Pact for Stability: Federal Minister of Finance, Hans Eichel, will probably never be able to balance the federal budget.

"Pandora's Box"

Afghanistan: A chaotic new beginning - the old powers continue to exert their influence, feudal lords are reaching for power, and in the countryside the might of the Taliban is far from broken. While the first women are venturing out into the streets without a burka in Kabul, and the delegations at Petersberg outside Bonn are forging the basis for a multi-ethnic future in Afghanistan, the old feudal lords in the villages are hurriedly securing their sinecure. The Taliban may not figure in the paper concepts of the UN strategists and the Northern Alliance, but in everyday life in the countryside, their influence in the battle over the distribution of water, land and road tolls is virtually unbroken. The present conflict over Meydan Shar shows that the Northern Alliance too is unwilling to venture a completely new beginning which would go beyond the century-old tribal rituals and rights.

"The Next Target for Bombs?"

Africa: A region has separated from the chaos in Somalia, a region in which peace and order reign: Somaliland. Now the republic is seeking recognition as a partner in the fight against terrorism. The news that, after Afghanistan, the alliance against terrorism will next be training its sights on the Horn of Africa, is frightening people even in the remotest corners of the country. While Somalia (8 million inhabitants, capital: Mogadishu) represents a target for the alliance against terrorism as a potential terrorist base, Somaliland (2.5 million inhabitants, capital: Hargeisa) wants to help the international community to "wipe out the virus of terrorism". Somaliland has been able to achieve peace in its territory with the help of the clan leaders, who still enjoy great respect. Based on the principle that "my enemy's enemies are my friends", Somaliland regards collaboration with the Western alliance against terrorism as its best hope for international recognition.

"Border Zone"

SPIEGEL interview with the head of Europol, Jürgen Storbeck, on the hunt for terrorists and the conflicting attitudes of the EU states regarding the formation of a European FBI:

"We have carried out some preliminary analyses of situations and potential threats. This provided a number of member states which had until then had little idea about Islamic fundamentalists with starting points for their investigations. … The key area of Europol's activities is the analysis of the smuggling of human beings, laundering money and drug trafficking. … If the EU states want to grant us the authority to investigate terrorism and cross-border crime, then it has to be admitted in all honesty that that would also require a European public prosecutor. However, one could also envisage a model involving 15 national Europol public prosecutor's offices."

"Time to Act"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with the economist Hans-Werner Sinn on incorrect forecasts, the reasons for the recession and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's politics of a steady hand:

"We don't make absolute forecasts - though the general public likes to interpret us in that way. We make statements of the if-then type: if world economic growth, the price of oil, the share prices and others variables assume certain values which are considered to be plausible, then our economy will respond in a certain way, and that leads to an economic forecast. … We are able to see a certain distance into the future, but the further ahead we look, and the more turbulent the times are, the less clear the picture … The economy is currently suffering from an acute lack of demand, a result of the wait-and-see attitude of consumers and investors. The economic research institutes have therefore suggested bringing forward the third stage of the tax reform programme, which would at least increase the available income of private households by 0.3 percent of the national product and would thus boost consumption."

"Mirror behind the Skull"

Brain research: Special brain cells seem to be responsible for guessing the intentions of other people. Are these the biological foundations for learning, understanding, compassion and communication? The phenomenon, which has been given the name "mirror neurons", soon gripped the imaginations of researchers from all sorts of different fields - psychologists, philosophers, linguists: suddenly the bridge seemed to have been found between the electrical fluctuations in our skulls and the complex patterns of human behaviour. In the meantime, many people believe that the mirror neurons' influence could form the basis of our ability to recognise the intentions of others.

"Cinema for Closed Eyes"

Music: The Munich record label Winter & Winter has refined the conventional audio CD to create an unusual work of art: sounds and music are used to produce ingenious "audio films" about Parisian brothels, Basle's carnival or Richard Wagner in Venice. The publisher Stefan Winter is viewed as the greatest storyteller in his field. He has a wonderful way of conjuring up images for his listeners. In order to recreate the four-day luxury journey in the historic Orient Express of the year 1905, Winter marks the key stations along the route by means of acoustic landmarks: a Parisian musette, a Bavarian march, a Viennese waltz, a Hungarian dance, gypsy sobbing and, for the arrival in Constantinople at 10.39 p.m., the "Song for Osman Pasha". Between these, the old steam engine whistles once in a while, the carriages clatter over the tracks and travellers hurry across platforms. In the fields along the tracks in Bulgaria countrywomen sing their melancholy songs, while in the Pullman carriage people are engaged in light conversation and dance music is played.

"A War over Enlightenment"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy on the anti-Americanism of European intellectuals, the battle against terrorism and the hypothesis of the "end of history":

"Anti-Americanism has a long tradition in the old European nations. It's one of the great constants of our political culture, you could even say a passion. And passions can make you blind. … Europeans still treasure the dormant illusion of a supposedly pure nation, of a good, closed community. They find the melting pot, the mixture of cultures suspect. And faced with the American superpower this old distrust turns into the denunciation of American arrogance. … We can protect ourselves against terrorism, but we cannot wipe it out. … Although I do believe in evil, I don't believe in damnation. I will not give up the Sisyphus-like effort to make the world a little less evil. I will not resign before things that are unacceptable. My generation pushed through a marvellous principle in international law: the right to interfere. That right has recently allowed three wars of liberation to take place, in Bosnia, in Kosovo and now in Afghanistan."

"Record of the End of the World"

SPIEGEL cover story and Part II of the series: On September 11, New York and the whole world were hit by an attack of hitherto unknown dimensions. Since then, thousands of police officers and intelligence experts have been carrying out investigations all over the world to establish how the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were planned and executed. In a four-part series, SPIEGEL describes the results of the official investigations and the month-long preparations for the attack in the USA. SPIEGEL's inquiries among acquaintances of the perpetrators, the security authorities and survivors from the two towers of the World Trade Center allow the mass murder of over 4000 people from 62 different countries to be reconstructed down to the last detail.