IS HE UP TO THE JOB?
Fresh from a victorious trip to the U.S., Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai survives a no-confidence vote and buckles down to face the countryıs economic ills

Chuan Interview: "The low point has passed"

Silver Lining: Traffic is actually moving in Bangkok

View From Washington: Why Clinton gave Thailandıs leader the red-carpet treatment

INDONESIA: Pawns In Their Game?
The army may be using student protests for their own designs

INDIA: Uneasy Lies The Head
A new Premier is overly dependent on undependable allies

Prima Donna: Jayalalitha now performs on a national stage

CHINA: Grass-Roots Democracy
An experiment with rural elections begins to mature

Viewpoint: A U.S. observer assesses the village vote

HONG KONG: Health System, Heal Thyself
The city's hospitals have witnessed a spate of medical mishaps

JAPAN: Mighty Mandarins
A new book finds little to admire in the Finance Ministry

RELIGION: Loco, Texas
Taiwan cultists descend on a Dallas suburb to wait for God

BOOKS: In Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden creates a floating world out of an industrializing Japan

BOOKS: A murder mystery reveals a trite China

ESSAY

TO OUR READERS

COVER: Into Africa
Clinton's trip is a recognition of the fact that things are changing on the continent

TERRORISM: Revolutionaries on the Prowl
Recent events in former Soviet republics in Central Asia suggest that Iran's Revolutionary Guards may be actively trying to counter U.S. influence in the region

EUROPE: Refugees or Rebels?
Turkey claims that Kurdish refugees seeking asylum in Greece are being recruited and retrained as soldiers

Cold War Fallout: British veterans, claiming a host of illnesses are due to their involvement in atomic blasts, take their case to the European Commission of Human Rights

The Lessons of Ethnic Conflict: The prospect of stability in Kosovo is slim unless Western leaders learn from their past mistakes in Bosnia

Sea of Troubles: Former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas faces a string of corruption charges relating to the sale of six frigates to Taiwan

BUSINESS: No Pain, No Gain
The European Union sets out a plan for revamping its program of agricultural and regional subsidies

BUSINESS: Eurowatch

TELEVISION: A modern Russian tale of cops and robbers

BOOKS: William Boyd's new novel amuses and mystifies

TO OUR READERS

CANADA

COVER: The Call of the Wild
Neve Campbell sizzles in a new movie and gets ready for a jump to fulltime movie stardom

Swamp Sweat: Pretty people doing rotton things

SHOW BUSINESS: Southern Exposure
More Canadians than ever seem to be landing in Tiseltown-- and at high levels of visibility. What's going on, eh?

TELEVISION: Ken Finkleman on infotainment

AUSTRALIA

NATURE: Lateral Thought On The Sea Bed
The fix for a European pest may be its European foe

CINEMA: Geoffrey Rush's latest film is lively but chaotic

END PAGES

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