Newsweek International articles from May 2004

Newsweek International archives from May 2004

Mail Call; Trading in Talent.
May 3, 2004... Some readers of our March 8 report on the migration of the brightest minds didn't agree that this trend is all that beneficial. "A free-market economy drives migration," writes one; "it doesn't create equality." One's Gain Is Another's...

The End Of Europe; Every beginning is the end of something else. The new era of European enlargement will be no exception.(Cover Story)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Michael Meyer "Europe has never existed. it must be created ." So said Jean Monnet, father of the original Common Market, at the outset of the grand experiment that over the past five decades grew to become the modern European...

Melting Pot; America v. Sweden? This time Europe must get it right.(Cover Story)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Stryker McGuire, With Stefan Theil in Berlin, Marie Valla in Paris, Barbie Nadeau in Rome and Charles Ferro in Copenhagen Imigracja. Indvandring. Inmigracion . By whatever name, immigration is on Europe's mind these days. To the...

Ready for Europe, or No? Turkish membership would change the EU 'Christian club' forever. The dirty secret: that's why it may well not happen.(Cover Story)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Owen Matthews If the current crop of new members is causing an identity crisis for old Europe, consider this. If Turkey joins the EU, there will be more mosque-going Muslims in Europe than church-attending Protestants. In a...

No Reverse Gear, Please; Blair relishes being a passionate advocate of Europe to his wary countrymen.(Cover Story)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Andrew Moravcsik, Moravcsik is director of the European Union Program at Harvard University. Fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin wall, Enlargement Day is coming. This being Europe, there is diversity in how to celebrate....

Blockbuster Nation; How Seoul beat Hollywood, making Korea an Asian star.(Cover Story)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Mark Russell and George Wehrfritz Orcs, elves and hobbits may rule Middle-earth, but they've proved no match for Korea's hunky heartthrobs. Opening in December, the final episode in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy sold 6 million...

Celebrity: A Hunk o' Love; If his television role brings out the screaming teen in middle-aged women, that's OK with Bae Yong Joon.(Interview)(Cover Story)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Hideko Takayama Asian women are flipping for 31-year-old South Korean film and TV star Bae Yong Joon. They have mobbed Bae in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and named a hybrid orchid after him in Singapore. Inspired by Bae, Japanese women...

The New Dot-Coms; These days, aspiring billionaires start up hedge funds.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Rana Foroohar Four years ago, dinner parties in fashionable corners of London and Manhattan were filled with former investment bankers who thought they could be the next big dot-com billionaire. These days the excited chatter is...

The Greenspan of Japan; From 1994 to 1998, Fukui was responsible for the Bank of Japan's excessively deflationary policy, which was the cause of the long slump.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Richard A. Werner, Richard Werner is investment adviser of ProfitFundCom AG and author of "Princes of the Yen" (M.E. Sharpe), an account of the rise of governor Fukui. For years it has been said that Japan cannot recover without...

Hungry for Power; Chinese officials are scouring the globe for the energy they need to keep the economy humming.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Melinda Liu, With Melissa Roberts in Sydney, Peter Janssen in Jakarta, Frank Brown in Moscow and Kim Gurney in Cape Town Indonesia has long been a playground for the West's oil giants. The names are familiar enough: Unocal, Caltex,...

Classical Appeal; From London's Savoy Opera to Singapore's Esplanade, classical music is enjoying a widespread renaissance.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Tara Pepper, With Alexandra A. Seno in Hong Kong, Stefan Theil in Berlin and Alison Brooks in Paris Near the gaudy banners advertising "The Lion King" and "Mamma Mia" in London's West End, a new billboard recently heralded a small...

Shanghai's Surprise; Jean-Georges arrives amid a burst of culinary creativity.(Jean-Georges Vongerichten)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Jen Lin-Liu and Sandy Lawrence Edry Housed in a neoclassical building and decorated with eel-skin sofas and pony leather armchairs, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's latest shrine to contemporary French cuisine has the signature chic...

