"Osama and I"

Islamists: The suspected terrorist Shadi Abdallah has for the first time been supplying information about Al Qaida. If his testimony is correct, this would mark a breakthrough for investigators. Bin Laden may have been more directly involved in the attacks of September 11 than previously assumed - because Abdallah describes Binalshibh, whom investigators suspect of planning the attacks in the USA, as having been a confidant of Bin Laden, who was in personal contact with the terrorist leader. According to Abdallah, the French citizen Zacarias Moussaoui, 34, who is currently standing trial in the United States, was another of Bin Laden's confidants. These stories pose some puzzles which investigators will find hard to solve. While many of the claims about Germany can be checked, the details from the chapter "Osama and I" can scarcely be verified.

There's a frosty touch to the relations between Germany and the United States. The US ambassador to Germany, Dan Coates, has officially expressed Washington's displeasure at Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's public stance on the US intentions in Iraq.

"The Dresden Painting Miracle"

Art: The much acclaimed rescue of thousands of works of art from the floodwaters of the Elbe river very nearly failed - on account of a macabre quarrel over pumps. The question that is gradually rising from the foul-smelling waters of the receding Elbe is whether some funny business went on in the course of Thursday night, while the water was rising in the Zwinger. A lot more water will flow down the Elbe before it is clear who made what mistake during the fateful night. What is clear, though, is that without the private initiative of the museum's directors, the damage would certainly have been far higher.

"We Could Be in Baghdad Immediately"

SPIEGEL interview with the head of the UN arms inspectors for Iraq, Hans Blix, about the despot Saddam Hussein, the hypocrisy of the Baghdad regime and the preparations for a deployment of his team:

"First of all, I must make it clear that Saddam was much more dangerous before the Gulf War of 1991 than he is today. … But what they really have done is precisely what new inspections are meant to reveal. … The fact that activities and construction work are going on in certain places, that new factories or plants are being put up, does not necessarily justify the conclusion that Iraq has started a new programme to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. … We can only permit ourselves to judge this once we have inspected these sites with our own eyes. … Concerning the prospect of inspections, after the Iraqi proposals I am no longer as optimistic that we will find a solution … Full cooperation would be entirely in Baghdad's interest."

"Bridge between Islands"

Communications technology: The mobile phone industry has been plagued by crises and keeps postponing the launching of the expensive UMTS system. Nokia is therefore pursuing cheap wireless data exchange using W-LANs. Many experts believe UMTS is overrated. Instead the cheaper wireless local area networks, or W-LANs, are experiencing a boom and could become a dangerous competitor: W-LANs are up to 25 times faster than UMTS. Market analyses predict that over 100,000 bases world-wide could soon provide wireless Internet in key cities. But as yet W-LAN technology is struggling with certain difficulties: the terminals do not fit in one's trouser pocket, the network cards drain the batteries of the notebooks, and the security standard it comes with, known as Wep, is more like a barn door for data thieves. W-LAN's range is low, with a maximum of one hundred metres, and every base station represents an island. Nokia wants to build a bridge between these network islands with its new system "Operator Wireless LAN". Thirty suppliers are already testing Nokia's wireless data network.

"Dance of the Vampires"

Pests: A hot, damp summer has led to a plague of mosquitoes in Germany. Researchers are worried that as the climate becomes warmer, more and more species of these blood-sucking insects could settle in Central Europe. Already, there are numerous indications that they are bringing in new types of virus. After the floods, the south-east of Germany now also faces a huge plague of mosquitoes. Every 30 seconds, a human being dies as a result of a mosquito-borne disease. In view of threats like these, improved mosquito-repellents could become more and more important. For years, scientists all over the world have been trying to analyse the specific cocktail of scents produced by humans that is so attractive to mosquitoes. A group of researchers at the University of Regensburg has now succeeded for the first time in deciphering the olfactory preferences of mosquitoes.

"The End of a Trauma"

Sweden: Göran Persson is steering his country out of its crisis by means of a strict cost-cutting programme. Now he is the star of European social democracy and is to put an end to the political swing to the right. After the European-wide shift to the right, Persson is out to stop this trend, defending the last classic social democratic bastion in Western Europe. The result would be surprising, not only because the change in the political climate has long reached Sweden's Scandinavian neighbours Norway and Denmark. Many a government decision has also been difficult to explain to convinced social democrats of olden days.

"Who'll Quench the Thirst"

Resources: The global freshwater crisis will be at the top of the agenda at the sustainability summit in Johannesburg. Can privatisation and technical advances temper the problems? While Germany is struggling with floods, 2.4 billion people have not got enough water to wash with, and five million die every year from illnesses due to insufficient or contaminated drinking water. The delegates have set themselves ambitious goals: by 2015 the number of people without access to clean water and effective wastewater processing is to be halved - an Herculean task in view of a growing population, depleted soils and increasing storms. The crisis is particularly clear in agriculture. Feeding the world's future population will only be possible if more and more land is tilled. In the words of Italian economic expert Riccardo Petrella: "The fundamental right of access to water must not be exercised by private companies only pursuing economic goals."

"Speckled Crustacean"

Italy: Rome's most famous chef is a German. His local competitors are astonished at all the celebrities jostling to visit his restaurant. Everyone who has stars, forks or chef's hats to award, from "Gambero Rosso" to "Michelin", is applauding Heinz Beck's "Pergola" as the best address in town. Nevertheless, things didn't start off well. Beck's culinary skills - acquired among other places with German three-star chef Heinz Winkler - made a loss. Beck laboured away twelve hours a day - "I haven't missed a single day for eight years" - and didn't even manage to leave the kitchen at night. Beck's combinations of fresh Mediterranean produce and creative design won through when the celebrities took a fancy to them. Tina Turner and Silvio Berlusconi eat in their friend Heinz's restaurant. Claudia Schiffer, Henry Kissinger and Prince Rainier of Monaco can regularly be seen here. Onlookers are astonished - only the guru himself is unperturbed. "I'm not fussy," he confesses, "I'll eat anything."

"Eu(ro)phoria"

Currency: The Germans are learning to love their new money - at least the foreign coins. The recently discovered variety in the once much maligned currency is gradually turning Germans into a nation of coin hunters and collectors. "The introduction of the euro has given us a huge boost," says Albert Raff, president of the German Numismatic Society, enthusiastically. The number of members in the clubs is growing drastically. People with foreign euros in their wallets or albums demonstrate to themselves and others that their own personal horizon does not end at the garden gate. Coins minted in the Vatican, San Marino, or Monaco fetch several times their nominal value. Hobby collectors need not hope they will ever find them among the change handed over in the supermarket: "They go straight to the dealers and collectors."

"The Joys of Agony"

Rowing: What is more important when putting together Germany's rowing eight - muscle power, willpower, a sense of rhythm? For the world championships in Seville, coach Dieter Grahn has been concentrating on the community spirit - with astonishing success. The eight is the flagship of the German Rowing Association. But towards the end of the 1990s, the German rowing eight gradually fell behind the world class boats. The German eight was swamped because the rowing team had disintegrated into its individual components. The strength of Germany's current eight, says Grahn, is its internal climate. "Everyone feels at ease. Everyone displays enough camaraderie to give everything for the group. And every one is determined enough to want to be successful for themselves. It takes that kind o