PERISCOPE

The magazines feature color pictures of the "infidel enemy" displaying un-Islamic behavior. One photo shows a U.S. soldier frisking a young Afghan woman. Another depicts GIs' checking a group of young boys for weapons. Another photo shows Karzai holding what appears to be a glass of wine during a toast with former Chinese prime minister Zhu Rongji. (Islam prohibits Muslims from drinking alcohol.) But the pictures aren't reserved just for infidels: a recent issue of Azam proudly offered a large color photograph and accompanying interview of Mullah Rozai Khan, a senior Taliban commander.
-Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau

FADS
Games People Play
South Korea has long been considered the world's online-gaming mecca. Seventy percent of households have the broadband connections needed to play, and a staggering 21 million people--more than 40 percent of the population--are registered for games like Counterstrike and Starcraft. A new craze, though, is rolling through the country: old-fashioned board games. One estimate counts some 600 board-game cafes in the Seoul area alone, up from about 150 just six months ago.

What's driving the fad? It's certainly affordable. For as little as $1.30 an hour, players can sit at a table and use any game in the cafe. Many establishments offer more than 100 choices, including classic games like Diplomacy. A simple theory is that South Koreans just like their games, online or off, and are looking for a new thrill. If that's so, then the new cafes may soon be making more than just Monopoly money.
-Mark Russell

MUSIC
The Tyra Typhoon
Tyra Banks has obviously forgotten she's a supermodel. At an age--30!-- when most models give up and marry a rock star, Banks has big plans. She's trying to launch a singing career, and debuted her first video on her very own reality-television show, "America's Top Model." After watching the leggy contestants vie for a major modeling contract, viewers besieged the show's Web site, replaying the "Shake Ya Body" video 155,000 times. "I want to be successful across the board," Banks says. "I want an empire like Oprah's. I may do it with a little more cleavage, but I plan to get there."

While her singing debut--as backup for a rapping Kobe Bryant at the 2000 NBA All-Star Game--was less than auspicious, Banks is undaunted. She paid $30,000 to make the "Shake Ya Body" video herself, and hired top manager Benny Medina to promote it. She's hoping the song will lead to a record deal. "I know I could fall on my face, but that's life," she says. "I'm not going to let that stop me." Why should she? Few things have slowed the luscious supermodel before.

-Marc Peyser and Allison Samuels