Pakistan's embattled Ahmadiyya minority enjoyed a brief moment of hope earlier this month when one of its own, a U.S.-based Princeton economist, was appointed to an economic advisory council. But the backlash from Islamic hard-liners, which led newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan to quickly rescind the appointment under political pressure, has only underscored the Ahmadis' fraught position in the conservative, Muslim-majority country. Ahmadis believe another Islamic prophet, Ahmad, appeared in the 19th century, a view at odds with...

South Korean President Moon Jae-in delivered a message from Kim Jong Un to U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, confirming the North Korean leader's commitment to "complete denuclearization." Moon, who is scheduled to deliver his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, was meeting with Trump on the sidelines to brief him on his recent summit in Pyongyang with Kim, an event that has revived U.S.-North Korea talks. Trump, who a few weeks earlier canceled U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea, citing...

It’s known as the “Hermit Kingdom,” the world’s most isolated country, run by a crazed, totalitarian dynasty. But North Korea maintains embassies in nearly 50 nations — including Algeria and Zimbabwe — and could emerge swiftly as a normalized global power if nuclear talks with South Korea and the United States play out the right way. And that’s a problem. The North’s embassies have long been used not for traditional diplomacy but for illicit activities, including blackmail, cybercrime and drug trafficking. U.S. analysts warn that it’s a pipe dream to think they can...

On Monday morning, in the ramshackle suburb of Al-Asif Square in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, local headteacher Syed Mustafa was organising a party. The night before, the newly elected prime minister, Imran Khan had promised on national television to grant citizenship to the Pakistani-born children of the country’s roughly 2.5 million Afghan refugees. Mustafa set...

Seven years after the Arab Spring, little has been done to address youth unemployment in Tunisia, a key factor in extremist groups' ability to recruit marginalized youth, rights groups and experts warn. "Someone who is marginalized with nothing to lose, no stability in life, no vision of the future, no hope for change, can become a very easy target for...

The US has said it is ready to “immediately” restart stalled negotiations with North Korea about nuclear disarmament in light of agreements reached at a summit of the two Koreas in Pyongyang. At that meeting, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, promised to dismantle a missile engine test site and launchpad, and made a conditional offer to shut down his country’s main nuclear complex at Yongbyon. The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said on Wednesday he had invited his North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong-ho, to meet in New York next week where both...

South Korean President Moon Jae-in will push North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to detail his nuclear programs when the two meet Wednesday for the second day of a high-stakes summit that could make or break President Trump’s own pursuit of diplomacy with Pyongyang. With the Moon-Kim summit in the North Korean capital marking the third time the two have met in eight months, the South Korean president faces mounting pressure to get Mr. Kim to show serious action on denuclearization — lest the North’s currently stalled talks with Washington collapse...