Saudi government tries to thwart women driving campaign

Saudi Arabia's government sought to snuff out a campaign to end a ban on women driving, warning on Wednesday it would use force to stop any protest aimed at overturning the ban. Saudi women's rights activists posted online photographs and video clips of themselves defying the ban this month after some members of the Shoura Council, an influential body that advises the government, called for an end to the prohibition.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are barred from driving, but debate about the ban is spreading to public forums. (Reuters)