In the religious capital of Iran, the Islamic revolution still holds a powerful sway even as once-unthinkable signs of modernity creep into the city of Qom to challenge the faithful. Qom, a couple of hours drive south of Tehran, is one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites, home to dozens of...

Israeli defense officials have warned that the health system in the blockaded Gaza Strip was close to collapse, according to Israeli daily Haaretz on Wednesday.  In an assessment to Israel’s security cabinet, the officials warned that the deteriorating health conditions in the...

 Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp announced a $5.5 billion share buyback on Wednesday as it reported a 60 percent rise in quarterly operating profit buoyed by rising valuations for its technology investments.  SoftBank Group said it would repurchase 112 million shares worth 600 billion...

You can think of it as a World Cup of biochemical research. Every two years, hundreds of scientists enter a global competition. Tackling a biological puzzle they call “the protein folding problem,” they try to predict the three-dimensional shape of proteins in the human body. No one...