NATION

Defense: Much Less Than Meets the Eye

By slashing the nuclear arms arsenal, Bush triggers a debate over whether the military budget is still too big. But even drastic cuts would not produce a windfall.

Washington Perk City

Wonder why Congress is so arrogant about bounced checks? Perhaps because its members are so used to the freebie life.

WORLD

Haiti One Coup Too Many

Haiti's soldiers fail to reckon with George Bush's determination to preserve -- maybe even restore -- democratically elected leaders

SCIENCE

HEALTH & MEDICINE

Fountain Of Youth in a Jar (Health)

Cosmetics firms are touting new types of skin creams to ward off aging and cellulite, but so far the evidence is scant

The Dark Side of Halcion (Medicine)

Should millions of Americans be popping a sleeping pill banned in Britain for causing amnesia and depression?

PRESS

RELIGION

Tumult in The Reading Rooms

Christian Science reverses its stand on an unsound book. Was it to fulfill the terms of a $90 million will?

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

BUSINESS

EDUCATION

Do The Poor Deserve Bad Schools?

Of course not. Equal opportunity is what America is all about. That is why there is growing criticism of the shameful disparities in funding.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Jodie Foster: A Screen Gem Turns Director (Cinema / Cover Stories)

A movie moppet at nine, Jodie Foster went on to become one of Hollywood's most talented actresses. Now, at 28, she has taken a bold directorial leap with Little Man Tate, and it's an audacious winner.

Heavy Metal Goes Platinum (Music)

Polishing their music, if not their image, rock's raunchy, long-haired rebels win a growing mainstream audience

Hollywood's New Directions (Cinema)

No longer entrusted simply with delicate movies, women directors have finally shown that they can do anything a man can do -- and often do it better

The Journalist and the Murder (Books)

After deceiving the villain in Fatal Vision, Joe McGinniss errs anew by siding with the victim in Cruel Doubt

SPECIAL SECTION

The Power Of a Well-Told Tale (Nobel Prize)

South Africa's NADINE GORDIMER, awarded the world's most coveted literary prize, talks about Mandela, violence and social change

PEOPLE

TO OUR READERS

ESSAY