Rebellion by Design; Celebrating Vivienne Westwood's shocking career.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Tara Pepper Nothing is ever quite as it seems with British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. When she received an Order of the British Empire medal from the queen in 1992, she looked the picture of respectability in a gray...

In the Kremlin 'Village'; A Stalin biography paints a chilling personal portrait.(Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar)(Book Review)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Andrew Nagorski He could ooze charm, plying his comrades with food, booze and anything else they wanted, inquiring about their wives and children, or even phoning his ex-mistresses for soothing chats. He also enjoyed surprising his...

Sex Sells, And Saves; The new Indian film formula: more bombshells, lower pay, more skin.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Sudip Mazumdar The buzz in Bollywood is best captured by the kiss count for Mallika Sherawat. A small-town girl turned sex symbol, she debuted last year in "Khwaish" ("Desire"), which caught the eyes of critics for its 17 smooching...

A Man for the People; Indigenous leader Evo Morales is a rising political star.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Jimmy Langman Evo Morales is not a conventional politician. He's an Aymara Indian who grew up in the harsh southern highlands of Bolivia. The son of a llama shepherd, he didn't graduate from high school but instead worked as a...

'Release Them'; In hostage situations, Sheik Kubeisi is the man in the middle.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Babak Dehghanpisheh The silver Nokia cell phone rang shortly after 2 a.m. Sheik Abdul Salam al-Kubeisi broke away from watching a news program and hurried into the courtyard of the Um al-Qura mosque in Baghdad, enclosed by tall...

Moderates Feel the Heat.(Arab-Israeli relations)(Interview)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Rod Nordland Seldom have moderate Arab leaders felt so besieged by events. President George W. Bush gave Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon his unqualified backing on April 14 at the White House. Shortly afterward, Hamas leader...

The Country of Good Hope; The government's policies are gaining traction. South African corporations are investing and many white South Africans are returning home.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Ruchir Sharma, Sharma is the co-head of global emerging markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Only the Cape of Good Hope lies south of Robben Island. Billed as a major tourist attraction now, the island offers a glimpse...

My Red and Blue Life.(the two Americas)(Column)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Maggie Cutler Ever since the last presidential election, in which the states that went for Gore always (as if by grand conspiracy) were colored blue on TV while the states that chose Bush blushed red, it's been common wisdom that...

Snap Judgement; Books.(At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig; Protestant Boy; Globalization: A Very Short Introduction )(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Mac Margolis, Sarah Sennott, Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig by John Gimlette Countless drive-by chroniclers have taken potshots at Paraguay, a quirky land with a penchant for pompous and bloody...

Perspectives.(quotations)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Quotation Sources From Top To Bottom: Reuters, BBC, New York Times, New York Magazine, Govexec, CNN, Reuters "Damnation... an eternity burning in hell." Grand Mufti Sheik Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, on what the suicide...

Periscope.(current events)
May 3, 2004... Byline: Mark Hosenball, B.J. Lee, Mark Hosenball, Peter Janssen, Karen Lowry Miller, Alexandra A. Seno, Tara Pepper, Ginanne Brownell, Elise Soukup, Marc Peyser, Nicki Gostin U.S. AFFAIRS 'Awareness' or War? After 9/11, the U.S....

Tip Sheet.
May 3, 2004... Byline: Michelle Jana Chan, Alison Brooks, Tara Weingarten, Ramin Setoodeh Summer Guide The weather's finally warming up. Now what do you need to really enjoy your holidays this year? Tip Sheet took a quick look and found a number of...

Mail Call: Criminal or Victim?(Letter to the Editor)
May 10, 2004... The Martha Stewart verdict led many readers of our March 15 story to take sides. "As a former stockbroker she should've known better," scolded one. "She broke the rules and then denied it," concurred another. "But prison?" responded a third...

Next: No-Frills Pizza? The founder of easyJet has plans for cruises, buses, phones...(Stelios Haji-Ioannou)
May 10, 2004... Byline: William Underhill Cheapskates everywhere: that Mediterranean cruise could be within reach at last. There'll be no free ride to the port, and no free food or entertainment on board. The cabin will measure 30 meters square and...

