17 must-read stories for the weekend

Austerity is the only deal-breaker for Greece. Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis asks Europe to give Greece’s reform agenda a chance.

Women on the leadership ladder. Female employees are breaking gender stereotypes to take the big jobs, but what do they still need to make it to the top?

Mega-trends are re-shaping Africa. 9 things that will define the continent’s future.

The prize for Africa’s fight against corruption. How the continent can save $150 billion cleaning up.

Violent extremism is a global threat. Yet fanaticism begins at home. Five things communities can do to prevent its spread.

The secret to great (public-private) partnerships? It’s one word.

China’s economy is slowing down. Here are 5 insider insights explaining why.

From our meeting on the Middle East and North Africa in Jordan:

• At MidEast Forum, officials seek world’s help. (AP)
• Push to train 100,000 young workers, as World Economic Forum highlights regional skills gap. (The National)
• At the Dead Sea, Jordan’s message was ‘staying alive’. (Al Arabiya)
• Queen Rania of Jordan calls on Muslims to take a stand against IS and its ‘attack on civilisation’. (Daily Mail)

Islamic finance and conscious capitalism. An idea that premiered at Davos in 2010 is going mainstream. (Foreign Affairs)

Resilient robots. A new algorithm promises a big step forward, letting robots ‘think outside the box’ to overcome breaks and malfunctions.

Trucking will be the first big casualty of robot vehicles. Does U.S. society need a radical rethink, paying people to consume if they aren’t need to work?

Molecular electronics. Diodes are the valves of circuitry. Now researchers have built a usable single molecule diode.

Can general relativity be made to fit with quantum mechanics? Scientists have a new lead on a ‘theory of everything’.

A lone economist sees a financial crisis looming. What does he do? Sell his house and car? Write an op-ed for the FT? Start a hedge fund? Gary Gorton took one of those options, explored the rest, and wrote the paper explaining the subprime crisis.

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Author: Adrian Monck is Managing Director and head of Public Engagement at the World Economic Forum.

Image: A visitor takes in the last of the day’s light as a seasonal fog engulfs Cape Town as the city prepares for the start of the southern hemisphere winter, May 8, 2012. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings