From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Are revolutions transforming the Middle East?

Hello again, I'm Oran Al-Me, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

The daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

Since the so-called

Arab Spring in Tunisia, there's been violence in that country. Today, Egypt's new military

leaders formerly criminalized protests. In Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, and Libya, there's no telling

what kinds of changes domestic upheaval will bring. Iran and Saudi Arabia may not see changes

at all. What can be learned from Georgia,

Ukraine, and other countries that threw off the yoke of communism? When is the old order

vulnerable to a new generation of freedom-loving Democrats? When are high expectations vulnerable

to traditional realities? On reporter's notebook later on, Elizabeth Taylor has died at the age of 79. First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, and its

campaign for American workers. More at rockfound.org. Hello again. Warren Alney, back with To the

point. People power has raised hopes for fundamental change in the entrenched dictatorships of the Middle

East. But in Egypt today, street protests, strikes, and sit-ins were criminalized by Hosni Mubarak's military successors.

We'll hear more on the possible consequences of revolution there and elsewhere.

On reporter's notebook, the life and career of the late Elizabeth Taylor.

First, this news update, the government of Japan has declared that tap water in Tokyo is now contaminated with radioactive iodine and that it should not be fed to infants.

Dr. Jeff Patterson is past president of physicians for social responsibility in this country, and he's a student of the health effects of exposure to radioactivity.

Thank you very much for joining us.

Thank you. Good to be here.

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