For those who read the news item I posted earlier about the Saudi crackdown on mobile phones with a built-in camera, hereis a very amusing update.

Saudi bride roughs up guest for photographing her with camera phone

RIYADH (AFP) – An enraged Saudi bride badly beat up a female wedding guest who had photographed her with a camera-equipped mobile phone, a newspaper reported.

After spotting the woman taking the picture in the all-female section of the party in the western city of Taif, the bride "beat her severely, destroyed her mobile phone and pulled her by her hair in front of all the guests," the Al-Jazirah daily said.

The bride then ripped off the woman’s veil and announced through a microphone the woman’s motives, before receiving a round of applause "for being vigilant". She then tidied up her appearance and proceeded with the celebration.

Camera-equipped mobile phones are ostensibly banned in the conservative kingdom, where men and women celebrate weddings separately, leaving women at liberty to discard the all-covering black cloaks and veil that are obligatory in the presence of men.

Earlier this month, four ministries appealed to King Fahd to lift the ban, arguing that such technology had become a "fait accompli like television and the internet."

Now, this is hilarious. This story keeps getting better and better!