A Bridge to Nowhere; EU membership (and subsidies) were meant to link Greece to modernity. It hasn't worked out that way.(Cover Story)
May 10, 2004... Byline: Rana Foroohar and Toula Vlahou, With Owen Matthews It's a breathtaking sight, vaulting the sparkling waters of the Gulf of Corinth. When the 2.8-kilometer Corinth Bridge officially opens in September, it will fulfill a century-old...

At Last, Enlargement Day Has Come. Will it Bring Prosperity Or Troubles--or both?(European Union)(Cover Story)
May 10, 2004... Byline: Grzegorz Ekiert and Andrew Moravcsik, Ekiert and Moravcsik teach at Harvard University. The big bang has gone off. Now is the time for second thoughts. Among newcomers and old-timers alike, politicians are scrambling to reassure...

Onward, Christian Soldiers; Chinese missionaries are winning souls across the Middle Kingdom--and plan to spread even farther.(Cover Story)
May 10, 2004... Byline: Sarah Schafer, With Craig Simons in Hong Kong When they praise the Lord, they close the windows. In a packed classroom in China's southern Henan province, 35 young Christians stand behind their desks singing the Hallelujah prayer....

Border War; A former U.S. ambassador to Mexico analyzes the neighbors.(Mexico-United States relations)
May 10, 2004... Byline: Scott Johnson Not long after the terrorist attacks of September 11, Jeffrey Davidow went to Washington for a meeting between George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox. Davidow, then U.S. ambassador to Mexico, thought Mexico...

Betting on the EU; The Buzz: Despite the problems ahead, at least one influential group seems to have faith in Europe: U.S. companies.(Cover Story)
May 10, 2004... Byline: William Drozdiak, Drozdiak is the executive director of the German Marshall Fund's Transatlantic Center in Brussels. Europe may be enlarging under a cloud of skepticism, but it's getting a strong vote of confidence from a surprising...

Paper Is Dead--Take 2; Electronics is catching up with newspapers. Really.(Librie, an e-book reader)
May 10, 2004... Byline: Karen Lowry Miller, With Kay Itoi in Tokyo, Graphic by Stanford Kay Deep in the labs of Philips Research, two of the world's top nanotechnology experts are thinking about Muggles. Scientists Johan Feenstra and Rob Hayes think...

Thank Your Lucky SARS; Health officials may have dealt this virus a death blow.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Jaime Cunningham and Stefan Theil, With Sarah Schafer, Jen Lin-Liu, Alexandra A. Seno and Fred Guterl Back in December, as northern weather was getting cold and runny noses were once again becoming the norm, health officials braced...

The Trouble With Freedom.(spread of democracy slows international trade)
May 10, 2004... Byline: Jeffrey E. Garten, Garten is dean of the Yale School of Management. In recent days, more than 170 million Indians have voted in a multistage national election that will conclude on May 10. On that day, Filipinos will cast final...

Boom Or Bust? The country is enjoying newfound prosperity now, but another crash could well be on its way.(Argentina)(Cover Story)
May 10, 2004... Byline: Joseph Contreras The famously fertile Argentine pampa is booming. A combination of record soya prices and the draconian devaluation of the Argentine peso has brought newfound prosperity to places like Carlos Tejedor, a farming town...

The Country It Should Be; Interview: Argentine President Nestor Kirchner has sky-high popularity ratings--and a raft of intractable problems on his plate.(Interview)(Cover Story)
May 10, 2004... Byline: Joseph Contreras A noticeably leaner Nestor Kirchner granted a rare interview last month to NEWSWEEK's Joseph Contreras in Buenos Aires after he was hospitalized for six days for treatment of stomach bleeding. Excerpts: ...

