These pictures were sent to me today by our multi-talented producer Mohammed Tawfeeq, who has just returned from covering the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

In between live shots

Isha Sesay taping a "piece to camera" inside the Jamarat area

--Posted by Hala Gorani

Here are some of the nominations for Mideast "Personnalities of the year". Remember, these are individuals who you believe have had an impact on the region or within their respective fields (positive or negative) over the last twelve months.

Below is a small selection of our readers' and viewers' submissions:

- Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer (currently in prison on charges of insulting Islam)

- Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi

- Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas (winner of the Knight International Journalism Award)

- Saudi King Abdullah

- The "Girl of Qatif"

- Da Arab MC's (Suhell Nafar, Tamer Nafar, Mahmoud Jreri)

- Egyptian novelist Alaa Al Aswany

Keep voting at mideast@cnn.com or by adding a comment in the post below.

In the next few days, Hala Gorani will publish an entry featuring your winners, as well as those selected by the Inside the Middle East team.

As 2007 comes to an end, Inside the Middle East's reporters and producers have been submitting their nominations for the region's personalities of the year.

In the next few days, I will publish a list of the five individuals profiled or discussed on the program who our team feels have had the biggest impact (good or bad) on their field over the last twelve months.

Possible names include : Movie director Nadine Labaki, Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas, Iraqi National Library head Saad Eskandar, Fashion Designer Reem Accra, Lebanese politician Saad Hariri, Aramex CEO Fadi Ghandour, Saudi King Abdullah, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian novelist (and dentist) Alaa Al Aswany, Iranian peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi... and many more.

Who would you like to nominate? Who do you think should make the top five and why? Your vote can be in favor of anyone whose work you think was significant or influential in 2007 in the Middle East. The name does NOT necessarily have to come from the short list of suggestions above.

Email us at mideast@cnn.com or add a comment below.

Thanks to all of you for writing in!

Update: voting is now closed on this post. We will publish reader results later today.

--Posted by Hala Gorani

First, the female victim was "pardoned", now it's been reported that Saudi's King Abdullah has also pardoned the man she was with at the time of the attack.

Reading from a royal letter, the country's Justice Minister further told Saudi television yesterday that the licence of the man who defended the "Girl of Qatif" has not been suspended or revoked.






The initial sentence against a 19-year old woman, gang-raped by seven men in the Saudi town of Qatif, initially caused consternation, because the female victim was also punished for appearing in public with a man not related to her.

The idea: women invite victimization if they do not adhere to strict social rules. A variation on the age-old "if a woman walks late at night in the street in a mini-skirt and is sexually assaulted, she is at least partially responsible for the attack."

Many observers say the King's decision is only the result of international pressure and worldwide outrage surrounding the case. Some argue that this may lead to a change in the way women are treated in Saudi Arabia's justice system.

Here is a link to CNN.com's story on today's developments.

Do you think this case will force change from within in Saudi Arabia? Send us your thoughts at mideast@cnn.com or add a comment below.



--Posted by Hala Gorani

We never found the elusive British guerrilla artist who goes by the name of Banksy. He was long gone.

But going back to Bethlehem this weekend, we run across one of the wall artists—Ron English. He’s the blond, bearded chap in the photograph at the bottom of the ladder, hanging a reproduction of his “Grade School Guernica.” (to find out more about Ron English, go to his website at http://www.popaganda.com/)





Pop artist Ron English (under the ladder) and assistant hang "Grade School Guernica" on the Wall in Bethlehem. (Photo courtesy Yasmine Perni)

Ron and his assistant (I didn’t get his name) assured me they were having a wonderful time on this, their first visit to Israel/Palestine.


From the comments on this blog, I can tell some people love the wall artists, while others clearly despise them. And while some might think that the love is on one side of the wall and the hate the other, think again.

“They are so ugly,” Nasrat, a Bethlehem resident told me at a friend’s birthday party the other night. “I live right next to the wall, and saw someone painting on it. I shouted at them to go away. Do they think they will make the wall more beautiful by painting on it?”

Gilad, on the other hand, is a big fan. At a party the other night (yes, reporters do have social lives, and this is a very social time of year), Gilad, a skinny, bearded Israeli peace activist, explained how he was planning to hire a pick-up truck and haul away Banksy’s depiction of a rat with a slingshot stencilled on a slab on concrete. The slab is right beneath a paint-spattered guard tower in a section of the wall that juts inside Bethlehem, an area that is technically illegal for Israelis to enter.



Will this rat show up on Ebay? (Courtesy: Yasmine Perni)

“I’m sure I could sell it on Ebay for more than two-hundred thousand dollars,” he said, pointing out that at his current NGO wage that would be well over ten times his annual salary. Even peace activists yearn for creature comforts, I guess.

From CNN's Ben Wedeman

These photos were sent to me today by producer Mohammed Tawfeeq, who is in Mecca producing CNN's yearly Hajj coverage with my colleague Isha Sesay. Tonight, the crew will be sleeping in the desert under a tent somewhere in Mina.

Millions of pilgrims dressed in white on their way to - or back from- Mount Arafat

It gets a tiny bit crowded out there. Pilgrims find a spot to get some rest anywhere they can.

--Posted by Hala Gorani

The female rape victim sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in prison for being alone with a man at the time of her attack has been pardoned by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.



Saudi Journalist Ebithal Mubarak told CNN from Jeddah: "This is a great victory, not only for the girl but for all women of the country, for also the women who are subject to sexual abuse, for them to speak out. As we all know it's very hard for a woman who's been raped or sexually attacked in Saudi Arabia to speak, to go in public and speak about her ordeal. So this will send a strong message for the sexually abused women and also to the justice and the conservative wing in Saudi Arabia."

Press reports said the pardon did not indicate that the King considered the gang-rape victim's sentence "wrong".

Check out CNN.com's story here.

What do you think of today's royal pardon? Email us at mideast@cnn.com or add a comment below.

A Saturday evening in Aleppo's Khan Al-Shoune souk in Syria, where the cult of personality surrounding the country's 41-year-old president is alive and well. Pictures of Bashar Al-Assad stare down at shoppers from many of the market's stalls. This poster reads "We Are All With You".



I took these a few months ago, shortly after a referendum that gave the Syrian leader another seven years as president with (officially) 97.62% of the vote.

--Posted by Hala Gorani