"Schröder's New Center"

Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is travelling to New York to meet US President George Bush for the first time since the transatlantic argument over the war in Iraq.

"The North Korea Connection"

Nuclear smuggling: A former North Korean diplomat is believed to be the person behind a spectacular case of nuclear smuggling which is due to be heard before the Stuttgart District Court. The wirepuller once worked in Vienna - at the International Atomic Energy Authority.

"Deployment by the Pool"

The German armed forces are taking charge of Kunduz from the US troops. What will they be facing?

"This Touches upon the Foundations"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with president of the Federal Constitutional Court, Hans-Jürgen Papier, about the planned restructuring of the European treaties, his disagreement with the chancellor and the debate over human dignity in the days of biomedicine:

"The draft constitutional treaty has been worked out at the request of the government conference, and clearly this could not have be done in any other way. The German constitution, too, was drawn up by a convention, but then discussed in great detail by the parliamentary council. The document produced by the convention is a draft, on the basis of which its contents ought to debated within the member states and in particular within their parliaments. ... I am worried by the fact that the discussion of European integration in Germany, but perhaps also in other EU states, largely passes over public opinion. This has led to the general public viewing it with a certain indifference or with rejection. ... According to the constitutional treaty there will be a catalogue of basic rights on a Community level which will largely correspond to the German civil rights and liberties. Beyond this, the European Union wants to join the Human Rights Convention, so that the human rights of the HRC would also apply. In addition, the charter of basic rights dictates that the level of protection must not fall short of that afforded by the HRC and by the individual national constitutions."

Gas, Poison - or Life"

Criminal Justice: Two German brothers have been in Arizona State Prison for 14 years, for murdering the wife of one of them. Following some surprising court rulings, the phalanx of those within the US judicial system who favour the death penalty is beginning to crumble. On a political and diplomatic level, too, the Apelt case now has a high priority in the relations between Berlin and Washington. The IQ of the older brother, Rudi Apelt, who suffers from brain damage, probably due to severe abuse in his childhood, is 55. He is therefore mentally deficient and hence not criminally responsible. His brother, Michael Apelt, also has cause for hope. Two weeks ago, the Federal Court of Appeal in San Francisco, which is responsible for Arizona, declared over one hundred death sentences to be null and void - including that of the Apelts - because this highest of all penalties cannot be imposed by a single judge, only by a jury.

"Ransacked Coffers"

European Union: MEPs are accusing the European Commission of having failed in its battle against corruption. Two senior officials have recently come under suspicion of corruption. Nothing has been proven yet, let alone punishments imposed, but once again Brussels is confronted with an affair in the European Commission. After the failings of his predecessor Jacques Santer, the Commission's president, Romano Prodi, promised the "best administration in the world" and "zero tolerance". This Wednesday, Prodi will have to inform a small circle of committee and parliamentary group chairmen of the European Parliament how successful his battle against corruption has been so far. The MEPs feel deceived by the Commission. In fact, they believe, nothing has changed in the corruption-prone administrative structures of the EU.

"The Hunt for the Sheikh"

Afghanistan: Intelligence agencies from all over the world suspect that Osama bin Laden is in the pine forests of Kunar province. Scarcely navigable roads and the proximity to Pakistan make this a perfect hiding place. The man who is hunting the terrorist leader on behalf of Kabul is himself a hunted man. Mohammed Zaman, 45, is the military commander of the border province Kunar, and for over one and a half years he has been in search of the "loar sheikh", the great sheikh, as Afghans call Osama bin Laden, the head of the terrorist network Al Qaida. The border between Kunar province and Pakistan is practically uncontrollable. Even American high-tech is of little use here. In the mountains, a jungle of oaks and evergreen conifers flourishes. Camps and bases here cannot be detected either by helicopter or by satellite. Zaman lives in greater danger than the man he is after. He does not announce his arrival even to his closest friends. "I try to stay on the move all the time - because Bin Laden wants to kill me." On several occasions he has narrowly escaped assassination attempts. His enemies are always hard on his heels.

"Stalin's School"

Azerbaijan: Absolute dictator Heydar Aliyev is handing over power in the oil-rich police state to his son Ilham - with the blessings of the USA. Apart from securing an option on oil supplies, Washington is pursuing strategic goals - hoping to gain a long-term influence in Central Asia. In addition, two centuries of strict Russian supervision have shaped the Azerbaijanis as secular Muslims, and thus made them fit for a new role: that of the Americans' favourite Shiites.

