Confidence's bumpy road
Prime Minister Atef Ebeid's government got a renewed vote of confidence in parliament this week, but only after an unprecedented degree of criticism was leveled at its performance. Gamal Essam El-Din reports

An uphill battle
The poor turnout at a recent Press Syndicate sit-in against the war was just the latest manifestation of Egypt's critical lack of political activism. Gihan Shahine investigates

Only half the story
A surprise announcement indicates that the government may be willing to move towards human rights reform. Gamal Essam El-Din looks at the pros and cons

Play it again, Shaaban
Singer Shaaban Abdel-Rehim dabbles in politics once again with his latest tape, Al-Darb fil 'Iraa (Hitting Iraq). Nevine Khalil reaches for the headphones

Advent of a storm?
Egypt's churches came together this week to denounce an increasingly visible former Seventh-Day Adventist leader. Heba Samir reports

Brotherhood at the Bar
Disputed internal elections at the Bar Association heavily favoured the Muslim Brotherhood. Not everybody is happy about that, reports Mona El-Nahhas

Children in our hearts
At the awards ceremony of the Suzanne Mubarak 2002 Children's Literature Prizes held at the Cairo Opera House on Sunday, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak called on Egypt's literary writers to "consider culture a pathway to brotherhood and children's books messengers of peace and forgiveness...

Newsreel
Egypt dismissed reports on Sunday that Israel had taken control of a maritime "triangle" on the borders between the two countries at the Gulf of Aqaba, reports Soha Abdelaty