COVER

NATION

Besuboru Like It Oughta Be (Chronicles)

The Yomiuri Giants and Chunichi Dragons battled for Japan's Central League championship, while the Seibu Lions clinched a fifth Pacific League pennant.

Lying Down with Dogs (Intelligence)

The CIA's payoffs to a top Haitian thug raises new questions about the agency's methods. Has it gone too far again?

Netwatch (Chronicles)

News, Culture, Controversy on the Internet

Trickery Wins Over Trade (Politics)

Business leaders have dreams of conquering new markets, but they bridle as Newt Gingrich delays one of history's most ambitious acts of economic legislation

WORLD

Suddenly, Saddam Again (Iraq)

As internal dissent increases, Baghdad rattles its sabers, forsaking a charm offensive to end sanctions

The Americans Left Behind (Southeast Asia)

As the nation's last Vietnam POW is declared dead, fresh details emerge on an failed effort to save captured servicemen

SOCIETY

In the Reign of Fire (Cults)

Once again, mass death in an apocalyptic sect. This time, it was murder

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

D.A.R.E. Bedeviled (Controversy)

A new study questions the effectiveness of the country's most popular drug-prevention program

BUSINESS

Something Smells Fowl (Regulation)

The Espy scandal is minor compared with the way the USDA has favored the poultry industry

EDUCATION

Schools for Profit

In desperation, a Connecticut city turns its classrooms over to entrepreneurs, launching a revolution

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

CINEMA: A Gangster Steals the Show (Arts & Media / CINEMA)

Woody Allen's Bullets over Broadway, about a hoodlum turned playwright, is deft and funny and defines genius too

MUSIC: Not Dinosaurs-- Giants (Arts & Media / MUSIC)

Superlative albums by Neil Young and Eric Clapton reveal two rock stalwarts who continue to renew and deepen their work

ART: The Grafitti of Loss (Arts & Media / ART)

In nuanced abstractions, America's Cy Twombly shores up scribbly fragments against the ruins of the past

BOOKS: Wary Friends (Arts & Media / BOOKS)

Grace and wit endow a best-selling novel about race

PEOPLE

TO OUR READERS

ESSAY