"Blood, Death and Tears"

SPIEGEL interview with the chairman of the governing AKP, Tayyip Erdogan, about Turkey's preparations for a war against Iraq and Ankara's influence on Saddam Hussein:

"I'm not one of those who are reckoning with war. I'm still hoping for a peaceful solution, because bloodshed won't get us anywhere. … It's true that we don't think a Kurdish state is a sensible idea. That's why we are so keen to preserve the unity of Iraq. … Of course I'm worried by the fact that a war is looming on our borders and in our backyard. Anyone fears for their own house when their neighbour's is on fire. In a situation like that, you have to prepare yourself."

"Wake-up Call for All of Us"

SPIEGEL interview with Carly Fiorina, head of Hewlett-Packard, about forged balance-sheets, the crisis of US capitalism, and the consequences for the corporations:

"It is precisely the job of a CEO to cope with pressure. It certainly isn't his job to manage the share price and only to worry about business developments in the next quarter. … Many managers have developed a wrong sense of what constitutes the job of a management executive. They've forgotten that they have to create sustainable value, not only for their shareholders but also for their customers and for society. … Of course reforms were necessary. At the heart of it, it's about confidence. But regulatory mechanisms are not in themselves confidence-building. If they become a straightjacket, there won't be any movement in the economy. … We live off our company's good reputation. That's why I talk about our values at every meeting with our employees in a total of 140 countries. And every employee must have the chance to point out any problems."

The decline of Deutsche Bank and the lack of success so far of the new board chairman Josef Ackermann.

"The Blessing of the Rule"

A group of European economists wants to reform the Maastricht Treaty. The researchers have developed a model for saving the stability and growth pact. Their proposal is intended to make the treaty, often criticised as being too strict and too rigid, more flexible. The guiding principle is to be: the lower the national debt, the higher the deficit permitted. A country like Germany, with a national debt of over 60 percent of its GDP, would still only be allowed a budget deficit of at most three percent, as is the case today. This proposal is to ensure that in the future, governments put aside more in good times and pay off their national debts more determinedly, so as to have more scope in bad times.

"Always One Step Further"

Interview with Elisabeth Hartnagel about her brother and sister, Hans and Sophie Scholl, and the resistance of the "White Rose" during the Third Reich:

"It's wrong to give such prominence only to Hans and Sophie. … Although I wasn't a member of the White Rose myself, I often saw the group of friends when they were together. They were all on an equal footing, nobody was the big leader. … From the discussions I witnessed, I know that they wanted a federal state, without Prussia. And a democracy, of course. … My husband, who was on close terms with Sophie at the time, often told me about a conversation they had in May 1942. Sophie asked him for one thousand marks, but wouldn't tell him what it was for. He didn't know any details but he knew she was planning something illegal, and he warned her that offering resistance meant putting her life at risk. Her answer was: I realise that. … Hans and Sophie were arrested on Thursday and already sentenced by the People's Court the following Monday, and they were executed a few hours later. I learnt about it from the newspapers. It was terrible. … After the funeral, the Gestapo took the entire family into custody. … We were given notice and had to leave our flat on Münsterplatz, the explanation being that that our landlord was an international company and couldn't rent out apartments to traitors of the people. Of course, after 1945 no one in Ulm would admit to having been a Nazi."

"Fear of a Saddamgrad"

Gulf region: In the desert of Kuwait, US troops are preparing for the worst - a bloody house-by-house battle in Baghdad, a city with millions of inhabitants, in which America's superior weapons would count for little and where Saddam Hussein intends to collect his loyal followers for the final battle. The location of this shooting range is bashfully kept secret from the guests of the US army, but it is easy to guess: north of a tent town by the fictitious name Camp New York, in that uninhabited third of the oil sheikhdom Kuwait which is being used by the Americans to assemble their forces. Apparently, it is only ten miles from here to the Iraqi border. The exercises for a showdown are being conducted virtually in front of the enemy's eyes. Live ammunition makes the war game "urban warfare" a hazardous, indeed terrifying experience for soldiers who have no battlefield experience.

"Among Vultures"

Ethiopia: Famine and epidemics threaten after the failure of the harvest. The dying has already begun. The United Nations' World Food Programme estimates that 14.3 million people are threatened by starvation in Ethiopia - one inhabitant in five, more than twice as many as in years with an average harvest. The last harvest produced a quarter less than the year before.

"Black Series"

Environment: For the past three months, a war over oil has been raging in the Atlantic - and Europe stands to lose it. The worst oil spill in history is drifting towards the coastline of the continent, whose governments have so far proved incapable of learning their lesson from the many disasters involving tankers. The Atlantic basin between France and Spain is completely contaminated by heavy oil. From now on it will be everyday normality for 100 patches to washed up in La Coruna, 50 in Gijon, for 40 lumps to arrive in Santander and 10 in Bilbao, for a dozen chunks here and a handful of slabs there to reach beaches all over northern Spain. When the "Prestige" incident occurred, the lessons from the "Erika"'s accident had only just been formulated. In Brussels, draft laws were sent to and fro, "packages of measures" entitled "Erika I" and "Erika II", rules and regulations dictating even better monitoring, imposing even stricter conditions - but all the paperwork was seriously flawed from the start, because in most maritime issues Europe has scarcely any jurisdiction and even less credibility. In the end, the corporations that are forced into obligatory membership simply pay their lump sum of 180 million dollars into the international fund for damages, IOPC, while the insurance companies, the coastal nations affected, the European Union and the liability insurance fund of the ship owners add a little extra. Following the accident of the "Prestige", victims have been promised 250 to 260 million euros - all the victims, that is, in Spain and in France. That's a lot of money. But a lot is needed too.