Victorino Matus

SAY THIS about John Kerry: At least his grandfather wasn't a Nazi. For all the oppo research that will be done on him, having a Fascist relative is something that probably won't come up. Which is not the case for some politicians in Germany, where 60 years later, questions about a family's past still linger. Take the plight of Friedrich Merz.

Berlin

"WE'VE COME TO RUSSIA'S CAPITAL CITY to stop the war or die here for Allah. . . . I swear to Allah, we desire death more than you want life." These words, spoken by Chechen terrorist Movsar Barayev, open "Terror in Moscow," a grim and stomach-churning look at the Moscow theater hostage crisis of October 2002. Producer/director Dan Reed was able to obtain (for the right price) videos from the FSB (formerly KGB), footage recorded by the terrorists themselves, and broadcasts from Radio Ekho Moskvy.

NEITHER SNOW NOR RAIN nor heat nor gloom of a hurricane can keep me away from a press breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton. And so it was, on the morning of the day Hurricane Isabel was poised to strike our nation's capital, that I found myself alone in an oak-paneled room waiting to meet Wolfgang Schäuble, the deputy chairman of Germany's Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union parliamentary group (he isn't nearly as boring as his title sounds).

In the 1980s, Schäuble served as chief of staff for Helmut Kohl.

IT WAS A YEAR AGO this month that North Korea, in the midst of normalization talks with Japan, dropped a major bombshell: During the late 1970s, North Korean agents infiltrated Japan's west coast and abducted 11 men and women--though Kim Jong Il claims he knew nothing about it at the time. "I guarantee that those involved will be punished, and we will prevent any future occurrence," vowed the Maximum Leader.

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While I agree with David Skinner's Queer Like Us, there is one thing worth adding. If we straight guys are so barbaric and clueless, how come I can cook, decorate, entertain, and occasionally impress a nice female?

IT'S BEEN OVER A YEAR since my last trip to Sin City, which featured high-stakes blackjack, Wayne Newton, and a bachelor party for a friend who later broke off his engagement (what a deal for him!). But it's been an even longer spell since my last visit to that shining city by the sea known as Atlantic City. Not that it's far--from Washington, DC, it is only a three-and-a-half hour drive.

GIVE THE UNITED STATES military some credit. After wiping out Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, with a barrage of small-arms fire and TOW missiles, they not only put their bodies on display--they made them look presentable (after those initial photos that could have appeared in Fangoria). No, it's nothing like Lenin, Mao, or even Ferdinand Marcos. But then again, they didn't have much to work with. Qusay took bullets straight to the head while his brother suffered blunt trauma (also to the head). In the end, both men looked like props from Madame Tussaud's latest exhibit.

A FEW WEEKS AGO, in between segments about a robot that helps dig through rubble and a mosquito-zapper made by a high schooler at a science fair, CNN's Fredricka Whitfield had this tidbit to offer:

"An Australian inventor has come up with a gun that fires a million rounds per minute. It's called Metal Storm and it uses electronics to control the blast of projectiles, which can shred a target or throw up a defensive wall against an incoming missile."

That tantalizing tease was pretty much the extent of CNN's reporting on Metal Storm, and who can blame them?

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, last week was "Transatlantic Week," in which several conferences devoted to U.S.-European relations occurred simultaneously. The Washington Post's David Ignatius covered one in Berlin where the presence of Richard Perle, aka The Prince of Darkness, probably led some to believe a full-scale war might break out.

NOT THAT WE BASE OUR IMPRESSIONS on life in a German POW camp entirely on "Hogan's Heroes," but there is an understanding that life in a stalag wasn't nearly as bad as life, say, under the Japanese. Roughly 4 percent of Americans died in German and Italian camps while a staggering 27 percent died in Japanese camps. In Western Europe, Allied prisoners (except the Russians) enjoyed certain benefits thanks to the Geneva Convention. They received Red Cross parcels, enough food, and were often allowed to exercise and play soccer. It wasn't the Waldorf-Astoria, but it wasn't Auschwitz either.

AFRICANS ARE STARVING, American farmers are going out of business, and the administration says Europe's to blame.

In a suit brought to the WTO earlier this month, the Bush administration alleges that the E.U.'s five-year moratorium on the approval of new genetically-modified (GM) foods violates the rules of the WTO. In addition, the plaintiff adds, the "unfounded, and unscientific fears" of Europeans have kept developing countries in Africa from investing in enhanced crops.

The United States is joined in the suit by Canada, Argentina, and Egypt.