RIDING OUT THE STORM: Fleeing from the onslaught, facing only the unknown -- for a child, it could be all a game. --read on--

Opinion

Edward Said: Adrift in similarity
Ibrahim Nafie: When rancour sours
Diaa Rashwan: Addressing 'the nation', targeting America
Mohamed Sid-Ahmed: Bush's Palestinian state
Hani Shukrallah: Operation enduring madness

The Harvest

Few could have envied then vice-President Hosni Mubarak as he donned the mantle of the Egyptian head of state 20 years ago.. --read on-- Steering a steady course Strength of character and perspicuity have powered two decades of foreign policy for President Mubarak. Nevine Khalil looks at the ebb and flow of diplomacy over the years Dealing with brass tacks While acting to upgrade and modernise the nation's infrastructure, President Hosni Mubarak also set his sights on incorporating Egypt into the global economy, writes Niveen Wahish MORE >>>>>>>>>>>

INTIFADA IN FOCUS

'Food mixed with blood'
The ruling Taliban regime remains defiant as it prepares for the second stage of US attacks. Khaled Dawoud, in Islamabad, and Thomas Gorguissian, in Washington, report

War among 'ourselves'
A day after Osama Bin Laden linked attacks on Afghanistan with the reality of Palestine came a trail of Palestinian-on-Palestinian blood. Graham Usher writes from Jerusalem

War

Under control, for now
Pakistan's army is on high alert after President Pervez Musharraf threw his full weight behind the US-British attack against Afghanistan. Khaled Dawoud writes from Islamabad on an uncertain climate

Means to an end
The US is juggling a gaggle of constraints in its attack on Afghanistan. Can it still come out on top? Galal Nassar looks at the kind of military campaign the US is facing

All the king's men
Both the West and the Afghan opposition to the Taliban regime are looking to the exiled Afghan King Zahir Shah for leadership, Samia Nkrumah writes from Rome

Striking hazardous chords
Bin Laden's defiance of a super power has struck a chord with some. Amira Howeidy reports

'Fast and first'
Qatar's Al-Jazeera emerges as part of the dynamics of a new age, as it scoops all the major Western news networks with its coverage of the war in Afghanistan. Shaden Shehab tunes in

Egypt backs US anti-terrorism action
Cairo has thrown its weight behind the US-led campaign against terrorism. Nevine Khalil and Soha Abdelaty report

Collywobbles all round
Why London plays the jackal to the US lion knowingly antagonising friend and foe remains a mystery. Gamal Nkrumah writes

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Region

Squaring the triangle
Plans to dismantle the 'demographic time bomb' created by failed repopulation schemes on Palestinian lands are proceeding unheeded, Jonathan Cook reports from Nazareth

Inauspicious timing
The message behind Hizbullah's attack against Israeli forces in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms might have come at the wrong time, reports Zeina Abu Rizk from Beirut

Economy

Feeling the pinch
Economic and commercial relations between Egypt and the United States won't be immune to the effects of last month's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, reports Gamal Essam El-Din

Downward trend continues
A prominent local economic think-tank foresees no respite from the economic slowdown in Egypt until the end of the year. Mona El-Fiqi reports

Features

Travel

Living on death road
When do people decide they've had enough? Mariz Tadros tries to find out

Surprise at Saqqara
He was a sixth-dynasty royal surgeon and his tomb contains some unusual and unexpected objects. Nevine El-Aref writes about a new discovery