Holding on to slim hope
Soha Abdelaty looks at the Egyptian diplomatic agenda for 2003

'Absolute power is not enduring power'
Former UN Secretary-General of the UN Boutros Boutros Ghali presented a gloomy picture of the organisation's future in light of the recent past, Willa Thayer listened to the prognosis

What recession?
Prime Minister Atef Ebeid's policy statement, delivered to parliament on Sunday, was as upbeat as its forerunners, though electoral reform was conspicuous by its absence. Gamal Essam El-Din reports

Faceless confessions
Jailan Halawi reports from the courtroom where alleged members of the radical Islamic Liberation Party are being tried

Things to come
Israel's probable next government is already flexing its muscles. And it is ringing alarms across the region, writes Graham Usher in Jerusalem

Re-election tactics
The Israeli prime minister is intent on killing and repressing more Palestinians to secure a re-election victory. Khaled Amayreh reports from Jerusalem

Iraq or bust
Not even North Korea's nuclear weapons would thwart President Bush's plans to launch a war against Iraq, Khaled Dawoud reports from Washington

Slaughter in Sana'a
Yemen was the backdrop for a series of bloody assassinations this week. They might not be the last, predicts Nasser Arrabyee in Sana'a

The dragon disturbed
What is in store for China in 2003? The People's Republic has blended continuity with incremental reforms to create a promising future, writes Kai-Alexander Schlevogt

More blasts and martyrs
The blasting of the pro-Moscow Chechen administration in Grozny highlights Russian incompetence in containing the Chechen struggle for independence, reports Shohdy Naguib from Moscow

Contaminated goods
Osama El-Baz reminds Arab and Islamic proponents of anti-Semitism that they are purveying shoddy goods of purely Western make. The article is an abridged version of a three-part study published in the Arabic daily Al-Ahram

Still awaiting recovery
John Sfakianakis looks into how Middle East economies have fared during the past year

A new look at aid
The government has begun to restructure its foreign economic assistance programme. Mona El-Fiqi reports

Nutcracker revisited
Amal Choucri Catta finds Christmas is still Christmas

Modern bread?
Breaking with tradition is tough. Dena Rashed reports on the move to 'modernise' Egypt's bread

Effluent ethics
Sewage floods an Upper Egypt village; two activists in jail. Fatemah Farag investigates the situation in Sohag

A Christmas like no other
This year Christmas in Egypt will be different. It won't just be a Coptic celebration, but a national one as well, Mariz Tadros reports.

Going on green
What is the role of sustainable tourism in developing countries like Egypt, wonders Gamal Nkrumah