Carrying The Torch; Beijing is turning to Hong Kong's tycoons for help.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Alexandra A. Seno Beijing must be wondering who its friends are in Hong Kong. Chinese officials no doubt expected the protests that greeted its decision last week not to allow direct elections for the post of Hong Kong chief...

Race to the Finish in the Philippines.(Brief Article)
May 10, 2004... Byline: Joe Cochrane, With Marites Vitug A few months ago Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was on the ropes. The Philippine leader's presidency was beset by a stagnant economy, a tumbling currency, terrorist attacks and Muslim and communist...

Dick Morris; Looking for a New Winner.(Interview)
May 10, 2004... Byline: William Underhill He's a canny operator. For almost 20 years he was an adviser and confidant to President Bill Clinton. Among his credits: pulling out victory in 1996 in a closer race than most had expected. His latest challenge...

E.T., Phone Home!(phone cards and international telephone calls)
May 10, 2004... Byline: Shashi Tharoor I had just hung up the phone after one of my weekly telephone conversations with my mother in India, realizing with some bemusement that my call had clocked in at just under an hour. Three decades or so ago, when I...

Get Back Home, Loretta; A country legend inspired by a rocking White Stripe.(Loretta Lynn)
May 10, 2004... Byline: Lorraine Ali There are at least half a dozen sequined gowns stuffed into the small closet on Loretta Lynn's big purple tour bus. "I like this one a whole lot," she says, running her hand down the shiny satin skirt of a beaded...

Shrek Attack; The big fat green sequel will reanimate DreamWorks. That's one enchanted ogre.(Shrek 2)(Movie Review)
May 10, 2004... Byline: Sean Smith Captain Hook is playing the blues. At a dive bar in a forest, the Ugly Stepsister is hawking booze, the Headless Horseman is hammered and the king is hiring a hit man to kill Shrek. Can you blame him? The ogre has won...

Summer Muscle; It's time to sit back, relax and try to look up Brad Pitt's skirt. Hollywood hasn't given many women lead roles, so here are a few good men.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Sean Smith and Devin Gordon Don't blame us--Hollywood decided long ago that summer is testosterone time. And we don't greenlight the movies, we just write about them. So with apologies to Halle Berry ("Catwoman"), Nicole Kidman...

Perspectives.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Sources from top to bottom: Daily Mirror, The Washington Post, Associated Press, New York Times, www.independent.co.uk, New York Times "If proven, [they're] not fit to wear the queen's uniform." Gen. Sir Mike Jackson, on...

Periscope.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Mark Hosenball, Joe Cochrane, Frank Brown, Jonathan Adams, Stryker McGuire and John Barry, Andrew Ehrenkranz, Tara Pepper, Karen Breslau, Arian Campo-Flores, Nicki Gostin SYRIA A Mystery Deepens American intelligence...

Snap Judgment: Books; Our critics steer you straight.(Book Review)(Brief Review)
May 10, 2004... Byline: William Dobson, Marie Valla, Christina B. Gillham Occidentalism by Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit Islamic jihadists don't have a monopoly on hating the West. As this slim volume shows, West-bashers have a long pedigree, from...

The Great Back Pain Debate; Is massage better for you than surgery? As millions of people seek relief from this ancient ailment, doctors are trying simpler, less invasive ways to end the agony.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Claudia Kalb, With Karen Springen, Anne Underwood, Mary Carmichael and Ellise Pierce Stop rubbing your sore back for a minute and take a quick tour of Mother Nature's engineering masterpiece: the human spine. Pretend you are Alice,...

Tip Sheet.
May 10, 2004... Byline: Sana Butler With Carter Dougherty in Congo, Ginanne Brownell, Sarah Sennott, Peter Suciu, Claudia Kalb TRAVEL Trips For Trailblazers By Sana Butler If you relish beating the crowds to up-and- coming destinations, you...

Mail Call: Atrocity in Spain.(Letter to the Editor)
May 17, 2004... Readers of our March 22 cover story on the terrorist attack in Madrid were saddened by the tragedy. Some mused on the Iraq war, others on Spain's elections. "It was not 'our' 9/11," wrote one. "Ninety percent of Spaniards were against the war,"...

