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
A former Bolivian president, Carlos Mesa, on Monday conceded that Luis Arce, the handpicked candidate of former President Evo Morales, had won Sunday’s presidential election, which tested democracy in the resource-rich, landlocked country. Mr. Mesa said that quick counts carried out by polling firms—a highly probable counting of voting samples—showed his main opponent, Mr. Arce, … Read more
The European Union agreed Monday to impose targeted sanctions against Russian officials and entities allegedly involved in the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny but officials insisted the move should not undercut Europe’s continued high-level contacts with President Vladimir Putin. Foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg backed a Franco-German proposal to impose a travel ban … Read more
As Covid-19 cases surge across large parts of Europe and the U.S., officials are reluctant to force another round of nationwide lockdowns of the sort imposed in March. But this time—unlike in the spring—public-health experts broadly and increasingly agree, with some worried that the general public won’t cooperate with another monthslong, generalized lockdown against a … Read more
The coastal Chinese city of Qingdao will test its more than nine million residents for Covid-19, authorities said, after the discovery of a dozen new cases linked to a local hospital—the country’s most significant virus scare in several months. Local health officials said Monday that they discovered nine new coronavirus cases linked to the Qingdao … Read more
U.S. academics Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson shared the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for new insights into how auctions work, and how different auction designs can help buyers and sellers meet their goals. The announcement Monday gave the U.S. a clean sweep of this year’s Nobel Prizes, with at least one American … Read more
MOSCOW—Political turmoil following a disputed election in the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan continued over the weekend as parliament chose a prime minister who was recently freed from jail while security services detained the country’s ex-leader. The developments appear to strengthen the hand of President Sooronbai Jeenbekov in the short term, though he has said … Read more
MOSCOW—Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of intense shelling on Sunday, denting hopes that a Russia-brokered cease-fire announced the previous day will hold following two weeks of fierce clashes over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan said that overnight shelling by Armenian forces on the city of Ganja had left several people dead and dozens … Read more
SEOUL—North Korea, even as it pursued denuclearization talks with the Trump administration, kept advancing its arsenal. Now the behind-the-scenes progress is in the public eye. At a military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party on Saturday, Pyongyang revealed a new intercontinental ballistic missile. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who had … Read more