to events in south Asia, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. The bad news keeps on coming. The violence and instability surrounding the Kenyan and Pakistani elections has underlined the difficulties of holding democratic votes in relatively poor countries with deep ethnic and tribal divisions.

While Freedom House bemoans the setbacks to democracy in places such as Kenya, Pakistan and Egypt, there will be plenty of others who will shrug and say, in effect: “What did you expect?” The Bush administration has been naive. It is pointless – and often counter-productive – trying to push democracy in countries that are not ready for it. Stability and economic growth must come first.

The constituency for enlightened despotism is strong among businessmen, such as those now assembling in Davos for the World Economic Forum. They know that many of their best markets are countries that do not do well in the Freedom House rankings: China, Russia, the Gulf states, Singapore. Yet they can see these countries getting richer, often at spectacular rates.

Businessmen in rapidly growing autocracies will often enthusiastically endorse the line that authoritarian rule has its virtues. Peace and prosperity are what is needed; a premature move to democracy would invite only anarchy. The fact that both Kenya and Pakistan have enjoyed strong growth in recent years – now threatened by election-related instability – will only embolden the advocates of enlightened despotism. Let us not lose faith in democracy >>> By Gideon Rachman

You can comment on this story at Gideon Rachman’s Blog

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Riyadh Demands Apology from Geert Wilders
ARAB NEWS: JEDDAH, 19 February 2007 — Saudi Arabia has asked the Dutch government to intervene over remarks by an anti-immigration politician who said Muslims should “tear out half the Qur’an” and wants him to apologize, Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday.

“The Saudi Embassy in The Hague has begun moves with the Dutch Foreign Ministry against the remarks of rightwing parliamentarian Geert Wilders,” the paper said. “It appealed to the appropriate authorities on the need for Wilders insulting statements to be withdrawn and an apology be given to Muslims ... The embassy has demanded that the Dutch side put an end to such statement.”

Saudi Ambassador to The Hague Walid Abdul Kareem Al-Khereiji said the embassy was making its efforts without media publicity. “Our only aim is to stop the smear campaign against Islam,” he added. Riyadh Wants Dutch MP to Apologize for Anti-Islam Remarks >>> By P.K. Abdul Ghafour

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Iran warnt Holland wegem anti-Muslimischen Film Geert Wilders
Foto von Geert Wilders dank Google Images
DIE PRESSE: Der rechte holländische Parlamentarier Geert Wilders will einen Koran-Film veröffentlichen - das iranische Parlament warnt die niederländische Regierung vor einer "Welle des Hasses im Volk".

Ein Film, den noch niemand gesehen hat, sorgt für Verstimmungen zwischen Holland und Teilen der islamischen Welt. Bisher ist über das zehnminütige Werk nur bekannt, was sein Macher - der rechspopulistische holländische Parlamentarier Geert Wilders - ankündigte. Sein Film solle zeigen, dass der Koran "eine Inspirationsquelle für Intoleranz, Mord und Terror" sei, so Wilders. Wilders hatte den Koran bereits früher als faschistisches Buch bezeichnet, das zur Hälfte verboten werden sollte.

Das iranische Parlament hat nun die niederländische Regierung davor gewarnt, die Ausstrahlung des "antimuslimischen Films" zu genehmigen. Sonst würden die Abgeordneten die iranische Regierung dazu auffordern, die Beziehungen zu den Niederlanden zu überprüfen, kündigte der Vorsitzende des außen- und sicherheitspolitischen Ausschusses, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, am Dienstag an. Er warnte außerdem vor "weitreichenden Reaktionen der Muslime" und einer "Welle des Hasses im Volk", die sich gegen jede Regierung richten könnte, die "den Islam beleidigt". "Antimuslimischer" Film: Iran warnt Niederlande >>>

COURRIERINTERNATIONAL.COM:
Will the Dutch broadcast a film highly critical of the Koran?

