Leading Ebeid by the hand
Gamal Essam El-Din reports on Prime Minister Atef Ebeid's attempts to make the policy statement he'll be presenting to parliament next week reflect the NDP's "new way of thinking"

Rotation of power
A stormy conference resulted in the leftist Tagammu Party agreeing to change the current system by which the party chooses its ranking members. Mona El-Nahhas reports

A year of challenge and promise
Al-Ahram Weekly recaps the significant trends and events on the local scene in 2002

Raising a voice
Anti-globalisation and anti-war activists from around the world closed ranks with their Arab peers in Cairo in pursuit of a 'different world'. Omayma Abdel-Latif reports

'People should be outraged'
Rasha Saad talks to two guests of the Cairo conference, Ramsey Clark and Saad Qassem Hammoudy, about US manipulation of the UN and the consequences of another war on Iraq

The sacrifices of war
Saad Qassem Hammoudy, a leading member of the Ba'ath Party and secretary-general of the Iraqi Conference of Arab Popular Forces, discusses allegations that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction and explains why he thinks the US and Britain are intent on war

The policy of punishment
ROGUE CHIEFS: They believed in the system -- and it failed them. On the fringes of last week's conference, Nyier Abdou catches up with former UN humanitarian co-ordinators for Iraq Hans von Sponeck and Denis Halliday to talk about warmongering, doublespeak and life after the UN

Scylla and Charybdis
Denis Halliday navigates dangerous waters between a cruel system and a brutal regime

Elections impossible
The elections were cancelled as more Palestinians lose faith in a two-state solution, Khaled Amayreh reports from Jerusalem

Challenging silence
Will Jenin's voice be silenced again? Jonathan Cook, from Ban'a, reports on the Israeli banning of a documentary that gave the camp's inhabitants a face and a voice

Secularists versus Islamists
The secular Turkish establishment last week stepped up its campaign against the new Islamist government of the Justice and Development Party, Gareth Jenkins reports from Ankara

Roads to perdition
On the eve of the new year Graham Usher in Jerusalem looks at the divided state of the Palestinian national movement. He argues it must unify its ranks and policy in 2003 if it is not to repeat the mistakes it made in 2002

Iraq: another Afghanistan?
Baghdad spent most of 2002 trying not to become another Afghanistan. Dina Ezzat reports with an eye on 2003

Photo caption:
Military hardware, explosions and elections were the main show throughout the region in 2002

Arab and suspect
It has become commonplace in the US to arrest and detain Arabs, reports Anayat Durrani from Los Angeles

Humpty dumpty
Can all the king's horses and all the king's men put Afghanistan back together again? Nyier Abdou takes the pulse of Afghanistan's recovery efforts

A critical year
Gamal Nkrumah examines how Africa south of the Sahara fared in 2002

The new America
America is in a class of its own, but it's no enviable position, writes Nyier Abdou

Globalisation's lost consensus
Two major events took place in Cairo over the last week symbolising the despondency that many now feel over the effects of globalisation on the poor, writes Wael Gamal

Creating the right environment
Efforts are underway to facilitate the development of small and medium enterprises and their integration into the mainstream economy. Niveen Wahish reports

A white flame
Technically, her acting had a cool, smooth, unblemished surface; but its impact was that of burning ice. Nehad Selaiha remembers Sanaa Gamil , who died on Sunday

Midnight ululations
As New Year's Eve approaches, party talk is big. Yasmine El-Rashidi uncovers the thrills

Turkish red-and-white saint
St Nicholas has inspired a Santa Claus and Call for World Peace festival in his hometown of Demre, Turkey. Sherif Sonbol was there