Ticking Time Bombs; Filipino authorities say the newest threat to the country is a shadowy terror group made up of radical Muslim converts.
May 17, 2004... Byline: Joe Cochrane, With Marites Vitug in Manila Wally Villanueva does not look all that different from anyone else walking the streets of Manila. So the lean, thirtysomething Filipino didn't turn any heads as he walked into the National...

Riding a Tiger in North Korea.
May 17, 2004... Byline: Selig S. Harrison, Harrison, director of the Asian program at the Center for International Policy, is the author of "Korean Endgame." He recently made his eighth visit to North Korea. When you go to Pyongyang, the place to look for...

Watch Out, Art! A new intolerance is sweeping Russia as religious and political fundamentalists attack artists, musicians and writers whose works they view as subversive.
May 17, 2004... Byline: Frank Brown It wasn't the first time critics took clubs to art they didn't appreciate. Nor was it the first time they emerged as heroes, at least to some. But when six men barged their way into a Moscow museum last year,...

War Wounds; Alexandra Fuller's memorable tangle with a heart of darkness.(Scribbling the Cat)(Book Review)
May 17, 2004... Byline: Malcolm Jones Alexandra Fuller remembers precisely the moment that "Scribbling the Cat" got tricky. "I was sitting in the Denver airport three years ago," she said in a phone interview from outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where she...

Made in Japan; Big multinationals are building billion-dollar factories at home, inspiring hopes of an industrial renaissance.
May 17, 2004... Byline: Hideko Takayama The story unfolding in Tsuruoka seems to defy an iron law of the postindustrial age: that factories and jobs will flow from rich nations to poorer ones. In 2002 Kenwood built a portable mini-disc (MD) production...

Competition: Rising Faster Than Japan; Forget the skeptics. Chinese and Indian multinationals could emerge as major global players within three to five years.
May 17, 2004... Byline: Karen Lowry-Miller No one could have predicted in the 1970s that Toyota would become one of the Big Three automakers. Or in the 1980s that a Finnish producer of rubber boots would go on to dominate the market for mobile phones. Or...

Shanghai In Style; Sensing a receptive market, Giorgio Armani arrives with a splash.
May 17, 2004... Byline: Dana Thomas With technomusic reverberating off the black-draped art-gallery walls, 800 hip, young Chinese--clad in Dior corset dresses and Armani suits--swilled Chianti, scarfed down carpaccio canapes and mingled with the likes of...

Singing the Classics; Blacks discover opera in post-apartheid South Africa.
May 17, 2004... Byline: Kim Gurney Marvin Karnelle grew up surrounded by music. During the bleak years of apartheid, his father sang in one of the many black choirs whose hymns and liberation anthems comforted an oppressed people. So it's not hard to see...

Hungry for Luxury; But Chinese consumers prefer Western brands.(Interview)
May 17, 2004... Byline: Dana Thomas Ten years ago David Tang launched Shanghai Tang, a designer brand that specializes in chic Chinese-style dresses and suits. Two years ago the Paris-based luxury group Richemont, which owns Cartier, Dunhill and...

Carlos Fuentes; A Tropical Stalinism.(Interview)
May 17, 2004... Byline: Scott Johnson On May 1, Cuba's Fidel Castro alienated most of the last few allies he has left. After being condemned at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva last month, the irascible dictator blasted the European Union as "a...

It's So Hard to Get Good Help.(hiring a maid in Singapore)
May 17, 2004... Byline: Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop One in every seven households has one. But not us. Three years ago, when we moved to Singapore from London, I told myself, "She'd spoil the kids rotten." With the impending arrival of our third child,...

Putting It All Together; New medical research shows how different from men women really are. Take heart disease: women's symptoms are more subtle and often get overlooked. What to watch for, what to do.
May 17, 2004... Byline: Claudia Kalb and Karen Springen, With Joan Raymond and Emily Flynn Like most women, Helen Bryce, 44, wife, mother and manager at a London-based computer company, was well acquainted with the emotional chambers in her heart. Joy,...