DE VOLKSKRANT:
Met of zonder film, in islamitische wereld is Wilders al fenomeen

EXPATICA:
Iran warns NL about Wilders’ film

FRANFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG:
Angst vor einem Film, den noch niemand kennt Von Andreas Ross

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Government Opens New Front on Terror
…while the Home Office works with the internet industry, experimenting with anti-paedophilia strategies to identify terrorist recruiters, it also plans to start pulling down extremist material from the web. "The internet is not a no-go area for government," Smith warned.

THE FIRST POST: Jacqui Smith understands the online terror threat, but does she know how to fix it asks ASH SMYTH

At the launch of a body which aims to stem the radicalisation of young people who might later turn to terrorism, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said in London last week that "stopping people becoming, or supporting, terrorists... is the major long-term challenge of the State".

And if you peeled away the shrouds of management jargon - 'dialogue', 'shared values', 'community cohesion' - and saw past her careful avoidance of any overt references to Islam, it was eventually possible to discern that the Home Secretary was saying it was time to tackle the increasing use of the internet in the radicalisation of young Muslims.

She gave her speech, which came in the same week as headlines concerning Younis Tsouli, the Shepherd's Bush 'cyber-jihadist' who disseminated Islamist materials under the pseudonym of Terrorist 007, to delegates and journalists attending the inaugural conference of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR).

An immediate retort came from the BBC's Frank Gardner: surely a policy decision now to tackle terrorist recruitment was 15 years too late. True; but better late than never, given the stakes.

The Home Secretary is not wrong about the overwhelming importance of the internet. An estimated 5,000 terrorist websites currently help to spread propaganda, radicalise, recruit, fund-raise, train and give operational orders.

Islamist recruitment appears to be on the rise, and the web is vital to this: al-Qaeda has "regrouped" largely through internet use, Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6, told the ICSR conference.

So the government wants to prevent young Muslims from becoming radicalised in the first place. But how to achieve it?
Anti-radicalisation efforts must involve - publicly and intellectually – countering the extreme interpretations of Islam that legitimise mass murder. But they must also be about keeping disenchanted and impressionable 19-year-olds away from pathologically-enticing martyrdom videos. Government opens new front on terror >>>

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Reject Separatism and Ban the Preachers of Violence, Universities Told
THE GUARDIAN:

· Extremism 'serious but not widespread' on campuses
· Fine line between analysis and advocacy: Rammell

Universities with large numbers of Muslim students should consider rejecting demands for separate prayer and washing facilities to prevent their campuses segregating along religious lines and risking a climate where illegal extremist views can flourish, the government will suggest today.

Institutions are also being advised to consider sharing information on violent Islamist speakers who should be banned from addressing students on campuses, according to guidelines to higher education institutions on how to combat campus extremism.

The higher education minister, Bill Rammell, said that violent extremism was a "serious but not widespread" threat to universities and called on them to foster "academic freedom, tolerance and debate" to prevent any spread of extremist ideas on campus. Students should be allowed to debate and research violent extremism as long as they do not cross over a clear line into perpetuating violence, he said.

"It is legitimate and permissible for people to research the origins of violent extremism, even in some circumstances to say that actually we can understand how that leads people to certain courses of action," Rammell said.

"But I think it is very clear when you look at ... the views that they articulate, there is a line at which you move from analysis and understanding towards outright advocacy of violent extremism. It is that that we are concerned about." New guidance calls on universities to reject separatism and ban those who preach violence >>> By Polly Curtis, education editor

THE DAILY MAIL:
English mosques are so extremist they'd be closed down in Baghdad, says IRAQ'S deputy prime minister

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Die Entzauberung des Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
DIE PRESSE: Je mehr der Atomstreit abebbt und je üppiger die Öleinnahmen sprudeln, desto deutlicher wird das Versagen von Präsident Ahmadinejad. Die Inflation explodiert, die Wirtschaft stagniert, die Kritik wächst. Es drohen Unruhen.

TEHERAN/ISTANBUL. Das Leben des iranischen Präsidenten Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ist nicht leichter geworden, seit die US-Geheimdienste dem Mullah-Regime im Dezember bescheinigten, ihr militärisches Atomprogramm 2003 gestoppt zu haben. Der Atomstreit mit dem Westen kann nun nicht mehr die wirtschaftlichen Probleme überdecken, in die der Petro-Populist sein Land trotz dramatisch steigender Öleinnahmen geführt hat.

