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The German laws against terrorism are criticized as being too lax. If Osama bin Laden were seen walking down the streets of Frankfurt, some critics claim, he could not even be detained.

“Hunting for a Phantom”

Part of the SPIEGEL cover story complex: Chief terrorist Osama bin Laden has repeatedly eluded his American pursuers. Having been claimed dead on several occasions, evidence is now mounting that he managed to escape from Afghanistan. New Al Qaida recruits are preparing for the jihad against America and to die a martyr’s death. The hunt for America’s number one enemy of the state continues – the most extensive and expensive chase the world has ever seen.

“Getting Involved Instead of Isolating Ourselves”

SPIEGEL interview with British Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt on the reform bottleneck in Germany:

“They must liberalise the entire economy to achieve dynamic sectors and companies, which will in turn create jobs. … If you concentrate too much on protecting employees, then this happens at the expense of the outsiders in the job market, those who don’t have a job. … I see a large number of enormously strong companies in Germany. … Its industry is strong enough to withstand intense competition. … The government to which I belong is quite clear about the fact that the future of our country lies in an enlarged European Union.”

“Incredible Fear”

Right-wing extremism: The number of convicted neo-Nazis is rising – and with that their power in prisons, particularly those in East Germany. Prison wardens and ministries estimate that about one third of inmates are young Nazis, but precise figures are not available. The victims of their brutality rarely report the incidents for fear of further persecution, and experts, too, are at a loss as to how to get the problem under control. In addition, the right-wingers often receive outside professional support: not only from former comrades and NPD cadres who keep visiting them and smuggling propaganda behind the prison walls. The “Organisation for the Assistance of National Political Prisoners and Their Families” also supports the so-called political prisoners.

“Perpetrators in Uniforms”

Chechnya: During their cleansing operations, the Russian armed forces are increasingly “disposing of” civilians. Moscow’s war in the Caucasus is becoming more and more merciless. According to official sources, 3220 Russian fighters have lost their lives here since August 1999 – the committee of soldiers’ mothers quotes two to three times that figure. However, Chechen losses, particularly among the civilian population, have scarcely been ascertained. Endless “cleansing operations”, during which soldiers have often behaved like the Red Army during its invasion of East Prussia in 1945, have served to reinforce the resistance.

“Irony Is My Weapon”

SPIEGEL interview with writer Andrea Camilleri about the belated success of his crime novels, the idiosyncrasies of his police inspector Montalbano, and Italian politics as a triumph of bad taste:

“Of course, Montalbano parades the positive sides of the Sicilians. Contrary to the popular cliché about us Southern Italians, he’s a decent fellow through and through. … The citizens are being stifled jointly by the state and the Mafia. Our politicians produce laws that not even Kafka could have come up with. We once had a Minister for the Reform of Bureaucracy in Rome. He went and abolished a range of laws, and nobody noticed. Any other civilised country would have collapsed. Here, everything just carried on.”

“I’m a Mystery”

SPIEGEL interview with American singer and composer Tom Waits, 52, about his two new albums, his image as a melancholy drunkard, and the secret of his husky voice:

“Songs are constantly changing. Some songs don’t want to be recorded, some are really mean. But you only realise that when you try to capture them in the studio. … Many people believe that I sleep on a billiard table, get up at three in the afternoon, pour whiskey over my Cornflakes, have no teeth in my mouth and always have leaves in my hair. What can I say? That’s nothing but a story. … Once you’ve reached the age of 40, you have the face that you deserve and the voice that you deserve. … If my children kept listening to my music all the time, I would call in a psychiatrist at once."

“Hot Gales in a Giant Tube”

Energy: An Australian solar energy company is planning to build the world’s tallest building. The tower, which is to reach to a height of one thousand metres, will convert heat from the sun first into wind and then into electricity. The astonishing power plant uses the simplest technology. The licenser, Stuttgart engineer Jörg Schlaich, believes that the greatest potential for the robust gigantism exists in the Third World.

“Underground Superpower”

Wildlife: The largest ant colony of all time is conquering Southern Europe. Researchers have discovered a huge colony which already stretches across an area of 6000 kilometres. Peace has erupted in anthills from Genoa to Marseille, and from Gibraltar to Lisbon. Along Europe’s southern coastline, the creatures are wandering around peaceably as though they were on tranquillisers. No territorial fighting is to be seen anywhere, no raids, not even the slightest skirmish. This isn’t normal. Ants are almost always at war. The novel alliance goes against all the rules. What has happened?

“Strip for Science”

Anthropology: In the affluent society, the proportions of people’s bodies are rapidly changing. Many sizes of clothing no longer fit the average customer. Great Britain has therefore been remeasuring its citizens. The last large-scale operation of this kind was carried out in the 1950s, and the preliminary results of the present study are already suggesting that the British are no longer what they used to be. In other industrial nations, too, people are becoming fatter – as well as taller. To the present day, experts are at a loss as to what exactly can have triggered the sharp boost in growth since the Industrial Revolution.

“And Watch the Body Falling”

Authors: American writer Djuna Barnes was an eccentric of the 1920s and 30s when the legend of Bohemian life in Europe was at its peak. Letters from her estate that have never appeared in print before have now been published in Germany for the first time and give some surprising insights into her private life. In them, the writer is not only revealed as being an often lonely woman, overcome by fits of despair and scarcely up to coping with practical life – which comes as no surprise – but also as a poet whose original choice of words was by no means accidental. This in no way diminishes the status of her work – but the latter now has to be viewed as the result of aesthetic ambition and hard labour.