Just as wars -- two World Wars and, equally important, the cold war -- dominated the geopolitical map of the 20th century, economics will rule over the 21st. All the big questions confronting the world in the century ahead are basically economic. Is the U.S. in an irreversible decline as the world's premier power? Will Japan continue its competitive conquest of international markets? Can Europe manage to hold together the world's largest trade bloc in the face of strong centrifugal ...

Singapore's newest museum doesn't dwell on the alleged dichotomy between art and science. Instead, it celebrates the connections between both, with lively galleries of interactive displays in areas such as design, media and technology. Called the ArtScience Museum, the facility is a highlight of Singapore's Marina Bay Sands entertainment district, and the work of famed Canadian-Israeli architect Moshe Safdie. It doesn't take a scientist to see that Safdie's high-tech but artful design masterfully embodies the unifying principles at ...

Is pornography essentially an outlet for sexual fantasy, rightly protected by the First Amendment's free speech provisions? Or is it an instruction manual for violent men that shatters women's civil rights by contributing to their harassment, humiliation and subordination? Those questions are at the heart of an often acrimonious debate that has divided feminists and civil libertarians across the U.S. The argument is currently raging on three fronts: -- In Massachusetts, feminist groups can be found on both sides of ...

A rare meeting of U.N. Security Council heads of state, led for the first time by a U.S. president, adopted a resolution Thursday focused on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. President Obama challenged the gathering, which included leaders of nuclear powers including Russia, China, Great Britain and France, to overcome cynicism against the goal of ridding the planet of nuclear arms. "We harbor no illusions about the difficulty of bringing about a world without nuclear weapons," Obama said, adding ...

A 19-year-old Jordanian bent on committing "violent jihad" was arrested Thursday after undercover FBI agents foiled his attempt to bomb an office tower in Dallas, Texas, authorities announced late Thursday. Federal officials said Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, who entered the U.S. illegally and lived in Texas, tried to set off an improvised explosive device attached to a vehicle at the base of the 60-story Fountain Plaza office tower. Counterterrorism officials arrested Smadi on Thursday before publicly disclosing a similar, but ...

Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas passed Sen. John Kerry a letter for President Obama while Kerry visited Gaza on Thursday, senior State Department officials said. The letter for the president is in the hands of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, the officials said Friday. Kerry, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, toured the devastation in Gaza and met with officials from the U.N. Works Relief Agency, the main provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza. Frederick Jones, ...