Zum Präsident wurde Ahmadinejad nämlich 2005 nur aufgrund eines sozialen Versprechens: Er wolle den vielen armen Iranern die Erdöleinnahmen „nach Hause bringen“ und ihnen so das Leben leichter machen. Doch fällt ihm das zusehends schwer: Die Wirtschaft stöhnt immer lauter, die Inflation steigt kräftig, ebenso die Preise von Alltagswaren – und das Leben der vielen armen Iraner ist heute schwieriger als 2005.

Subventionen, günstige Kredite

Dabei bezweifelt niemand Ahmadinejads gute Absicht. Der von seiner Regierung jüngst vorgelegte Haushaltsentwurf fürs neue iranische Jahr, das Montag begann, beweist jene Absicht. Da finden sich erhöhte Subventionen für Bedarfsgüter, viele Wohnbauprojekte in der Provinz, vergünstigte Kredite für den Bau von Eigenheimen, höhere Gehälter für Beamte und die Möglichkeit einer frühzeitigen Pensionierung. Und so steigen die Staatsausgaben heuer um 19%, oder rund 200 Milliarden Euro, an.Die konservative Mehrheit im Parlament, geführt vom Parlamentssprecher und Philosoph Gholam Ali Hadad Adel, will das Budget rasch verabschieden. Im März wird gewählt, da sollen die Iraner sehen, was die Religiösen Gutes tun. Die Entzauberung des Mahmoud Ahmadinejad >>> Von Jan Keetman

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Geert Wilders’ Film on Islam Stirs Up the Netherlands
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Déjà vu in Holland: A Dutch politician plans to release a film that rips the Koran for promoting violence and intolerance. Politicians and Muslim leaders alike are afraid of a repeat of 2004, when filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered on the streets of Amsterdam.

A Dutch politician's plan to release a film that charges the Koran with promoting violence and intolerance has sparked controversy in the Netherlands. Government officials are distancing themselves from the project and stepping up security at home and at embassies abroad, while Muslim leaders fear that it could strain relations between the Dutch and their large Muslim immigrant population.

Geert Wilders, leader of the right-wing Freedom Party, says he will release a 10-minute-long film on Friday that shows how the Koran is used by Islamic radicals to promote homophobia, the abuse of women and violence. The film was slated to debut on Jan. 25 but as of last Friday Wilders had not found a Dutch broadcaster willing to air it. If he can not find one by Friday, he says he will post it on the Internet.

As Wilders searched for a broadcaster last week, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende urged Wilders to exercise restraint. "The Netherlands has a tradition of freedom of speech, religion and beliefs," said Balkenende according to the Associated Press. "The Netherlands also has a tradition of respect, tolerance and responsibility. Unnecessarily offending certain groups does not belong here."

Balkenende said that cities in the Netherlands were on alert for potential protests in response to the film, and diplomats abroad were briefed on responding to potential animosity. Another Anti-Koran Film Stirs Up Holland >>> By Patrick McGroarty

SIOE (Stop the Islamization of Europe)
SIOE (Netherlands)

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A CNN Interview with Omar bin Laden, Osama bin Laden’s Son

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Women to Be Allowed to Drive in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia!
THE TELEGRAPH: Saudi Arabia is to lift its ban on women drivers in an attempt to stem a rising suffragette-style movement in the deeply conservative state.

Government officials have confirmed the landmark decision and plan to issue a decree by the end of the year.

The move is designed to forestall campaigns for greater freedom by women, which have recently included protesters driving cars through the Islamic state in defiance of a threat of detention and loss of livelihoods.

The royal family has previously balked at granting women driving permits, claiming the step did not have full public support.

The driving ban dates back to the establishment of the state in 1932, although recently the government line has weakened.

"There has been a decision to move on this by the Royal Court because it is recognised that if girls have been in schools since the 1960s, they have a capability to function behind the wheel when they grow up," a government official told The Daily Telegraph. "We will make an announcement soon." Saudi Arabia to lift ban on women drivers >>> By Damien McElroy in Riyadh

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