"From Hawk to Dove"

World Bank: Paul Wolfowitz was once the US President's most important Iraq warrior. Now he is to head the World Bank. Can the man from the Pentagon transform himself into a peacemaker? Or will he turn international foreign aid into merely another tool of US foreign policy? Wolfowitz identifies with Bush's ambitious, ideological agenda more closely than virtually any other US politician. America's political right wing not only wants to give the World Bank new priorities, but also carry out drastic reforms. According to the analysis of the conservative forces, much of the 1000 billion dollars that World Bankers have paid out in foreign aid since 1960 was frittered away ineffectually, or even ended up in the accounts of corrupt African potentates.

"Voluntary Obligation"

Saudi Arabia: King Fahd is terminally ill and religious conservatives in the country are determined to seize their opportunity. This oil-rich desert state is facing a tricky changeover of power.

"We Have Killed Many Terrorists"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, 61, about the successes in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the prospects of a peace settlement for the Middle East and his country's role in the sale of nuclear technology to North Korea and Iran.

"The Flying Death Traps"

Africa: Russian pilots rule the skies over the continent of disasters. In their ancient, ramshackle planes from the former Soviet empire they transport anything that pays: Nile perch legally to Europe, and weapons illegally to regions of civil war. The Russian and Ukrainian bush pilots are prepared to take risks at the expense of safety. The same safety regulations apply in sub-Saharan Africa as anywhere else in the world; but there are no supervisory authorities to enforce them. Oil leaks, worn down tyres, cracked windscreens, drunken crews - anything is tolerated just as long as the money is right. Matters would already be improved a great deal if the African governments would actually spent the money they receive in the form of overflight charges on the flight safety measures it is intended for. The main cause of accidents is overloading. In Africa, an aeroplane is only full when nothing more will fit inside.

"Cat and Mouse"

SPIEGEL interview with star hacker Kevin Mitnick about dumpster diving and other tricks of the trade:

"Garbage cans contain important details for a hacker: names, phone numbers, company jargon. We call it 'dumpster diving'. It is widely practised, not just by the intelligence services. [...] It isn't even illegal because garbage is not covered by data protection laws.

"Crazy Life"

Parenting: Lena Lehnen is two years old and the daughter of a mentally retarded woman with whom she lives. If she continues to develop normally, she will soon overtake her mother. Hundreds of girls and boys share Lena's fate - a tightrope walk between the wellbeing of the children and the right to parenthood.

"Corpses on CD-ROM"

Medicine: "Virtual autopsies" are revolutionising forensic medicine. Instead of wielding scalpels, doctors are taking radiographic images. Their aim is the blood-free high-tech analysis of corpses. First of all, the surface of the deceased is scanned three-dimensionally, including any injuries. Next the doctors put the corpse into CT and MRI units. Minimally invasive biopsies provide additional information about the condition of the organs. An NMR scan reveals biochemical markers in the body and so often allows the precise time of death to be determined accurately even after more than three days.

"At Times I'm Malicious"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki about life-long favourite authors, his willingness to make his peace with his fierce adversary Joachim Fest, and his attitude towards death:

"I have always said that I am willing to make it up with anyone I've fallen out with. I have never refused a hand that was offered to me. ... Fest is a patriot, that explains a lot. He sold the idea of Speer being a noble Nazi, a man who allowed himself to become entangled, to the Germans, the hangers-on. But there's no question of "entanglement" in the case of Albert Speer. He was a pure National Socialist criminal - one who only differed from Goebbels and Göring in having been polite and well dressed, and coming from a good family. ... My tastes have hardly changed in all the decades since I first started reading literature as a young person. I revered Büchner, Schnitzler, Dostoyevski. And I still revere them today. ... I would like to be cremated. I really don't care what happens to my ashes afterwards."

"The Main Thing Is Keeping a Human Face"

Tennis: The organisers and marketers of the 'white sport' are defending the industry's reputation with every means at their disposal. A PR panel supplies innocuous statements and pretty images. The personal strengths - and the weaknesses - of the pros fall by the wayside. After all, this tennis world lives off the fact that large companies are willing to pay millions of dollars in order to profit by the shining image of tennis. The system makes the characters of the players so similar as to be almost interchangeable: anyone who vents their feelings on the court is fined; and anyone not sticking to the official line off-court is considered to be fouling their own nest.