The occupation of Iraq is legally over. But what lies beyond the formalities, asks Omayma Abdel-Latif

Violence in Gaza this week presents new challenges to Egypt vis-â-vis its role in Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan. It is unlikely to surmount them, writes Graham Usher in Jerusalem

As Baghdad gets ready for sovereignty, Nermeen Al-Mufti discovers that dreams can taste of death and ashes

Aziz Jabr Shayyal assesses the political fortunes of the different Iraqi groups and the prospects for state building

Disparate forces released in the new Iraq are simply a consequence of decades of dictatorship and state decay, writes Ibrahim Al-Haidry

Anas Al-Tikriti argues that the rhetoric about the power handover to Iraqis is no more than an attempt to make an essentially ugly situation slightly more palatable

Following his recovery from a successful back operation in Germany, President Hosni Mubarak is set to come home to an agenda full of domestic and foreign concerns

Whether Ebeid stays on as prime minister remains to be seen, but his cabinet's days are numbered. In two separate articles below, Gamal Essam El-Din and Sherine Abdel-Razek examine the record of the four-and-half year old cabinet

Tripartite talks on Nile water management issues ended on Saturday in Sharm El-Sheikh on an upbeat note, writes Gamal Nkrumah

The long-awaited, revised Egyptian Nationality Law has become a reality. Reem Leila reports

A new press law that scraps prison sentences is on the way -- at least that's what journalists have been told. Shaden Shehab investigates

Kofi Annan and Colin Powell's visits to Sudan are intended to up the pressure on Khartoum to resolve the crisis in Darfur, writes Gamal Nkrumah

The appointment of a new premier in Pakistan is only cosmetic, reports Iffat Idris from Islamabad

Should Iraqis look to Afghanistan for an image of their future, or is it the other way round? Peter Willems, in Kabul, writes

Cairo's live music venues are slightly less thin on the ground than they were. Amr Hussein visits one of them