"Dinner for the Jihad"

Terrorism: The German public prosecutor's office is about to charge three men with having planned to assassinate the Iraqi Prime Minister in Berlin. However the Islamists' actions were rather chaotic.

"Plot in Beirut"

Lebanon: Did former prime minister Rafic Hariri die as a result of a conspiracy by members of the Lebanese intelligence services? The success of a German investigator is increasing the pressure on Syria.

"A Certain Amount of Untamed Growth Is Necessary"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber about the success of low-cost competitors, the shock caused by oil prices and his own strategy for navigating between price wars and premium luxury:

"When we compare our own profitability with that of other network providers, we don't do at all badly. Low-cost carriers often fly to and from remote airports which impose very low charges or even pay them something. As comparatively young companies they also inevitably operate with a more efficient cost structure, which is something we still have to achieve. ... In 2003 we spent 1.4 billion euros on fuel. This year we are expecting to spend 2.5 billion. For our staff it is frustrating to see all the wonderful cost-cutting measures being eaten away by the rise in the price of oil. At least we are still operating at a profit, unlike many of our competitors. ... To me you can either have a global offer in the form of standardised uniformity, which is what Delta is trying to do, for example. Or else you can have a global offer with a differentiated structure a la carte, which is what we are doing.

"The Eternal Anti-Aircraft Assistant"

Authors: Does Martin Walser have an anti-Semitic bias? A new study answers in the affirmative. But there is more to the "Walser case": it is an example of that typical defiant reaction of many Germans, who feel stifled by the Jews' status as victims.

"Art, the Colourful Animal"

Exhibitions: Munich's Lenbach House is going one better with an exhibition devoted to Franz Marc, the painter of brightly coloured, angular animals and one of the founding members of the avant-garde group known as "The Blue Rider". The Bavarians are using this mysterious, popular artist to defy the recent successes of Berlin exhibitions.

"I'm Not Going to Be Cast as Engels"

SPIEGEL debate with Rudolf Hickel and Paul Nolte about the flaws of Marxism and alternatives to globalisation:

Hickel: "Karl Marx's key error is the idea that capitalism develops according to laws, that these laws are described by the tendency of the profit rate to drop, and that in the long run the system must collapse. This hypothesis has proven to be wrong, because capitalism has repeatedly found new ways of dealing with its crises. Through this inevitability of capitalism, Marx underestimates the need for political shaping." Nolte: "Marx fundamentally underestimated the nature of liberal democracy, he didn't comprehend liberal democracy. Concepts such as tolerance, civil rights and liberties, parlamentarianism - all these categories went totally unrecognised by Marx, and that had fatal consequences."

"Searching through the Alphabet Soup"

Anthropology: The genome of chimpanzees has been deciphered. By comparing it with that of Homo sapiens, a molecular chronicle of the emergence of humankind ought to be possible. But for the moment what is being revealed most of all by the analysis is that, as with every common animal, man was shaped most of all by sex and microbes. Precisely because humans and chimps are so similar, the few differences must be all the more important. Six millions years of evolution separate human being from chimpanzees. In that time, about 35 million genetic letters have been changed, and in addition there are 5 million sites at which a few letters are missing from the text, or some new ones have sneaked in. But these huge numbers are deceptive; the vast majority of these changes are insignificant. They lie on sections of the genome which are not actually read by the cell. Brain size, language, social behaviour - is the first vague outline of a genetic anthropogenesis programme taking shape? For the time being, it is too soon to draw such conclusions. As yet most of the key changes in the genome remain hidden from the scientists' view. And even in those genes that are already known, the role they play and the way they interact with the many thousands of other genes is often not properly understood.

"Hunting for Monsters in the Deep"

Geology: What causes Iceland's volcanoes to erupt and the Canary Islands to grow? Geologists have themselves been known to spew verbal fire when they start arguing over such questions. Conventional wisdom has it that all these phenomena are caused by mushroom-shaped hot bubbles in the earth's mantle. But do such "plumes" actually exist? And if so, what do they look like? This question is dividing today's earth scientists like a rift valley. A conference entitled "The Great Plumes Debate" has now brought together champions of the two camps for the first time.