"The Tin Can Republic"

The Germans under the weight of the deposit - how politicians, businesses and lobby groups have been waging war over beverage cans. For twelve years. A story about Germany.

"Daily Threat"

Foreign policy: The Chancellery wants to extend German involvement in Afghanistan and send soldiers into the dangerous provinces as well. Based on a US and British model, the "Provincial Reconstruction Teams" (PRTs) - mixed teams of reconstruction helpers, police experts and soldiers - are to restore law and order and bring affluence to selected provincial towns. The German armed forces would thus, for the first time, be responsible for security outside Kabul - meaning an increased risk to the troops' personal safety.

What did the German intelligence service know about the Saudi Arabian terrorists of September 11?

"There's No Such Thing as Enough"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Sumner Redstone, the head of the world's largest media group Viacom, about initial signs of an end to the world-wide advertising crisis, his competitors' mistakes, and his plans for the German market:

"The world-wide advertising market is gradually starting to recover - we are perhaps noticing that a little earlier in the US. ... The outdoor advertising business is often underrated. In Europe we have already taken over five companies in this segment, so that we now control about ten percent of the European market. That may not be a lot for a company that has set out to become the number one in this area too. But we have only just begun."

"The Settlements Must Go"

SPIEGEL interview with conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim, 60, about the arbitrariness of the Israeli occupation, the Palestinian culture of violence, the long path to peace in the Middle East and about his passion for performances of Wagner's music in Jerusalem, Bayreuth and Berlin:

"I'm not a politician. But I know that we have no right, no people has the right, to be an occupying power - and least of all the Jewish people. We have always been proud of being the People of the Book, whose sole capital is a moral one. We have to end the occupation, the settlements must go. ... The suicide attacks only produce one thing: desperate uncertainty in the lives of Israelis. If this was the goal, then they have achieved it. But nothing else. One gets the feeling the Palestinians accept this horrible violence as a sacrificial cult, as part of their culture. This gives the perpetrators legitimacy. The problem is that the Palestinian intelligentsia has not shown its fellow countrymen any alternative. ... When I put on Wagner in Jerusalem, I was not upset by the fact that some concert-goers were against it, that's normal. This music has terrible associations for them, and they cannot bear to hear it. But for someone to be suffering miles away in Tel Aviv or Haifa, just because they know we are performing Wagner in Jerusalem - I ask you! Taboos have no place in a democracy."

"The Desecrated Beauty"

Mediterranean: Over 220 million holidaymakers are heading southwards again this year. But some parts of the world's most popular holiday region are in a pitiful state. Industry and agriculture are flushing toxic residues into the water, the pressure to build new settlements is increasing. Experts describe the situation as a "dramatic emergency". The waters of the Mediterranean Sea are becoming warmer, saltier and more and more polluted. Air quality is poorer, in summer ozone levels rise above the danger mark. The coast is eroding away, 85 percent of the forests have already vanished. Some 500 species of marine animals are threatened by extinction, including the monk seal, the hawksbill tortoise, and several whale and dolphin species. Sea horses too will have disappeared in a few years' time. Poor blue Mediterranean! Europe's paddling pool is the dirtiest sea in the world, containing some 38 milligrams of tar per cubic meter of water.

"Love Is a Kind of Sickness"

Interview with Benjamin Lebert about madness, beautiful girls and his latest novel "The Bird is a Raven":

"There is something sinister and mysterious about ravens, among other things they are considered harbingers of death. In addition, when ravens walk on the ground they have this strange limping gait - which is just the way I walk too. ... I think we're unable to grasp what it actually means, this so-called madness of a person who lives in a world of his own. I don't think someone living in that kind of clinic as a so-called madman is any crazier than I am. ... Particularly the girls are unable to be of any help to me at all. Because they epitomise all the longings, all the anxieties, all the tragedy that presses upon me."

"The Leo-Conservatives"

Intellectuals: A mysterious circle of advisors and journalistic aides surrounding the US president George W. Bush, has for some weeks been giving rise to various conspiratorial theories and debates - the clique's idol is said to be the German Jew Leo Strauss, who had a contempt for democracy. The German political philosopher who has suddenly become amazingly popular in the United States, never was left-wing but always a wholehearted conservative. What is behind his followers, the "Straussians", who have been cited and described so frequently since the end of the war on Iraq that they have almost become a legend among intellectuals? They have learnt most of what they think from Strauss. However they are more power-conscious than their master - they want to change America, not just interpret it.

"Sore Spots"

Remembrance: The argument over a "Centre against Expulsions" is now also dividing the German Cabinet. Its initiators are increasingly being put on the defensive. The conflict has been smouldering ever since Erika Steinbach, the president of the BdV, the association of Germans displaced from Eastern Europe, set up the foundation "Centre against Expulsions" in order to erect a monument in the German capital to the Germans who were expelled from their homes after World War II. The support of the federal government is the key to the success of this displaced persons project. The foundation will be unable to finance the centre on its own, but the aid promised by conservative-governed German states has been made conditional to the federal government going along with the idea.

"Bulky Refuse in the Fairway"

Shipping: The removal of the car-carrying freighter "Tricolor" that sank in the English Channel is one of the most difficult operations in the history of salvaging wrecks. Four specialist companies are struggling against the waves and currents. The ship would be easier to raise if it were resting in deeper water. With a displacement of 20,000 tonnes and a length of 190 metres the "Tricolor" is one of the heaviest and bulkiest ships that has ever had to be salvaged after an accident. And the problem is if anything aggravated by the fact that it lies in shallow waters. Were the sea deeper here, it would be a great deal calmer.

"Hunting Scenes in the Bedroom"

Medicine: Violent sleepers beat up, strangle, or rape their bedfellows. Now neurologists have discovered the cause of this night-time madness. Through special studies carried out on the brains of violent sleepers, neurologist Ilonka Eisensehr has found that this nocturnal disorder is a precursor of Parkinsonism. Apparently, the same regions of the brain stem and midbrain which are responsible for motor control and which exhibit increasingly dramatic failures in Parkinsonian patients are also involved in this eerie night-time behaviour.

"Blond Angel in the Coal Basin"

Soccer: As a player, Bernd Schuster was as inspired a loner as he was moody. As a coach, he is now preparing to march straight up into the Champion's League in Stalin's former proletarian paradise, Donetsk - with the top Ukrainian club Shakhtyor.

"The Aura of Chubby Cheeks"

Art: Hans Holbein the Younger is regarded as a genius of portrait painting - a sensational exhibition in The Hague is celebrating this Renaissance artist from Germany. 45 of the precious and equally delicate paintings and sketches by Holbein will be on display in the Mauritshuis. At a time when museums are reluctant to lend their top works of art any more, this number can be considered a sensation. Holbein was cunning. In a Europe engaged in a bitter debate over the sense or nonsense of the Reformation, he adapted his art to fit contemporary history: instead of producing religious paintings he stuck to the less risky because more profane business of painting portraits. In his pictures he treats all his customers equally, accurately depicting their facial expressions without divulging too much of their individual characters. No matter whether he was painting merchants or dukes: he gave everyone a distinguished, almost mysterious aura.