CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN In the first case of its kind, a Chinese court has ruled against an unmarried woman who sued a hospital that refused to freeze her eggs — sparking a debate over gender equality in the country. Xu Zaozao was age 30 and unmarried in 2018 when a doctor at the Beijing

By Nectar Gan, Selina Wang, Eric Cheung and Simone McCarthy, CNN US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan Tuesday evening, marking a significant show of support for Taiwan despite China’s threats of retaliation over the visit. Pelosi’s stop in Taipei is the first time that a US House speaker has visited Taiwan in 25

By Eric Cheung, CNN In simulated scenes, a hostile enemy attempts to seize control of a key waterway close to the Taiwanese capital. Attacking from sea and air, the invading forces target the mouth of the Tamsui River on the island’s northern coast — a strategic estuary that provides direct access to the center of

By Simone McCarthy George Gao, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, has stepped down after five years at the helm of the health body, ending a tenure that placed him at the fore of early investigations into the first outbreak of Covid-19 in central China and the country’s rapid development of

By Brad Lendon, Yoonjung Seo and Joseph Ataman CNN Poland is buying almost 1,000 tanks, more than 600 pieces of artillery and dozens of fighter jets from South Korea, in part to replace equipment donated to Ukraine to help Kyiv fight the Russian invasion, the Polish Ministry of Defense told CNN on Tuesday. The agreement,

By Nectar Gan, CNN The Chinese metropolis of Wuhan has shut down a district of almost a million people after detecting four asymptomatic Covid cases, as the original epicenter of the pandemic takes no chances in preventing another outbreak under China’s stringent zero-Covid policy. Authorities in Wuhan’s Jiangxia district, home to more than 970,000 people,

By Heather Chen, CNN Countries across Asia are on high alert for monkeypox, screening travelers and scrambling teams of medics, as they report their first cases of the virus, now identified as a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). Japanese authorities on Monday announced the first detected case of monkeypox in the

By Kathleen Magramo, Katie Hunt and Kristin Fisher, CNN The remnants of the massive Chinese rocket that delivered a new module to its space station on Monday are expected to fall to Earth early next week, according to US Space Command, which is tracking the rocket’s trajectory. The 23-ton Long March 5B rocket which carried

By Simone McCarthy, CNN Beijing has urged candidates vying to be Britain’s next Prime Minister to refrain from “hyping up the so-called ‘China threat,’” as foreign relations with the Asian economic giant emerge as a key issue in the closely-fought leadership race. Both former finance minister Rishi Sunak and his rival, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss,

By Jessie Yeung and Emiko Jozuka, CNN Wild monkeys have attacked dozens of residents of a city in southwestern Japan in recent weeks, with reports of the animals crawling through house windows and striking from behind, as police step up an unsuccessful search for them. Since July 8, at least 45 people have been injured

By Nectar Gan, CNN The United States is no stranger to China’s angry responses over its support for Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own territory. But last week, China’s warnings against a potential high-stakes trip by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei appeared to have caused concern in

By Sophia Saifi and Rhea Mogul, CNN Public services in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, have been suspended and businesses are being urged to close, as torrential rains cause deadly flash flooding and infrastructure damage, leaving at least 15 dead since Saturday. On Sunday night, more than 60 millimeters (2.3 inches) of rain fell in Karachi,

By Tara Subramaniam Severe heat warnings were issued for almost 70 Chinese cities, where temperatures were expected to exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) Monday, according to the China Meteorological Administration. Another 393 Chinese cities and counties were forecast to swelter in temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) and above, the administration

By Yong Xiong and Kathleen Magramo, CNN China successfully docked a second laboratory module to its under-construction space station, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said Monday, as the country takes a step closer to completing its orbital outpost by the end of the year. The Wentian module was launched atop a Long March 5B

By Helen Regan and Rhea Mogul, CNN Myanmar’s military junta executed two prominent pro-democracy activists and two other men accused of terrorism, state media reported Monday, following a trial condemned by the UN and rights groups. Veteran democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Ko Jimmy, and former National League for Democracy lawmaker Phyo

By Junko Ogura and Hira Humayun, CNN Japan‘s Sakurajima volcano, located on the island of Kyushu, erupted on Sunday, prompting evacuations in the region. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said the volcano erupted around 8:05 p.m. local time (7:05 a.m. ET). Footage from the agency‘s surveillance camera showed a cloud of smoke or ash rising

By Yong Xiong, CNN Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other top state officials have been given domestic Covid-19 vaccines, the ruling Communist Party said in a rare disclosure aimed at stimulating China’s booster program. Deputy head of the National Health Commission (NHC) Zeng Yixin said on Saturday that “all China’s incumbent state and party leaders”

By Jessie Yeung, CNN A man who killed his ex-wife by setting her on fire during a livestream was executed in China on Saturday, state media reported, marking the end of a case that prompted horror and outrage across the country. Tang Lu was executed by a court in the southwestern Sichuan province, according to

