Killing as campaign strategy
While Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak made a last ditch effort to win the support of right-wing extremists, Israeli settlers are acting as though they have carte blanche to attack and kill Palestinian civilians. Khaled Amayreh writes from Hebron

Between right and realisation
There is the right of return and the dream of return. Graham Usher discovers both in the Balata "camp of revolution" near Nablus

More flowers than power
While the 21st GCC summit held in Bahrain saw lots of pomp and circumstance, the results of the meeting were less impressive than the show, writes Sherine Bahaa

Lebanese anxiety
A US-proposed deal on the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees has revived Lebanese fears that an estimated 350,000 Palestinian refugees might end up making their home in Lebanon. Dalal Saoud reports

Bashir sweeps uncontested poll
The Sudanese leader sweeps the polls in spite of a massive opposition boycott and empty polling stations, writes Gamal Nkrumah

Rights activist gets jail
Arab and international human rights groups strongly condemned the trial and sentencing to one year imprisonment of a leading Tunisian activist

Messages from an ignominious past
Algerian-Sudanese rapprochement
Confessed murders
Syrian president marries
Satellite curbs