COVER

NATION

Down in the Big Queasy (Cities)

The treasury is strapped, business is stalled, crime is up. New Orleans' bon temps have rolled away.

WORLD

Amid Disaster, Amazing Valor (Somalia)

The untold story of the American troops who turned a calamitous foray in Mogadishu into an extraordinary lesson in military courage

Words Are Not Enough (Bosnia)

Even if the Serbs live up to their promise to pull the guns back from Sarajevo, peace remains out of reach

WAR & TERRORISM

Up From the Depths (Defense)

Why is the Navy off course? Some experts contend that too many recent chiefs were submariners.

SPORT

SPEED SKATING: Finally! (SPEED SKATING)

Finding salvation at the finish line, Dan Jansen, the Olympics' heartbreak kid, is first at last

SKIING: Schuuuusss! (SKIING)

In Lillehammer, Alpine skiing kicks off with an unexpected but refreshing American accent

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

BUSINESS

Take That! and That! (Trade)

With a threat of sanctions, the U.S. tries to tighten the screws on Japan without starting a trade war

The Deal That Forced Diller to Fold

The inside story of how Viacom's Sumner Redstone placed a $10 billion bet against QVC's Barry Diller and finally won the long battle for Paramount

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

THEATER: Home Is Where the Art Is (The Arts & Media / THEATER)

South African dissident Athol Fugard happily loses his great theme and sets his sights on a postapartheid world

TELEVISION: Murder, They Wheezed (The Arts & Media / TELEVISION)

Starring in sitcoms may get too strenuous, but in prime time you're never too old to solve a whodunit

PEOPLE

TO OUR READERS

LETTERS

ESSAY