Recipe for disaster
For once in his life Saddam Hussein must engage with reality, writes Ibrahim Nafie

'With Asian hands'
Anouar Abdel-Malek advocates the strengthening of ties with South East Asia as an antidote to a West in decline

Before war is declared
Is there still time to avoid the worst-case scenario, not only for Iraq, but also for Palestine, asks Mohamed Sid-Ahmed

Shifting policies
Changes in the influence of extremists over the US administration will have manifold implications for the domestic political maps of several countries in the Middle East, Gamil Mattar argues

Requisites of reform
There is much more to reform than merely replacing the horse that is pulling the cart, cautions Mustafa El-Feki

Terrorists and cowboys
The images that Arabs and Americans have of each other hamper their mutual understanding, Abdel-Moneim Said argues

The burden of truth
Who's to produce the smoking gun? Ayman El-Amir explains how Iraq is guilty until proven guilty

This week: HASSAN SHEHATA

Editorial:
Demonstrative action
Across the world, and especially in the big cities of the United States, anti-war demonstrators are striving to get their views across to US President George W Bush. People are tired of all this talk of war...

Close up
Summit of six
In appraising the Turkish initiative to convene a six-man summit, the goal of which is to produce a formula to end the Iraqi crisis peacefully, Arab states are taking one step forward and two back...
By Salama A Salama

Soapbox
Kicking and screaming
In a Youssef Idris story a wretched man stands naked in the middle of the village calling out that he is hungry and can find no food...
By Shawqi 'Aql

Hospital talk
My health is better, thank God. But the dreams, the dreams I used to have when recuperating, which were an unexpected source of inspiration for my writing, seem to have gone forever...
By Naguib Mahfouz