Victory has been snatched from the jaws of defeat: "Afghanistan's constitutional convention agreed Sunday on a historic new charter, its chairman said, overcoming weeks of division to hammer out a compromise meant to bind together the war-ravaged nation's mosaic of ethnic groups. Just a day after warning the summit was [1] heading to humiliating failure, council chairman Sibghatullah Mujaddedi told the 502-delegates meeting under a giant tent in the Afghan capital that last-ditch diplomacy secured a comprehensive deal." This from [2] AP.

"In three weeks of often rancorous debate, religious conservatives forced through amendments to make the constitution more Islamic -- possibly with a ban on alcohol, according to previously announced agreements.

"On the other hand, wording was changed to spell out that men and women should be treated equally -- a key demand of human rights groups."

I haven't seen the wording yet and will be checking it asap. It will be interesting to see if there is a real departure from the stipulations of Islamic law here.