Africa has one. Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia have one. But until this weekend, Europe didn't have an annual conference at Harvard University during which leaders from the region discuss the political and business future of the continent in two days of debate, keynote speeches, and hallway gossip....

2012 has been a busy year for female heroines in books and movies alike. Katniss Everdeen and Anna Karenina, to name just two, won hearts worldwide.

For those unfamiliar with their stories, Ms. Everdeen saved her people from exploitation in a post-apocalyptic North-America, but Ms. Karenina...

A white man with black sunglasses and a plastic bag in his left hand slowly walked up to me and said hello. I acknowledged his passing with a firm nod, cars racing by Memorial Drive on a sunny day in Cambridge two weeks ago. He dropped the bag and frantically...

The 40-something woman wearing a pink shirt stared out from the back page of last month's New York Times with an intelligent sort of look. Fine lines encircled her mouth and strands of curly hair framed her face. She appeared to be standing in some sort of laboratory and the...