By Jessie Yeung and Yoonjung Seo, CNN It’s as if Seoul is infatuated. Stroll through the South Korean capital and amid the sea of traditional Hangul characters it’s hard not to notice the same four letters of the Latin alphabet cropping up again and again: MBTI. Those four letters are emblazoned on ads, peppered into

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN Millions of people in China are bracing themselves for even hotter weather this weekend as more than a dozen cities issued red alerts — the highest possible heat warning. According to China’s Meteorological Administration, temperatures in 19 cities in the eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian are expected to surpass 40

By Rukshana Rizwie, Akanksha Sharma, Kunal Seghal and Kathleen Magramo, CNN Sri Lanka‘s police and military troops forcibly removed anti-government protesters camped outside the presidential office in Colombo in a pre-dawn raid on Friday on the order of the country’s new President. Social media posts showed officers dressed in riot gear pulling down protest tents

By Reuters Lawmakers chose India‘s first president from the country’s tribal communities on Thursday, which could boost the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s party among marginalized groups ahead of the 2024 general election. Droupadi Murmu, a 64-year-old teacher turned politician, will be the second woman to hold the largely ceremonial role as head of

By Jessie Yeung and Junko Ogura, CNN A wild monkey is terrorizing a small city in southwestern Japan, breaking into homes to bite and claw residents amid an ongoing hunt for the animal, officials said. Some 20 people in the Ogori area of Yamaguchi have been attacked by the monkey since July 8, with most

By Rhea Mogul, Iqbal Athas and Rukshana Rizwie, CNN Sri Lankan lawmakers on Wednesday elected former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as President of the crisis-hit South Asian country, in a move likely to anger protesters who have been demanding his removal from office for weeks. Wickremesinghe — a six-time former prime minister and key ally

By Alex Rogers, Annie Grayer, Kristin Wilson and Nectar Gan, CNN China warned Tuesday it would take “resolute and forceful measures” if US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan, in what would be the highest-level delegation from the United States to the self-governing island in 25 years. Pelosi, who is second in line

By Brad Lendon, CNN A US Navy warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, the third time in a week the vessel has entered waters claimed by China, heightening tensions between Washington and Beijing. Washington said the latest voyage by the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold demonstrated its “commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,”

By Nectar Gan, CNN Towns and farmlands inundated by floods, homes and roads buried by landslides, crops withering under scorching heat, hazmat-suited Covid workers collapsing from heatstroke. Since summer began, scenes of devastation and misery have been playing out across China as the world’s most populous nation grapples with an unrelenting torrent of extreme weather

By Brad Lendon and Yoonjung Seo, CNN South Korea’s homegrown KF-21 Boramae fighter jet flew for the first time on Tuesday, putting the country among the few nations to have developed and flown an advanced supersonic fighter. The prototype jet took a 33-minute roundtrip flight from an air force base in the southern city of

Story by Reuters Malaysian authorities have seized a massive haul of trafficked animal parts, including elephant tusks, rhino horns, pangolin scales and tiger bones worth around 80 million ringgit ($17.9 million). Authorities discovered around six tonnes of ivory tusks and other animal parts at the western port in Selangor state on Sunday. The animal parts

By Heather Chen, CNN Miriam has seen her share of high-risk operations and procedures in her years as a veteran doctor in the Philippines — but none quite as “complicated or as dangerous” as abortions, she said. “We take on huge risks if we agree to perform an abortion,” said Miriam, who is using an

By Emiko Jozuka and Jessie Yeung, CNN At least 30 endangered green sea turtles were found on Thursday with wounds around their neck, near the remote Japanese island of Kumejima in southern Okinawa prefecture. Police began investigating the case last Friday after the sea turtles were found during low tide, according to a police official

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN Filipinos living abroad are snapping up books about the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, not just to read about history but to preserve it. The rush to buy books documenting Marcos’ destructive 21-year reign comes as his son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., assumes office after a landslide election victory in

By Brad Lendon, CNN A US Navy warship on Saturday challenged Chinese claims to disputed islands in the South China Sea, the US 7th Fleet said in a statement — the second operation of its kind this week. The guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold sailed near the Spratly Islands — known as the Nansha Islands in

By Heather Chen, CNN For years it had been one of Sri Lanka’s grandest and most heavily guarded buildings, serving as the official residence and state office of the President. But all that changed on July 9, when protesters stormed in and took control, demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa before turning the palace

By Jessie Yeung, Iqbal Athas and Kunal Sehgal, CNN Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country earlier this week, has formally resigned, the parliamentary speaker confirmed Friday, capping off a chaotic 72-hours in the crisis-hit nation that saw protesters storm the capital. The President’s departure from office marks a major victory for the

By Brad Lendon, CNN More than 50 US and Japanese warplanes flew over waters near Japan this week as the two allies put on a show of force amid rising tensions in the region with China and Russia. A dozen of the US Air Force’s top-of-the-line F-22 stealth fighters, four F-35 stealth jets and 13

