"A National Conspiracy"

Banks: For weeks, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, captains of industry and influential members of Deutsche Bank's supervisory board have been secretly engaging in national, industrial policy-making. Their aim is to prevent Deutsche Bank from being sold abroad. If necessary, the head of the bank, Josef Ackermann, is to be fired. As a result, a power struggle has erupted over the renowned bank on a scale unseen in Germany for a long time. Leading members of the supervisory board are opposing Ackermann, supported by the remaining masterminds behind the once-powerful German business enterprise. Like the Chancellor, they want to strengthen Deutsche Bank, which has a small market share of just six percent in Germany. But the means at their disposal are limited. Ackermann, on the other hand, wants a "European solution" for Deutsche Bank - and he shows no interest in buying into apparently unprofitable German branch banking. The world has become a smaller place, he argues, national borders no longer exist de facto in global markets. Which is why it does not matter where a bank makes its money, has its head office - or pays taxes. Just as long as it is able to assert itself against international competitors.

"The Ten Billion Dollar Bet"

Aircraft industry: The complicated final assembly of the gigantic A380 is beginning in Toulouse - a high-risk adventure. If everything works out, the European Airbus group will outclass its American arch-competitor Boeing. If not, it will find itself struggling for survival. What happens if Airbus's managers miscalculated the demand for gigantic aircraft and cargo planes, which they estimate at some 1500 over the next 20 years? This figure is based on the assumption that air travel between major international air traffic hubs such as Frankfurt, Singapore, Tokyo and New York will continue to increase, and that the A380 is the superior aircraft for such routes. Boeing's managers, on the other hand, believe that at best 320 aircraft can be sold because air traffic will develop very differently.

"The People Will Protect Me"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili about the recent unrest in the Caucasus republic, his Western-oriented cabinet and the battle against corruption:

"We must achieve the unity of Georgia. Under Shevardnadze, people were given the impression that you couldn't establish an effective state here at all. Within a few months we have proven that Georgia can be a European nation. It will be difficult to reject our application for membership in the European Union out of hand. ... My relationship with Putin has improved considerably. Our national relations too are much more positive than in Shevardnadze's day. ... [Corrupt] ministers are one thing. But much worse than them are the criminals who are not as well known to the general public. ... Since coming to power we have been able to double our tax revenues. ... As of next year we are expecting major investments from Russia and Turkey, for example."

"So Near, So Far"

Europe: The official speeches about EU enlargement have been made, but they had little to do with the reality in the border regions between Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. The Germans here, in particular, are worried about losing their jobs, and afraid of foreigners. SPIEGEL has taken a trip along the eastern border. This is precisely the region where most of those people live who lost out on German reunification; because this was never a place for winners. Thus a journey from north to south along the border is in these times a trip through an environment of suspicion and fear, but also of small hopes.

"Greedy for Coltan"

Congo: The prospect of making a quick buck is driving dealers, adventurers and heavily armed gangs of children into the jungles of Central Africa. War and anarchy are raging there - revolving around the country's mineral resources. Seventy percent of Congolese people live in abject poverty, 85 percent are unemployed, 30 percent of children suffer from malnutrition. Yet the country they live in contains the largest deposits of copper-containing cobalt in the world. There is believed to be petroleum in the east, and there is gold in the north-east, and plenty of it. Silver, zinc and sulphur are all to be found in Congo, as are cadmium, beryllium, tungsten, manganese and uranium ore. But the most coveted of all is an anthracite-coloured ore by the name of coltan. Unpredictable militias, corrupt politicians and the commodities mafia - a coalition of gamblers, crooks and dubious dealers - are thwarting any form of order in East Congo that does not suit their own needs.

"A Wall of Water"

Disasters: Tsunamis devastate entire coastlines. Researchers now want to render these monstrous, house-sized waves predictable with the help of measuring stations and supercomputers. Unlike conventional waves, which are whipped up by the wind, tsunamis are caused by "non-meteorological" triggers such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or landslides. Predicting the generation of a tsunami is therefore impossible. But once such a huge wave has started on its way, there would normally still be enough time to raise the alarm and evacuate people - provided one were able to predict precisely which stretches of coast it was going to hit, with how much force and with what effect. A few weeks ago, tsunami researcher Vasily Titov and his colleagues starting feeding interactive maps, physical wave models and data from previous disasters into supercomputers in Seattle and Hawaii, in order to be able to calculate the potential threat to over 20 coastal towns to an accuracy of a metre.

"Experiments on the Heart"

Medicine: German physicians are at the forefront of the field in treating post-infarction patients using their own adult stem cells. Their therapeutic approach has been copied all over the world. Critics are warning against the expansion of experiments on human beings: the alleged miracle cells could lead to inflammations or growths. However, as the doctors themselves admit, they have no idea exactly how the therapeutic effect is produced. All that is certain is that their initial idea that the stem cells introduced would turn into cardiac cells is turning out more and more to be incorrect. Even three years after first starting their experiments, the researchers can still do little more than speculate about the risks and benefits of their cell treatment. But instead of clarifying the situation by means of strictly controlled, large-scale clinical trials, many small groups are each working on their own.

"Dionysus's Formulae"

Semi-luxury goods: Can a computer recognise a great wine? Sooner than leading critics, according to one Californian entrepreneur. Wine critics are crucial; they establish the standards for a good wine. This is the entire business concept behind Enologix; because the computer can then compare each new wine with those that have already been assessed, based on its chemical profile. The advantage for wine-growers is that by knowing early on what direction their wine is taking, they can push it up many points on the rating scale before it is bottled - and hence achieve much higher prices. A boost from 85 to 95 points can easily mean 100 euros per bottle.