"Europe's Comeback"

Cover story: America is booming and the euro frail; but in the race between the continents, the Europeans are catching up fast. After years of humiliation, the Europeans have launched themselves into the economic race against the superpower. All of a sudden, the magic word "new economy" is doing the rounds in Madrid, Rome, Stockholm, Paris, London and Berlin too. A wave of new enterprises is sweeping across the continent; while the stock exchanges in Frankfurt, Madrid and Paris are turning into gigantic money machines, much as New York's Wall Street, continuously pumping new starting capital into the young enterprises. The boom in mobile phones, Internet hype and biotechnology fever are making the Old World blossom once again. The only danger lies in the willingness of politics to reform which is beginning to wane again.

Bill Clinton is visiting Germany for the last time as president. A report about the relationship between Clinton and Schröder, and Albright and Fischer, and about German-American relations.

"Marching into the Land of Tomorrow"

Expo 2000: Water cakes and artificial whales, people of glass and robot eggs - what awaits visitors of the world exhibition in Hannover. A global village of superlatives has emerged on the 170 hectare site. The world exhibition, which will be accompanied by some 18,000 cultural events, is only partly true to the slogan "Mankind - Nature - Technology" originally conceived in the late 1980s - in many pavilions the urge for self-promotion has prevailed. Nevertheless the gigantic mixture of fun fair and a display of achievements will not fail to have a magnetic affect on the mass public. And at least the so-called Theme Park is indeed presenting one or the other proposed solution to the key problems faced by our planet.

Abacha scandal: On the payment of bribes by German companies to the Abacha clan.

International newspapers: on the co-operation between American, British and German publishing houses.

"Russia Is Unpredictable"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga on her country's joining the European Union and Nato, and the anxiety of the Baltic states concerning their powerful neighbour to the east:

"Once the Baltic states have joined the EU, the Baltic will be an internal sea enclosed within the Union, with the exception of the Russian strip of coast around Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg, and the Union will be better able to control what goes on in the Baltic region. … When the victorious powers of the Second World War reached an agreement at the Teheran and Yalta conference, the Baltic republics were sacrificed. That must not happen again. Which is why we are so keen to become a member of Nato. … Russia is extremely unpredictable. The country is not very stable. It is doubtful whether democracy is firmly embedded there. Economic security does not exist on the level one would like to see."

"Hanging by a Thread"

Philippines: Interview with the hostages Renate, Werner and Marc Wallert on their captivity, the expectations of their kidnappers and the negotiation tactics of the government in Manila:

"The nights are terrible, they are worse than anything else. … We only get a quarter of what we need. And everything gets shared with the others and with the armed men. … There are no serious conflicts. Of course there is a certain amount of tension at times, and then individual groups reform. … The demands still don't seem to be clear. Apparently one group would be quite content with money, while other kidnappers are pursuing very high, Utopian objectives."

"Armada of the Upright"

Austria: Whether legs of wild boar, exchange students or dead poets - everything coming out of Austria at the moment faces rejection or boycotts in Europe. The measures of the diplomatic embargo are being augmented by boycotts that in some cases seem rather bizarre, pronounced by a European armada of the upright.

"The Atlantis of Automobile Worship"

Cars: VW has invested almost a billion marks into the adventure park "Autostadt" (Car City). Glass building and cultural spectacles are meant to turn the artificial settlement Wolfsburg into a tourist attraction. Four years of work and an investment of 850 million marks were necessary to fulfil VW boss Ferdinand Piëch's wish to turn 25 hectares of Wolfsburg into an Atlantis of automobile worship. Immediately behind the four chimney stacks of the works power station, a hilly adventure park has been constructed for which 120,000 cubic metres of soil were moved, 650 trees and 110,000 bulbs planted. The entire ensemble was dreamt up by 400 architects.

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with John Bon Jovi on his pop hymn for the European soccer championships, the ridicule about his poodle haircut and his first major cinema success.

"Why, that's It"

Art: The prop which gives "The Man with the Golden Helmet", once ascribed to Rembrandt, its name, appears to have been found. Will it also lead us to the painter of the famous picture?

"What is Beautiful Must Hurt"

Film directors: At times the kamikaze type, at others melancholic, British actor Tim Roth, 39, has become a sort of cult figure. Now he has directed his first film, an explosive incest drama entitled "The War Zone".

"The Scar of the Iron Man"

Triathlon: Andreas Niedrig is one of the world's best triathletes. What few people know is that the ascetic from the German Ruhr district needs the physical challenge as a substitute for drugs. He used to be an addict: hashish, cocaine, heroin. Andreas Niedrig has been clean for over nine years, but he has far from finished with his past. Until now he has tended to swim, cycle and run away from it. But recently he has faced up to it. A book about his life, which he wrote in association with a ghost writer, is to be released this week. He should be able to continue with his sport for another two years, maybe three; but after that his career will be over. And what then?

"We're Probing"

SPIEGEL interview with C&N boss Stefan Pichler on poor service and cheap holidays, the take-over battle surrounding the British Thomson group and the tough competition in the tourism trade:

"In April we launched a corporate-wide quality program. First of all, every one of the 50 top executives of the C&N Group will go on holiday in one of the ten Neckermann hotels that have given rise to the most complaints. … Thomson would have fitted us so well, but it just didn't work out. We wanted to buy the company at a fair and realistic price … Competition is certain to become fiercer."