Al-Ahram Weekly On-line
3 - 9 September 1998
Issue No.393
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 Current issue | Previous issue | Site map
Fighting the war of the future
Before declaring "war on terrorism", writes Ibrahim Nafie, it is necessary to know the enemy -- and to realise that violence only breeds violence
Editorial
A fair trial
In dealing with Libya and the Lockerbie tragedy after the UN Security Council's approval of a new resolution last week, the US and Britain should not repeat the mistake they made in 1992, when they pushed the Council to impose an embargo on the Libyan people. After six years of appeals by regional, African and international powers, and incomprehensible stubbornness on the part of the US and Britain, the two countries finally accepted the very solution they have rejected for so long: the trial of the two Libyan suspects in a third, neutral country. --read on--

Close up
The Marina syndrome
Salama A. Salama
After more than a month of contradictory stories and ambiguous charges in the press, the true perpetrator of the manslaughter incident in Marina, believed to be a "careless youth", turned out to be the owner of a jet-ski, who considered himself to be above the law and public order. --read on--

Naguib Mahfouz
Writers' rights
The Writers' Union is about to close down due to lack of resources. The rights of its members are routinely violated. This crisis is the result of an arrangement whereby the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (RTU) is supposed to deduct from the writers' fees agreed-upon amounts and to pay them to the Writers' Union. But the RTU has failed to pay these amounts for several years now. No one has done anything to redress this odd situation, although such fraudulent dealings with the Writers' Union is hardly becoming of a state organisation. --read on--
Questioning progress
The failure to resolve critical conflicts by peaceful means and the growing impact of violence in international affairs make a reassessment of the notion of progress imperative as the century draws to a close. Mohamed Sid-Ahmed discusses the issue

This week:
Diana  

Soapbox
The sword of Lewinsky
By Salah Montasser

Can the US do the job?
Why should the US lead the world? It is neither morally qualified nor politically capable. Hassan Nafaa writes
The scandal simmers on
"That woman" continues to generate confusion. Only when the US Congress reconvenes, writes James Zogby, will we know whether the comeback kid's career is really over