Pope John Paul II went back to the hospital in Rome late last week for surgery to open up his breathing passage, and Dr. Rodolfo Proietti was waiting for him. Proietti led the team that treated the pontiff for flulike symptoms earlier in the month, and he had been impressed. "He is a patient with a very strong will," Proietti told NEWSWEEK in an exclusive interview at the beginning of the week. "He has a psychological ability to react to an illness that is very unusual." Even as the aged pope's body shuts down in the late stages of Parkinson's disease, his will to live--and to impose his will on the Roman Catholic faithful--remains as stubborn as ever. In the days before he was readmitted to the hospital because almost no air was able to pass through his inflamed larynx, the pope insisted on making public appearances. To the assembled crowd in St. Peter's Square he reiterated that the source of his authority is Saint Peter himself, "the rock," he proclaimed, on which Jesus Christ said "I will build my church." The pope also spoke through a new book, "Memory and Identity," published last week. Though culled from tape-recorded dialogues with a pair of Polish philosophers back in 1993, the text was updated in the pope's own special, confrontational way. According to one of the philosophers, Krzysztof Michalski, the subject of abortion never came up in their conversations. They were talking mainly about the scourges of Nazism and communism in the 20th century. But the published text now segues from the "ideologies of evil" that drove the Holocaust and Stalin's massacres to abortion: "the legal extermination of human beings conceived but unborn" decreed by "democratically elected parliaments." The European Parliament's inclination to recognize homosexual unions as "an alternative type of family, with the right to adopt children," says the book, may be the work of another "ideology of evil." Yet this same pontiff who continues to assert his will in the daily life of the church has given his doctors no instructions about how to sustain his life, or not, should he slip into a persistent coma. Could anyone--would anyone--pull the plug? And under what circumstances? NEWSWEEK asked Proietti, whose specialty is anesthesiology, who will make the final decisions if the pontiff is no longer conscious and able to communicate. "We never asked ourselves this question," said Proietti. Having spent a generation imposing his will on the church, the ailing John Paul has yet to make known a living will to guide his doctors. --Christopher Dickey with Robert Blair Kaiser The Dollar: 'Critical Turning Point' It was just a subordinate clause in a dense 32-page report to a parliamentary subcommittee, but when the Bank of Korea last week indicated that it might begin to diversify its foreign reserves away from the dollar and into other currencies, traders around the world panicked. The dollar dropped 2 percent against the won in one day, and lost most of its gains against the euro so far this year. It ended the week down at $1.32 to the euro. And a big question hung over the markets: will China and Japan follow South Korea, leading to a plunge in the dollar? Short answer: no. "This is all overblown," says Morgan Stanley chief currency analyst Stephen Jen. "The whole mindset of how currency traders respond to and digest news is very unhealthy." The market reaction was based partly on the mistaken belief that Korea was preparing to dump dollars, rather than diversify future purchases of foreign currency. In fact, this is already happening. A Royal Bank of Scotland survey of 56 central banks, released in January, found that nearly 70 percent had increased exposure to the euro, and 52 percent had reduced dollar holdings. But that doesn't mean a destabilizing sell-off is coming. Japan and China together hold 60 percent of global foreign reserves, and have no intention of allowing a sharp fall in the dollar that would damage the value of their holdings. Moreover, as Tokyo is part of the G7 gentlemen's agreement not to sell one another's currency without permission, "Japan has made it very clear that diversification is not going to happen," says Jesper Koll, chief Japan economist for Merrill Lynch. China has been gradually diversifying over the past year or so, says Jen, but any big move is out of the question because that would disrupt what Koll calls the great vendor finance relationship: China finances Americans to buy Chinese products and create Chinese jobs. "And who gets hurt when that relationship gets broken? The guy who provides the credit," he says. Still, last week's panic was a reminder that markets are paying attention to the fallout from bad monetary policy that has kept interest rates low for a long time, fueling U.S. consumer spending, says GFC Economics' Graham Turner, calling it a "critical turning point." The United States is counting on a weaker dollar--but not too weak--to help balance out its boom and its current account deficit with the rest of the world. Jittery markets could trigger a sell-off that nobody wants. --Karen Lowry