NATION

Looking for the Loopholes

Twenty-eight years after the last campaign-finance reforms, new rules look set to take effect. Will they be tough enough to clean up the game?

WORLD

The Shoe Bomber's World

WHAT DOES THE SAGA OF RICHARD REID TELL US ABOUT AL-QAEDA? TIME RETRACES HIS TRAIL TO FIND OUT

Murder in the Airport

After one of his top officials is killed, Afghanistan's leader struggles to keep his fragile nation united

SCIENCE

Here, Kitty, Kitty!

If the first cloned house pet can melt your heart, how will you react to the first cloned child?

HEALTH & MEDICINE

On Their Own Two Feet (Medicine)

A TIME columnist bears witness to an operation to help triplets with cerebral palsy walk like other boys

SPORT

A Sport on Thin Ice (Winter Olympics)

A bad call--and a quick recall--expose the darker side of Olympic skating

Ah, Certainty! (Winter Olympics)

The Games satisfy us with rules and results not found in Enron or Afghanistan

You Be The Judge (Winter Olympics)

HOW TO SIZE UP THE MOVES THAT MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

Portraits in Gold (Winter Olympics)

For these men and women, all the training, sacrifice and exhaustion paid off in the ultimate trophy

TECHNOLOGY

BRIEFING

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Inside the Hurricane (Letter from Gaza)

TIME visits the worst place of all to be an Israeli soldier--or a Palestinian

BUSINESS

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Movies: Screen Teens (The Arts / Movies)

LED BY BRITNEY SPEARS, A GANG OF POP PRINCESSES GOES ALL OUT TO STORM THE 'PLEXES

Television: Color Crosses Over (The Arts / Television)

After years of video apartheid, African American-oriented sitcoms are starting to reach white viewers

YOUR TIME

Camp Stay-at-Home (Personal Time / Your Family)

The recession and Sept. 11 jitters have some parents choosing not to send kids away. Will the backyard do?

Hitting All the Wrong Notes (Personal Time / Your Technology)

Napster and other fee-based music services are trying to lure us from free song swapping. They'd better try harder

In Praise of Folic Acid (Personal Time / Your Health)

Could the B vitamin that helps prevent birth defects also protect against Alzheimer's? The news is promising

SPECIAL SECTION

Protectionism: Steeling Jobs (Global Business / Protectionism)

America's ailing mills want another bailout--with the cost falling on companies that use steel

High Tech: Foreign Invaders (Global Business / High Tech)

A quiet New York City venture fund is taking over Japanese businesses that are beloved--and broke

Managing VIP Money (Global Business)

Today's top financial boutiques offer private-equity funds and other goodies

PEOPLE

LETTERS