A moral victory
The world continues to seek innovative means of resolving conflict, writes Milad Hanna. We must seek a meaningful alternative to the conflict between cultures and civilisations

Human rights and the numbers game
The end of 1998 brought increased public interest in the issue of foreign financing, at least among those concerned with public policy, writes Hussein Abdel-Razeq. Why is funding suddenly taboo?

Spying in the name of the UN
With Iraq threatened by a new wave of strikes, Mohamed Sid-Ahmed hopes the Arabs can pursue a policy that will neither confirm the accusation that they have abandoned the cause of the Iraqi people, nor help Washington make the people pay for Saddam's mistakes

The end of the nightmare
As Arab regimes struggle to differentiate between Saddam Hussein's regime and the Iraqi people, James Zogby glimpses a new international consensus on the horizon

Close up
Summit fever
There has been no sign yet that a meeting of Arab foreign ministers to discuss the Iraqi crisis has been postponed, as in previous cases, in ambiguous circumstances. --read on--

Naguib Mahfouz New horizons The best piece of news I heard lately was the government's reply to criticism of certain aspects of the colossal Toshka project, intended to create a new Nile Valley, --read on--

Soapbox
Freedom for the incompetent
Salwa Bakr

This week: Esmat Abdel-Meguid