Miller Global Buzz: The Hard To Handle Edition Terrorism, corruption and apathy are tough to beat. Indonesia's Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, though, may have the solution to a longstanding problem. Philippines Abu Sayyaf may have teamed with terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah for Feb. 14 bombings. Alliance bodes well for Abu's rep and resources, ill for peace. Kenya Antigraft czar resigns and foreign aid suspended because the president won't fire corrupt ministers. One of Africa's few great hopes looks to be dimming. EU Low turnout overshadows Spanish approval of EU Constitution. Numbers indicate document may not survive the more skeptical French, Brits and Czechs. Indonesia SBY plans long-overdue lifting of fuel subsidies. Costs could skyrocket 30 percent, but new rice subsidies and money for health care should soften outcry. Spying: How to Track the CIA Aviation nuts with cameras and Internet connections have become a threat to cover stories established by the CIA to mask its undercover operations and personnel overseas. U.S. intel sources complain that "plane spotters"--hobbyists who photograph airplanes landing or departing at local airports and post the pix on the Internet--made it possible for CIA critics recently to assemble details of a clandestine transport system the agency set up to secretly move cargo and people, including terror suspects, around the world. Google searches reveal that plane spotters Web-posted numerous photos of two private aircraft registered to obscure companies suspected of CIA connections. Some of the pictures were taken at airports in foreign countries where CIA activities could be controversial. When one of the planes last year went through a change of tail number and ownership--a suspicious company in suburban Boston apparently transferred the plane to a similar company in Reno, Nevada--Internet searches of aviation and public-records databases disclosed details of the plane's new owners and registration number. One critical database, accessible via Google, was a central aircraft registry maintained by the government's own Federal Aviation Administration. A U.S. intel source acknowledges that the instant availability of such data and photos on the Internet is not helpful "if your object is clandestinity." (To see how it works, check the Web for info on a business jet carrying the Liechtenstein tail number HB-IES. The search should turn up pictures of that plane landing at a European airport, as well as public records and news stories describing how the plane, registered to a company called Aviatrans, once belonged to Saddam Hussein.) Intel sources say the CIA's own lawyers years ago decreed that under U.S. law the agency must register its aircraft--including their tail numbers and the front companies that own them--with public authorities like the FAA, even though this could provide clues to clandestine activity. Agency officials and lawyers have discussed the possibility of changing U.S. laws and regulations to make it easier for the agency to hide its activities. That may be difficult, so for now, plane spotters can keep their eyes on the CIA. --Mark Hosenball Interview The euphoria after Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" has faded, and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko must put the economy on track. She also faces criminal charges in Russia. She talked with Mikhail Fishman of NEWSWEEK's Russian edition: Traffic cops in Kiev don't take bribes now, but will this last long? The main thing is to show society that government can be honest. If we hold on to this high bar of honor, the economic results will definitely follow. The most serious issue is reprivatization. We are not thinking about how to punish the owners [of privatized companies] and strip them of their property. Even if something is found to have been illegal in the privatization of an enterprise, a new auction will give the owner a right to pay the amount and keep the property. How are the preparations for your meeting with [Russian Prime Minister] Mikhail Fradkov going? The [Russian] prosecutor general recently said that your criminal case is proceeding in a legal manner. I am ready to go anywhere because I don't see anything in your prosecutor's statements but an outdated political provocation. I know that Russia's top leadership is not involved in this. Board Games: What Are You Going to Do, Sue Me? So you've been rocking the cigarette-pack-rolled-in-your-sleeve look since '72, but the company fails to inform you that it's no longer a cool style. What to do when you've been wronged? This is America, so just sue... in this game, that is. New York Game Factory's So Sue Me! board game has been a hit at Urban Outfitters stores since the Philadelphia-based chain sold out its first supply late last year. (The game's also offered on Web sites like toysrus.com and the lawyer gift site forcounsel.com.) Each player starts with $3 million and obtains property to earn the right to sue. Did you doze off near an office shredder and wake up