A car bomb, for the first time against the army, deepened tensions in Lebanon ahead of another attempt at voting for a president: Lucy Fielder reports from Beirut

Opposition and independent MPs fired more questions at the government, this time focussing on private monopolies and normalisation with Israel, Gamal Essam El-Din reports

To the ire of Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia resume efforts to re-establish Palestinian national unity, reports Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah

A crisis meeting indicates that Israel faces a strategic emergency following a US intelligence report that sees no threat in Iran, writes Saleh Al-Naami

While it appears that a relative thaw has occurred in US-Iran relations, the future of Gulf region strategic alignments is uncertain, writes Dina Ezzat

A recent report from a higher judicial body has stirred controversy among journalists working for the country's independent press, writes Mona El-Nahhas

Egypt celebrated International Human Rights Day this week, drawing attention to the country's mixed record, writes Gamal Nkrumah

Interpol's Operational Fusion Task Force in the Middle East ended its two-day meeting in Cairo on Tuesday, urging more cooperation in confronting the threat of terror and organised crime, writes Jailan Halawi

Al-Azhar University students protested against the detention of their colleagues, reports Reem Leila

In the Gulf, Defense Secretary Gates has a hard time defending the US line that a nuclear Iran is a nightmare while a nuclear Israel is just fine, reports Rasha Saad

Africa and Europe are struggling to match dreams with reality, writes Gamal Nkrumah

Sherine Nasr asks if the government, revelling in its success in stabilising the economy, can claim to be on track towards a matching achievement in terms of poverty alleviation, while Mona El-Fiqi ponders whether Egypt's unprecedented figures of foreign direct investment flows this year are on a par with the country's comparative potential in attracting capital

A one-hour tour was sufficient for Rania Khallaf to tune into black and white

Of the Cairo Film Festival films about immigration, writes Nahed Nassr, American East is perhaps the most controversial

By Gamal Nkrumah

Top seeds Egypt lost to Australia 2-1 in the semi-finals of the 21st ICL World Men's Team Squash Championship that ended yesterday in Chennai, India