SPIEGEL cover story: "Terrorism"

Is the 'War against Terrorism' producing more and more new terror?

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Afghan President Hamid Karzai

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Gerhard Schröder about his position after the party conference, the SPD's reform programme, and other issues.

"An Endless Stream of Bombs"

Iraq: The United States is now taking a tough stance on the main battlefield of the war against terrorism. But in the stronghold of resistance Fallujah, its tactics are coming up against their limitations.

"We Are Being Driven"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with the head of SAP, Henning Kagermann, about the fierce competition in the software industry and the lessons he learnt from the New Economy bubble, about Germany as a business location, and the shifting of jobs to India:

"These days there are enough trained people here. But they also exist in other countries, where wage levels are considerably lower. We have major clients who award contracts worth tens of millions, but who demand "Indian" prices and "Indian" terms and conditions. ... The capital market is driving the entire business world to become more competitive. It's a global market and the global market decides. We cannot shut our eyes to that."

"With Tricks and Cunning"

Bertelsmann: Bertelsmann just doesn't seem able to settle down. With the departure of the chairman of the Supervisory Board, Gerd Schulte-Hillen, the never-ending internal quarrels at the media giant are once again being brought to public attention. The dispute is being fought using every available means and on all levels - including the board of directors.

"Ready to Pack Up"

Terrorism: An American offer is putting German interior minister Otto Schily in a tight spot. Should German civil servants be allowed to carry out investigations at the notorious US base Guantanamo?

"Offside negotiations"

Soccer: The committee organising the 2006 World Cup is having trouble finding sponsors. The German business world is distancing itself and now wants to manage its use of the big event on its own.

"Disintegrating Bits"

Computers: A new subtle form of copy protection is winning through. Cunning self-destruct programs are supposed to re-educate software pirates and turn them into paying customers. Owners of pirate copies are systematically vexed by a program called "Fade", software which US company Macrovision has recently added to its copy protection program Safedisc 3.1, and which is a declaration of war on illegal copiers. It makes copies of the original CD literally fade little by little.

RAF: To this day, no court of law has established which of the Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorists killed the president of the employers' federation Hanns Martin Schleyer on 18 October 1977. Only the Federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe has long believed that it knows the identity of Schleyer's murderer - namely Rolf Clemens Wagner, a former student of law and political economics. But considerable doubts have long since arisen concerning their version of events, and it is because of these doubts that Wagner is being released after spending 24 years in prison. At the beginning of next week, the 59-year-old is to be pardoned.

"Expensive Thirst for Knowledge"

Education: Young Chinese are thronging to Germany to study - often they are ripped off by shady wheelers and dealers. What few of the Chinese realise in their thirst for knowledge is that only a few formalities are necessary in order to operate a private institute, a specialist college or a cultural academy in Germany. Numerous schools vying for customers in the People's Republic, are in fact run by private companies that issue worthless certificates and diplomas.

"Conspiracy of Silence"

Serbia: The investigation into Zoran Djindjic's assassination is making only slow progress. Witnesses are refusing to testify, high-ranking politicians are torpedoing the work of the judiciary.

"Promised by God and Balfour"

Palestine: Even violence and terrorism are unable to dislodge the Israeli settlers. On the contrary, deliberate expansion is blossoming under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Since 1993, when Israelis and Palestinians signed the Oslo peace agreement, the number of settlers has virtually doubled, to 230,000. Although attacks by Palestinian militias have cost 170 settlers their lives, every year thousands more are drawn to the areas they refer to by the biblical names "Judea and Samaria", which they lay claim to as a part of Greater Israel. But many also come here simply because life is cheaper in these state-subsidised settlements.

"The Smokers' Revolt"

France: With its drastic increase in prices, the French government has unleashed a tobacco war - now it is shying away from the political consequences.

"Scars in the Muscle"

Lawsuits: Patients who received hip surgery with the help of a robot are taking legal action in the United States. They claim that the computer made a mess of the operation. Taking the case to an American court not only means higher compensations payments, if they succeed; it also means that - unlike in Germany - all the lawsuits can be heard before the same court, making it far easier to decide the issue of responsibility. Furthermore, in Germany, unlike the USA, the burden of proof generally lies with the victims in cases of incorrect medical treatment - a fact that makes it far more difficult to prove malpractice among doctors. There is a good chance that the US courts will take up the Robodoc cases.

"Reincarnation of the Mind"

A clinic in Magdeburg has succeeded in bringing back to life patients who have suffered cranio-cerebral traumata or infarctions. They have awoken from comas paralysed, confused or having lost their memories. Gradually their brains are relearning their old skills. But many of them will never again be the people they were before.

"Ruins beneath Blue Skies"

Contemporary history: Thousands of colour photographs taken during the First World War have been discovered in the archives. Will they revolutionise our picture of that catastrophe, 90 years after the war began? All the armies employed photographers as reporters for propaganda purposes, and they provided some of them with the expensive new technology, including adventurers like the Australian Frank Hurley, who had ventured to the South Pole in 1915. The British airforce even hired an employee of the US company Kodak specifically to take pictures of its men and their flying machines in multicolour.