Maintaining Heart Health What Tests Can Tell You.
May 17, 2004... Byline: Paula A. Johnson, M.D., Celeste Robb-Nicholson, M.D., and Nancy A. Ferrari, Adapted from the Harvard Women's Health Watch and the Harvard Heart Letter. For more information, go to health.harvard.edu/NEWSWEEK. You probably know your...

Fresh Weapons For an Old Battle; New treatments for breast cancer are easier on patients and more efficient at killing tumors.
May 17, 2004... Byline: Anne Underwood Anyone who has survived chemotherapy knows how brutal it can be. But thanks to an experimental procedure, Barbara Link, 55, of Cary, North Carolina, found that parts of the treatment were "actually pleasant." Her...

No Time for Any Wrinkles; Women have more beauty-treatment choices than ever. Is that a good thing?
May 17, 2004... Byline: Jennifer Barrett, With Mac Margolis in Rio de Janeiro Alisa Kauffman has been practicing dentistry for nearly two decades, but some new patients still mistake the petite, 44-year-old New Yorker for a dental-school student. "I tell...

Alcohol's Deadly Triple Threat; Women get addicted faster, seek help less often and are more likely to die from the bottle.
May 17, 2004... Byline: Karen Springen and Barbara Kantrowitz, With Peg Tyre in New York and Frank Brown in Moscow Pat Staples's childhood gave birth to the demons that nearly killed her. Her father was a volatile alcoholic. "I was physically, verbally...

Moderation If You Want to Cut Back.(drinking alcohol)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2004... Byline: Celeste Robb-Nicholson, M.D., and Carolyn Schatz, Adapted from the Harvard Women's Health Watch. For more information, see health.harvard.edu/NEWSWEEK. A little alcohol can do wonders for a social gathering. But excessive drinking...

A Worldwide Gender Gap; Health remains the cruelest inequality of all, and the countries that could help sadly are not.
May 17, 2004... Byline: Kati Marton, Marton, author of "Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our History" (Anchor), is chair of the International Women's Health Coalition. Women suffer countless disadvantages compared with men. Even after...

Smoking Gun; More women die of lung cancer than any other kind. Smokers, beware.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2004... Byline: Karen Springen Quick--what's the leading cancer killer of women? If you answered "breast cancer," you're not alone--but you're wrong. Lung cancer is far deadlier. Its five-year survival rate is 15 percent, compared with 86 percent...

Perspectives.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2004... Byline: Sources from top to bottom: New York Times (2), guardian.co.uk, New York Times, AP, BBC, The Mirror "I feel terrible... They're human beings." U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, apologizing for the abuse of Iraqi...

Periscope.
May 17, 2004... Byline: Michael Isikoff With Andrew Murr in Portland, Frank Brown, Dan Ephron, B. J. Lee, William Underhill and Michael Hastings, Emily Flynn, Cathleen McGuigan, Owen Matthews, Nicki Gostin Terrorism: A U.S. Link to Madrid? By Michael...

Snap Judgment: Books.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 17, 2004... Byline: Barbara Kantrowitz, Liat Radcliffe, Vibhuti Patel Grace and Power By Sally Bedell Smith Smith has made a career out of turning the lives of bold-faced names into meticulously researched biographies. This time, she targets the...

Mail Call and Correction: Not Everyone's War.(Letter to the Editor)
May 24, 2004... Readers of our March 29 report "It's All One War Now" were fired up by the story. "Al Qaeda is everyone's war," wrote one, but "Iraq is Bush's war." Another claimed, "What we sowed is coming back to us." The President's Personal War ...

The Decent Thing; America's tough tactics have miffed the British, who have a softer postconflict style.
May 24, 2004... Byline: Stryker McGuire and Rod Nordland, With Eric Pape in Paris The meeting took place late last year, before the grotesque images out of Abu Ghraib. U.S. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the general in charge of the now-infamous prison, sat...

