How do you draw a nightmare? Surrealism, abstraction, melodrama: none of these is adequate, none comes close to conveying the utter horror those who survive must feel..--read on--

Tragedy in the making
Egypt's worst railway accident has claimed hundreds of lives. But will officials learn the lessons necessary to avoid future tragedies, asks Jailan Halawi

Opinion

WAR COVERAGE

INTIFADA IN FOCUS

The Saudi initiative
Everyone welcomes it. No one agrees on what it means. Graham Usher writes from Ramallah on the Saudi initiative for ending violence and bringing peace

Egypt

Taking the initiative
Cairo wants Israel to embrace the latest Arab initiative to jump-start the peace process, writes Nevine Khalil

Spy trial: the sequel
An Egyptian who was once acquitted of spying for the Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad, has again been brought before the court. Khaled Dawoud watched the proceedings

No faces, only horror
Relatives of the dead from last week's tragic train accident were traumatised anew when, to identify their loved ones, they were asked to sift through piles of charred bodies at Zeinhom Morgue. Khaled Dawoud was with them

One way ticket
The Constitution deems them citizens; for national railways they're just "third class". Fatemah Farag looks into the social inequity of public safety

Economy

What now after Sharm El-Sheikh?
Adel Beshai argues that the donors' meeting windfall provides a great opportunity to think again about how we run the economy

The market waits
Is no news good news? Sherine Abdel-Razek explains how the markets have answered government silence on economic policy

Region

Learning from experience
The tank, the checkpoint and the settlement -- Are these now the targets of the Palestinian resistance? Graham Usher spoke to Palestinian leaders and militants in Gaza and the West Bank

'The business of criminals'
Despite the arrest of three PFLP militants, the Israeli government has reneged on its promise to allow Yasser Arafat freedom of movement and its forces have killed several Palestinians. Khaled Amayreh reports from Jerusalem

An ominous prelude
Azmi Bishara, the most prominent Palestinian politician in Israel, was put on trial in an Israeli court yesterday for the second time in less than three months -- charged with supporting a terrorist organisation. Jonathan Cook reports from Nazareth

International

Back to the old ways
The Karzai administration's honeymoon period is over and Afghanistan is slowly but surely descending into chaos, reports Iffat Malik from Islamabad

'No Bush! No war!'
Protests appear to have forced George Bush to tone down his rhetoric during his whirlwind tour of Asia, reports Anayat Durrani

Defining the limits of terrorism
How will the post-11 September climate affect liberation movements and terrorist groups? Ian Bremmer examines the dynamics of US-Russian relations, and their implications for Chechnya

'Black Rooster' slain
Savimbi's unexpected death breathes new life into Angola's stalled peace process, writes Gamal Nkrumah

Interview

Heritage

A city in danger
Islamic Cairo may be the largest city on UNESCO's World Heritage List, and its problems are commensurate with its size and complexity.. --read on--

Environment Special

Egyptian industry was ordered to clean up its act by 1 March 1998, according to Egypt's first ever environmental law, passed in February 1994. Eight years since the law and four years after the deadline, Al-Ahram Weekly assesses the results --open supplement--

Living

Sports

Language and its whims
Which way the Tower of Babel? Mohamed Moftah finds translation tricky

Brains behind the brawn
People assume that body-builders fit their stereotype to the T -- macho men with muscles rather than brain cells. Yasmine El-Rashidi attempts to dispel the belief