Ground battles in Gaza between the PA and Hamas reflect the ascendancy of the Islamic resistance movement as Fatah fights for breath, reports Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

The NDP has revealed at least some of its candidates who will be contesting the parliamentary elections and there are no surprises, reports Gamal Essam El-Din

Ariel Sharon's post-disengagement strategy is starting to emerge and Palestinians are already killing each other in Gaza, writes Graham Usher in Jerusalem

The president and prime minister of Iraq face off with the future of Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi nation enlisted as political backdrop, writes Nermeen Al-Mufti

Another conference in Congress concerning the problems facing expatriate Copts is angering many back home, reports Gihan Shahine

Mona El-Nahhas watches the Ghad Party power struggle become ever more ferocious

The NDP conference set the stage for change within the party and the country

Following further violence, demonstrations against bombings and assassinations colour the streets of Beirut as investigations continue into their source, writes Mohalhel Fakih

The draft sales tax law is in need of fine tuning, reports Sherine Nasr

With growing public and elite consensus that military action alone is unable to stop terrorism, the New America Foundation convened last week in a conference on the economic response to terrorism, reports Paul Wulfsberg from Washington

The indictment of Congressman DeLay sheds some light on the inner workings of the American justice system, writes James Zogby

Spain's sentencing of Al-Jazeera reporter Taysir Allouni brings further to question just how free media in the West really is, writes Serene Assir

Nehad Selaiha searches for the healing power of theatre on the fringe of the 17th Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre

Winner of the 2005 Prix Laure Bataillon for the best translated work of fiction, Le Livre des illuminations, a translation of Gamal al-Ghitany's Kitab al-tajalliyat, has refocussed French attention on the work of this leading Egyptian novelist. David Tresilian spoke to Khaled Osman, the novel's translator, in Paris

ICOM's annual meeting in Alexandria last week was less successful than hoped for. Nevine El-Aref attended