PARIS—French authorities vowed to crack down on civic groups they said were promoting radical Islam, days after an extremist beheaded a schoolteacher for showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Monday said that 51 associations, including religious schools and mosques, would be visited by security services this week, … Read more
WASHINGTON—Federal prosecutors unsealed charges against six Russian intelligence officers accused of engaging in some of the most destructive cyberattacks of recent years, including operations that knocked out Ukraine’s energy grid, exposed emails from the French president’s party and damaged global systems in the costly 2017 NotPetya attack. The prolific hacking unit within Russia’s military intelligence … Read more
Two British Islamic State fighters accused in the torture and killing of Western hostages were brought to the U.S. to face criminal charges in Virginia, U.S. authorities said Wednesday, after more than two years of legal limbo after their capture in Syria. The men, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, who had allegedly supervised Islamic … Read more
Political opposition forces in Kyrgyzstan said they were seeking to seize power and form a new government after taking control of state buildings in the capital following elections that international monitors said were marred by allegations of voter fraud. President Sooronbai Jeenbekov fled the presidential palace early Tuesday after demonstrations rocked the capital of this … Read more
Gaining a vaccine to help contain the novel coronavirus would provide a big boost to the global economy in 2021, but the initial geographic distribution of that benefit will likely depend on which vaccine candidate works first. Public health officials around the world increasingly believe at least one of the vaccines now in the later … Read more
The U.S. and European Union imposed sanctions against Belarus officials on Friday, part of a coordinated effort by Western allies to censure the authoritarian regime over accusations of political repression and rigging elections. The EU reached an early morning deal to advance a sanctions package against more than three dozen Belarusian individuals deemed responsible for … Read more
TEL AVIV—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday accused Hezbollah of improperly storing weapons in a civilian area near Lebanon’s capital that could explode soon, adding pressure on the Iran-allied group as it faces blowback over August’s deadly blast in Beirut. Mr. Netanyahu showed satellite photos of what he said was a missile factory located … Read more
A Pakistani immigrant suspected of stabbing two people outside the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris followed a South Asian Islamic sect that in Pakistan has become increasingly emboldened, and on occasion sparked violence, in defending the central figure in Islam from what adherents see as blasphemous insults. In a video police … Read more
ISLAMABAD—Pakistan’s top court Monday agreed to hear arguments that a death sentence should be reinstated on the British national accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl after a lower court overturned his conviction earlier this year. The Supreme Court ordered that Omar Sheikh continue to be detained for … Read more
PARIS—Two people were seriously wounded in a knife attack near the former office of Charlie Hebdo that prosecutors are investigating as a possible terrorist act, more than five years after gunmen opened fire in the satirical magazine’s newsroom. The assault began late Friday morning when a man wielding what appeared to be a butcher’s knife … Read more