The emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, who was forced into months of exile by Iraqi forces overrunning his oil-rich Gulf state in 1990 and then supported the US in invading Iraq more than a decade later, died today.

IN AN Arab world where democracy is a rarity, entrenched leaders are faced with the image of Saddam Hussein in captivity, his power shrunken to myth, his bravado gone.