“Codename Falcon”

Arms exports: In the event of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan, top German technology will be deployed – illegally. Public prosecutors are investigating two companies. The issue that lawyers are now looking into, could prove to be an embarrassment for Germany – because the authorities apparently allowed themselves to be tricked into issuing export licences. However it is now little doubt that far more parts for the Indian arms programme were sold than initially believed.

“A Bizarre Way Out”

USA: The German government is caught in a dilemma: the Americans want it to supply evidence against a suspected terrorist – which would be used to justify a death sentence. The US Department of Justice is urging the Berlin government to hand over records about Zacarias Moussaoui, 33, whom the Americans believe to be the twentieth terrorist who was to take part in the attacks of September 11 – and for that he is to be sentenced to death, with the help of evidence collected by German investigators.

“Atomic Alpenglow”

Kashmir: The border in Punjab is becoming a front. Pakistan’s officers feel themselves to be invulnerable and are talking like characters in the adventure stories of Karl May. A monument immortalises the triumph of their own nuclear tests.

“The Tears of Khost”

Afghanistan: While Kabul is waiting on tenterhooks for the meeting of the grand assembly, or Loya Jirgah, the next civil war is threatening in the east. Heavily armed government troops are facing the army of a warlord, who was until recently courted by the Americans. Throughout Afghanistan, people are feverishly awaiting the Loya Jirgah, the grand assembly at which peace is to be made at last, in this county racked by death and famine. Everywhere in the provinces delegates have been elected, who are to decide on a new government in Kabul starting this Monday. But until now the government in Kabul has been giving in to the warlord Paja Khan, who was for a long time considered one of America’s men and was even flown to the Afghanistan Conference in Bonn by them. A civil war in the east of his country is what interim prime minister Hamid Karzai needs least of all at the start of the Loya Jirgah.

“Hundreds Are Still in Prison”

SPIEGEL interview with Burma’s heroine of freedom and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Aung San Suu Kyi, about her release, the dialogue with the military junta, and foreign economic sanctions:

“The fact that we have not had any formal talks over the past four weeks does not mean that the talks with the junta have come to an end. My party is very active at the moment. … A few political prisoners have been released, but many are still in detention. Our main demand it therefore the release of all political prisoners. That is the top priority in our talks.”

“David against Bic Mac”

Food: John Banzhaf fought the tobacco industry for 30 years, until they had to pay out millions in damages to smokers. Now the US professor of law has turned his sights on the fast-food industry. He has launched his latest campaign against the background of an alarming number of obese people in the land of the infinite backsides. The ideal solution, though also the most difficult to achieve, he believes, would be to sue the fast-food industry into accepting responsibility by making them bear the burden of the cost of the national obesity problem. That, he says, is the only thing that would truly lead to a radical change in attitude and in current practice.

“Face and Voice”

Europe: Schröder, Blair, Chirac and Co. are putting pressure on the constitutional convention. Instead of the Commission, they want the Council of the heads of state to be in charge of the EU. The full assembly of the summit delegations in Spain will first of all be discussing those reforms of the Council for which only the rules of procedure need to be changed. In future “European ministers” are to prepare the summit meetings and also coordinate the work of the councils of specialist ministers. Only four of the current 16 councils, are to remain: the club of the finance ministers, the council of foreign ministers, the council for the coordination of economic policy, and a council of the ministers of justice and domestic affairs. In particular, the heads of state are aiming to choose one of their number as the European president.

“Dope from the Flesh of God”

Drugs: Magic mushrooms are being grown in the high-tech breeding chambers of a Dutch company. Their sale is legal thanks to a grey area in the law, but German narcotics officers are warning against hallucinogenic horror trips. As with cannabis, legislators are being pragmatic: according to the narcotics laws, a natural substance is only classified as a narcotic once it has been treated by human hand. Accordingly, the Dutch Supreme Court has ruled that fresh mushrooms are legal, whereas dried ones are illegal. So far the active substance in the mushrooms has not been shown to produce physical addiction or cause physical harm. But as with LSD, it can drag up suppressed traumatic experiences from one’s subconscious, leading to anxiety and delusions. Depending on the consumer, the effect may range from an amusing movie in one’s head to a paranoid horror trip.

“In the Stranglehold of Bureaucracy”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Peter Gruss, newly elected president of the Max Planck Society, about the excessively rigid laws in Germany, the image of scientists, and the ethical limits to embryonic research:

“The directors of the Max Planck Society are not princes, however they do enjoy a princely privilege: namely that of being very independent in the research they choose to do. My greatest aim is to defend that freedom. If I fail to do so, the most important value of the Max Planck Society will have been forfeited. … We badly need a separate law governing wage agreements for the sciences. We are dependent upon recruiting top-class scientists – and offering competitive salaries. … I firmly hold that an embryo in the early stages of development does not have a soul. So I see no problem with carrying out research on surplus embryos from reproductive medicine which would otherwise simply be destroyed. However, I clearly reject manufacturing embryos for research purposes.”

“The Rest Is Darkness”

Internet: A large part of the European Internet is threatening to collapse in the near future. The consequences for the customers: probably none at all. The situation that no one thought possible has indeed arisen: an over-abundance of data lines. This is particularly true of long distance lines, in which the data travel down optical fibre cables as pulses of light. Some of the excess capacity is already being sold off at special markets, much as sides of pork once used to be.

“I Want to Live to Be 300”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with British musician David Bowie about his anger at the transitory nature of human beings, his life in New York after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and the influence of composer Richard Strauss on his latest album “Heathen”:

“Now that I understand myself and others, I’m supposed to die – what a shitty game. Is there nobody with whom one could revise the rules of the game? … To me, particularly Richard Strauss’s “Four Last Songs” are among the most beautiful and gripping I have ever heard: their gravity and melancholy, which are based on Strauss’s realisation that he had to die and let go. … I like living in New York. The tension is like a motor driving me on and on. It’s not a happy kind of energy, more to do with desperation and panic – but I flourish in it. … I hate the mainstream. Its mediocrity and predictability suffocate me.”

“The Emperor’s Apprentice”

German soccer team: With the help of simple concepts, Rudi Völler, the national team’s pragmatic coach, has led them back to the sunny side of soccer. But at his tournament debut in Asia, the self-made coach is on probation. During his educational trip he is expected to demonstrate that he’s the right man for the great goals of the future.

“Black Eye”

France: The équipe tricolore has dominated world soccer for four years. Now the reigning champions are threatening to become victims of the arrogance of power. So far, France’s performance at the World Cup has been a fiasco.