Who are the new leaders influencing economic and political agendas around the world? What will life be like in America, Europe, Japan, or China in the year 2020?

In this slow economy, even banks are feeling the pinch. The FDIC shut down one northwest Arkansas bank system. Arkansas National Bank, that had nine branches in the Bentonville area was shut down Friday.

A gun’s lifespan is greatly affected by how often it is fired. It is impractical, however, to expect soldiers to document their weapon use in the field, especially in the heat of battle. A new RFID-enabled system being tested by the Army automates the process.

The day may be getting a little closer when robots will perform surgery on patients in dangerous situations or in remote locations, such as on the battlefield or in space, with minimal human guidance.

A startup based in Cambridge, MA, says that it plans to soon begin clinical trials of a nanostructured material that stops bleeding almost instantly. A startup called Arch Therapeutics has licensed the technology from MIT and is developing manufacturing processes for making it in large amounts.

Venezuela is planning to conclude several contracts with Russia next month on the purchase of military equipment worth at least $2 billion, a leading Russian business daily said on Monday.

Scientists have created the first genetically modified human embryo. What does this mean to you?

Imagine this scenario: multiple terrorist bomb and nerve-gas attacks in the Pacific Northwest, several hijacked planes flying over the United States, and a major hurricane approaching the East Coast.

They deal with drug dealers, hostage takers and crazed gunman -- all to keep people safe. And KFOX got a firsthand look at how the El Paso FBI trains. As part of the El Paso FBI's Citizens Academy, average citizens got to stand and watch just feet away as the elite, FBI Swat Team practiced how they would handle a sniper situation.

"The terrorist catastrophes in New York and Washington swept away media comment on other global events taking place on September 11, 2001. Virtually obscured on that historic agreement reached in Lima, Peru by the foreign ministers of the Organization of American States (OAS) on the Inter-American Democratic Charter. –Lou Dobbs, CNN

The basic infrastructure all of us depend on every day – including aviation, highway, public transit and rail – is falling apart and needs a proper flushing, if we could find a public water system that worked properly.

Hospitals and airplanes ban the use of cell phones, because their electromagnetic transmissions can interfere with sensitive electrical devices. Could the brain also fall into that category? Of course, all our thoughts, sensations and actions arise from bioelectricity generated by neurons and transmitted through complex neural circuits inside our skull.

Prices for cornmeal and rice have doubled in Somalia since January, and on Monday food riots wracked the Somalian city of Mogadishu. Thousands of people protested the insane prices for staple foods, and eventually police shot and killed two protesters. Earlier this year, food riots broke out in the African nation of Senegal as well. What's causing these conditions, which sound like the precursors to the apocalyptic food-shortage flick Soylent Green?

Neal Stephenson speculated about computer viruses that could crash human brains in his classic novel Snow Crash, but the technology to do something like that has always seemed (luckily) far in the future. Now, however, computer hackers have created a loophole that lets them do it today.

The first ever Zenith Global Citizenship Conference, an initiative designed to build leadership and inspiration in youth between the ages of 15 and 25, will take place at the River Rock Resort Casino next week.