ISLAMABAD—Pakistan’s highest court is expected to decide as soon as next week whether a British national whose conviction for killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was overturned earlier this year will be freed nearly two decades after the murder. The fate of Omar Sheikh, who was sentenced to death in 2002 for orchestrating the … Read more
HONG KONG—Chinese leader Xi Jinping declared success in his approach to governing the region of Xinjiang, signaling no letup in the Communist Party’s forceful campaign to assimilate millions of ethnic Muslims on the country’s northwestern frontier. “Practice has proven that the party’s strategy for governing Xinjiang in the new era is completely correct,” and it … 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
ROME—An Italian cardinal whose former office has been embroiled in a financial scandal resigned suddenly Thursday from his Vatican post and renounced his rights as a cardinal, a surprise escalation of an affair that has overshadowed that Holy See for the last year. The extraordinary move was announced without explanation in a terse evening communique from … Read more
KABUL—Deadly violence in Afghanistan has marred the first-ever direct talks between Kabul and the Taliban, underscoring the high stakes that face the warring sides as they struggle to get negotiations off the ground to end nearly two decades of fighting. Representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban kicked off a historic first round of … Read more
BEIRUT—A large explosion shook a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, sending a thick plume of smoke over a country still reeling from the deadly Beirut explosion last month that devastated parts of the capital. Smoke was seen rising from the area surrounding the towns of Ain Qana and Kafarfila, the state-run National News … Read more
HONG KONG—A Beijing court sentenced an influential businessman known for his outspoken criticism of China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to 18 years in prison, meting out harsh punishment in a corruption case that is likely to chill dissent within the Chinese political elite. Ren Zhiqiang, 69 years old, was sentenced Tuesday after being convicted of corruption, … Read more
ROME—The Vatican condemned the spreading international acceptance of euthanasia and assisted suicide, including in some traditionally Catholic countries in Europe, in a strongly worded document that reasserts traditional teaching. “Euthanasia is an act of homicide that no end can justify and that does not tolerate any form of complicity or active or passive collaboration,” the … Read more