Feeling the Pressure; Lula is taking political flak as the reality sinks in: You can't please everybody.(Cover Story)
May 24, 2004... Byline: Mac Margolis On Sunday, May 9, the New York Times published a story on Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's alleged drinking habit. The piece, by veteran correspondent Larry Rohter, was a thinly documented jab at the...

Politics: Bending the Rules; Jose Sarney has been a key Lula ally, but his congressional clout may soon weaken, spelling trouble for the president.(Brazil)(Cover Story)(Biography)
May 24, 2004... Byline: Mac Margolis He is short and plodding, with a feathery handshake and a voice so timorous you have to lean windward to catch all the words. At 73, Jose Sarney could be your favorite grandfather or the school librarian--anything,...

Britain's Accidental Inventor.(Brian Bennett, former truck driver and inventor of a medicinal cream )(Interview)
May 24, 2004... Byline: Clint Witchalls Brian Bennett doesn't make a very convincing media superstar. It's the end of the day, and Bennett is sitting in a London bar puffing on a cigarette, looking tired and bewildered. "My head's in a spin," he says....

Betting On Reform; The economy is humming like never before. But will New Delhi be able to deliver on its promise of widening prosperity?(Cover Story)
May 24, 2004... Byline: George Wehrfritz and Sudip Mazumdar An incongruous name adorns one new housing estate in teeming Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). "Animikha," translated from Bengali, means "so beautiful, beholders cannot blink." Surrounded by...

Viewpoint: India Isn't Shining; The media is interpreting last week's election as a defeat for reform. In truth, the country needs more of it, not less.(Cover Story)
May 24, 2004... Byline: Ruchir Sharma, Sharma is cohead of global emerging markets for Morgan Stanley Investment Management India's intelligentsia missed the story through much of the recently concluded national-election campaign. And if the postmortem...

A Cuisine Crisis; France's famed food industry is in decline. Blame globalization, as well as the French government.(Cover Story)
May 24, 2004... Byline: Marie Valla and Christopher Dickey What could be more French than an outdoor market on a sunny Sunday morning? The air is filled with vital scents from the herbs and fruits and vegetables piled high in the greengrocers' creative...

Viewpoint: Stick With Roast Chicken; France should take care not to forget what it's good at.(Cover Story)
May 24, 2004... Byline: Rob Long O for a French miracle--a perfectly roasted chicken. Crispy skin, juicy breast, richly fatty legs and thighs, a ravishing aroma. There aren't too many places left on earth where one can be had, alas, especially now that...

Business: The Chinese Chicago; Can $1 billion a month make Chongqing China's jewel of the west? Maybe so.
May 24, 2004... Byline: Ron Gluckman When Beijing wants to build up a city fast, Huang Qi Fan is the man. In the 1990s he was the vice mayor of Shanghai, guiding the city's rise as the anchor of China's booming coastal provinces. In 2001 he was sent...

Malaria Malpractice; Doctors accuse Western health officials of pushing cheap drugs instead of a more effective alternative.
May 24, 2004... Byline: Tom Masland, With Teije Brandsma in Nairobi, Sarah Schafer in Beijing and Karen MacGregor in Durban Irene's 40-degree fever hadn't budged for days. Burrowed under blue blankets at Mbagathi district hospital in Nairobi, the girl...

First Person: Children of the War; The intifada has come to Chechnya. The new rebels are child suicide-bombers living only for revenge.
May 24, 2004... Byline: Anna Politkovskaya, Politkovskaya is a reporter for the Moscow newspaper Novaya Gazeta. It is sunny and warm, a time for love and happiness, nightingales and weddings. We stand on the outskirts of a village called Shali, close to a...

Death In Chechnya; Rebel bombers killed Akhmad Kadyrov. Will his brutal son now replace him?
May 24, 2004... Byline: Frank Brown It was hardly a surprise that a bomb killed Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov. After all, he had been the target of at least 17 previous attempts on his life, most recently by three female suicide bombers. The real...