with a haircut? Sue for up to $2.6 million. Invent the air guitar? Take 'em for up to $3.6 million. Peter McKay, 25, of Manhattan, plays with a group of friends about once a month. And though disputes can get heated (possibly because they consume a few drinks beforehand), McKay fancies himself the new Perry Mason. "I would say I win the most of my friends. I'm pretty darn good at it," he says. Besides its popularity among young urbanites, there's added resonance, says Gretchen Schaefer of the American Tort Reform Association. "It is a sad commentary on the frivolous lawsuits that are filed in the U.S. The civil-justice system is out of control." Creators Jeff Gross and Joel Rogers say they want players to laugh, and aren't trying to poke at those who sue for legitimate reasons. And as for strategy, Gross's tip is, don't underestimate your opponents. "I played the game with two 11-year-olds and a 12-year-old, and they kicked my butt." --Lisa Helem Museums: Blast From the Past Rarely do museums blow you away. Yet at the new Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, guests experience a simulation of an aboveground nuclear test--complete with trembling benches, explosive noise and a swoosh of air. After that, the audience watches a film about the history of testing at the Nevada Test Site north of Las Vegas. Those tests were a huge spectator event from 1951 until an international treaty ended aboveground testing in 1962. "This doesn't even do justice to what it was really like: the heat, the light, the intensity," says director Bill Johnson, whose 8,000-square-foot museum is a Smithsonian affiliate. Museum displays include a collection of pop-culture items from the Ike era, like an atomic-themed "Li'l Abner" comic and postcards pushing Vegas as "The Up and Atom City." Anti-nuke protesters and advocates for the thousands of "downwinders" who suffered cancer caused by the radioactive residue are irked that their side of the story is barely mentioned at an institution largely funded by former test-site workers. (The museum's curator says a changing-exhibit gallery will "expand on those ideas.") Critics have likened the blast simulation to turning the collapse of the World Trade Center into a thrill ride--a "carnival attraction," says Ivan Eland, director of the Center on Peace and Liberty at the Independent Institute in Washington, D.C. "That may go over the top a bit." In Vegas? Imagine that. --Steve Friess Film: Grasping At Reality Gunner palace," an intimate portrait of the U.S. soldiers serving in the Second Batallion, Third Field Artillery in Baghdad, defies expectations. There are sights in Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein's eye-opening documentary that will confirm and confound both the American right and left. Here are American boys, some fresh out of high school, trained to fight but suddenly put in the position of social workers: cradling babies, assisting at town meetings, tending the wounded. But who is friend and who is foe? Some local children follow the soldiers worshipfully. At night, adults throw stones at them as they patrol the streets. What gives the film an extra touch of surrealism is that the soldiers are stationed in the bombed-out palace of Saddam's playboy son Uday. It's a bizarre oasis in the midst of chaos, complete with putting green, a circular bed in Uday's love shack and a swimming pool. Tucker narrates his documentary, but for the most part lets the soldiers speak for themselves. "Gunner Palace" isn't a particulary violent movie. But every moment is fraught with the potential for violence. "For y'all this is just a show," says Spc. Richmond Shaw, "but we live in this movie." The tricky part is, it's not one he's seen before--and he can't guess the ending. --David Ansen James Cameron In 1997, he was the king of the world. Then he literally went off the deep end. "Titanic" director James Cameron's second ocean-life documentary is an IMAX production called "Aliens of the Deep." NEWSWEEK's Devin Gordon asked the Oscar winner about the big picture. The best part of "Aliens of the Deep" is watching how gee-whiz excited you get down there. Yeah--how I get, how the scientists get. I love taking these Ph.D.s out there and watching them reduced to 5-year-old kids. Are they easier to work with than, say, actors? [ Laughs ] Well, it's funny, there's some of the same concerns: How do I look? Am I doing something stupid? The thing is, science is important to every scientist. But maybe one in 10 can express why. Was "Aliens" harder to make than an action film? Yeah. First, you can't control the ocean. And there's no point writing a script because the ocean can't read it. You never know if your next dive's gonna be a bust or a jackpot. You're finally making a new Hollywood film? Yeah, it's called "Battle Angel," and it's a futuristic action movie adapted from a series of nine Japanese manga graphic novels. It'll be in 3-D, and the main character will be all computer-generated, like Gollum, but we want it to play like you're in a real environment watching real things happen.