"Earthquake in Your Mattress"

Environment: How harmful is the thrumming of wind turbines? Acoustic scientist are investigating whether the low-frequency sound waves do indeed make people ill and deprive them of sleep. At frequencies below 200 Hertz, the sensitivity of the human ear drops. Frequencies below 20 Hertz are not converted into electrical signals at all by the acoustic hair cells of the inner ear. This infrasound is therefore largely inaudible to human beings. But sensitive people repeatedly complain of an agonising noise which they attribute to such low-frequency oscillations. As the countryside has been filling up with more and more wind farms, connections have increasingly been made between the noise phenomenon and the arrays of turbines. Outside special laboratories, it is virtually impossible to check how much there really is to these claims. So far it has been impossible to definitively rule out the infrasound phenomenon, and equally impossible to confirm it.

"Petrodollars in the Hospital Bank Account"

Medicine: German hospitals and senior consultants have discovered a new source of income. Thousands of rich Arabs are coming to the medical wonderland of Germany and having their health polished up there. Some of the visitors return home with new kidneys and livers. Generally speaking, the art of German transplantation experts is regarded very highly by their Oriental guests. University hospitals and transplantation centres with impressive-sounding names such as Munich, Berlin, Heidelberg, Freiburg, Hamburg or Aachen are in particularly great demand. International patient tourism was transformed radically following 11 September 2001. The attack on the World Trade Center marked the end of the days when 90,000 patients came to the United Stated every year from Saudi Arabia alone in search of medical help. The war in Iraq has stopped the last trickle of patients across the Atlantic.

"Evil Corrupts"

SPIEGEL interview with best-selling US writer Scott Turow, 54, about the fascination of crime, the point of the death penalty, and his latest novel "Reversible Error":

"More than in truth, I'm interested in power. Anyone who has power has the possibility of pushing through his own version of truth. A criminal trial is essentially an exercise in writing history. In court, history - and truth - are written by the voice which the jury believes. To this day, I'm fascinated by how difficult the judicial system finds it to determine the truth. ... What we are trying to achieve through the death penalty, cannot be done. I know that many Europeans consider the death penalty immoral - I don't. I understand the impulse of revenge that arises from deep anger, which makes Americans demand death for heinous crimes. But I cannot see what the death penalty achieves. It costs more than it would cost to leave people alive. It does not deter anyone. It is unable to restore the moral order, as we would like it to. But good is it then? It's a farce. That's why my novel is a love story in the context of the death penalty. Because it's not the law, but rather what happens between people, that creates human bonds."

"Silent happiness on Süllberg"

Writers: In 1936/37, at the age of 30, the as yet totally unknown poet Samuel Beckett (1906 to 1989) travelled through Nazi Germany for several months. He wrote down the details of his travels through Germany in two diaries, using a wonderful hotchpotch of English and German. These "German Diaries" did not resurface until after his death and have so far only been accessible to Beckett scholars. Now, almost 70 years after they were written, the chapter on Hamburg is to be the first extensive excerpt to published as a limited edition. His visit to the port on the Elbe appears there as one long string of acquaintances, invitations, visits and companionable walks. A sociable life which centred on art collections, museums and book stores.

"The Greedy Brain"

Intelligence: They are mentally handicapped, yet they are able to multiply twelve-digit numbers, draw perfectly or speak 30 languages. Researchers refer to such people as "savants" and want to discover the secret behind their talents - so that normally talented people can become cleverer.

"The Long Run to a New Love"

Men: Joschka Fischer is not only the most popular politician in Germany, but also the one with the most divorces. Or is he simply a radical romantic who keeps reaching out for happiness and great emotions, again and again? Politically a realist, he appears to have remained a hopeless Utopian in his private life, closely attached to the unpredictable dialectics of love, whose dangerous shoals are meant to be banished through marital vows.

"Nude for Stalin"

Exhibitions: The retro craze which was just recently celebrating East German nostalgia is now moving the sinister appeal of the Soviet empire into the limelight. Several German museums are focusing their attention on the images of Stalinism, with irritating enthusiasm.

"Climbing up or Being Thrown Off"

Rodeos: In Brazil, rodeos turn over more money than the carnival celebrations in Rio de Janeiro. In the provinces, bull riders are as popular as football stars. The cowboys risk their lives in the hope of a career in North America. Particularly in rural areas, rodeos have drawn level with the national sport soccer in terms of popularity.