Abu Mazen's enormous task
Mahmoud Abbas this week unveiled to the Palestinian parliament his roadmap to independence. It received the bloodiest of welcomes, writes Graham Usher in Jerusalem

Constructive ambivalence
Though sceptical, the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas, is careful to avoid civil war with the new PA government, reports Khaled Amayreh from Jerusalem

Winning the west
Western Sudan has become a battleground as a cease-fire agreement between the Sudanese government and armed opposition broke down, writes Gamal Nkrumah

Jordan Islamists change tactics
Jordan's influential Islamist opposition will take part in the coming parliamentary elections after nearly five years in the political wilderness. Lola Keilani reports from Amman

Killing time
As tension grows in Turkey's Kurdish southeast, many are wondering if the war in Iraq will shatter the calm that had begun to settle on this troubled region. In Diyarbakir, Nyier Abdou looks at the legacy of almost two decades of civil war