Rings around reality
You can pretend it's a land without people, but what about the people the new maps ignored? Abdelwahab Elmessiri remarks on resilience

Arabising the struggle
Is the pre-summit consensus one of weakness and desperation? David Hirst, in Beirut, wonders what a double war could do

A new balance of terror
Mohamed Sid-Ahmed discusses some of the difficult problems on the agenda of the Beirut summit

Instinct and ethics
Awatef Abdel-Rahman argues that freedom of the press is not incompatible with due process

Learning to be equal
Shahida El-Baz reviews gender priorities

Comparative advantages
Inspired by the Monterrey conference, M Shahid Alam suggests new and efficient uses for the surplus bodies of the underdeveloped world

Towering misrepresentation
Roger Owen discovers he is a post-modern mandarin

Editorial:
Why we did not go

Close up
Witch-hunt
By Salama Ahmed Salama

Soapbox:
New words for the world
By Mustafa El-Feki

Naguib Mahfouz
The loss of a friend

This week: Emile Lahoud