//php if(!empty($last_str)){if(!preg_match('~[0-9]+~', $first_str)){echo $title;}else{echo $last_str; }}else{echo $title;}?>47 : The 21st Century – Will it Belong to Asia?
Ishtiaq Ahmed
25 January 2008
The great historian Eric Hobsbawm described the 20th century as the century of extremes. Burgeoning industrialisation, scientific breakthroughs in the fight against disease and the concomitant rising rates of human survival and economic growth, the end of colonial domination, and the spread of democracy were some of the outstanding achievements of that period.