By Iqbal Athas, Rhea Mogul and Rukshana Rizwie, CNN Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has tendered his resignation in a letter sent by email to parliamentary speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardenena, according to an announcement from the speaker’s office Thursday. Rajapaksa landed in Singapore on a flight from Maldives earlier after fleeing his country in the

By Jessie Yeung, CNN Sri Lanka has plunged into chaos and its president has fled to Singapore, before emailing his resignation, as questions swirl about the country’s future. Embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore on a flight from Maldives on Thursday, according to a high-ranking security source in Colombo. He had been in Maldives

By Heather Chen, CNN Angry protesters who stormed the official residences of Sri Lanka‘s President have forced him to flee the country, but his sudden departure has plunged the South Asian state deeper into crisis. Demonstrators furious about economic mismanagement and a spiraling financial crisis have demanded that both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister

By Rhea Mogul, CNN They were once seen as heroes of the nation, the almost mythical warrior-king leaders who defeated the separatists in a bloody civil war. Yet the final days of Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa dynasty tell a very different tale. In the early hours of Wednesday, embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa made a hurried exit

By Nectar Gan, CNN Millions of Shanghai residents braved sweltering heat Tuesday to wait in line for compulsory Covid tests, as growing case numbers and the emergence of a highly infectious Omicron subvariant spurred new fears of a return to mass lockdown. Shanghai authorities have ordered the majority of the city’s 16 districts to undergo

By Brad Lendon, CNN A US Navy destroyer sailed near a disputed South China Sea island chain on Wednesday, challenging the restrictions imposed by China and others on transit through the area. Lt. Nicholas Lingo, a spokesperson for the US Navy’s 7th Fleet headquartered in Japan, said it was the second so-called freedom of navigation

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN A Hong Kong court on Tuesday sentenced a veteran activist to nine months in jail under a colonial-era sedition law for planning to protest against the Beijing Winter Olympics earlier this year. Koo Sze-yiu, 75, had planned to carry a homemade wooden coffin to China’s Liaison Office in the city on

By Jessie Yeung and Shawn Deng, CNN A heat wave is sweeping through China, with residents resorting to air raid shelters and public fountains to stay cool, as 84 cities across the country on Wednesday issued their highest-level red alert warnings. A red alert means temperatures are expected to reach over 40 degrees Celsius (104

By Iqbal Athas, Rukshana Rizwie, Tara John and Hannah Ritchie, CNN Sri Lanka’s political and economic crisis escalated as protesters stormed the prime minister’s office on Wednesday, demanding the country’s leaders step down after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives without resigning. Rajapaksa had been expected to formally resign Wednesday but instead left the

By Rhea Mogul and Jessie Yeung, CNN Family and close friends attended the funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on Tuesday, with crowds gathering on the streets of the capital to pay their last respects, four days after the shock of his assassination reverberated across the world. The private funeral was

By Jessie Yeung, Emiko Jozuka and Mayumi Maruyama, CNN The Unification Church said Monday it was puzzled by reports of alleged resentment held against the group by the man suspected of assassinating former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “There is a big distance between having resentment toward our association and killing former Prime Minister Abe,”

By Nectar Gan and Emiko Jozuka, CNN When Akie Matsuzaki married Shinzo Abe, then a rising political aide, in 1987, she followed a path well trodden by Japanese wives and gave up her job at the country’s largest advertising agency. But over more than three decades of marriage — including nine years as Japan’s first

By Jessie Yeung and Rhea Mogul, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Jessie Yeung and Emiko Jozuka, CNN Japan’s ruling coalition swept to victory on Sunday in an upper house election that took on heightened significance following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe, 67, was shot on Friday in the city of Nara while delivering a speech in support of candidates from his

By Rhea Mogul, Amy Woodyatt, Nectar Gan, Rukshana Rizwie and Ivana Kottasová, CNN Sri Lanka woke on Sunday to an uncertain future, with both its President and Prime Minister set to step down after thousands of protesters stormed their homes in fury over the nation’s crippling economic crisis. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has agreed to resign

By Kathleen Magramo, Emiko Jozuka, and Mayumi Maruyama, CNN Japanese voters headed to the polling stations on Sunday for an election billed as a defense of democracy, just two days after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while on the campaign trail. Abe was shot in broad daylight on Friday in the central city

By Iqbal Athas, Rhea Mogul and Amy Woodyatt, CNN Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday said he was willing to resign and make way for an all-party government to take over, shortly after protesters reportedly breached his official residence in Colombo during demonstrations over the country’s worsening economic crisis. “To ensure the continuation

By Helen Regan, Emiko Jozuka and Mayumi Maruyama, CNN Police in Japan have launched a murder investigation into the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe — but little is known about the suspect who was arrested at the scene of the fatal shooting on Friday. Abe, 67, was pronounced dead by doctors at

By Helen Regan, Emiko Jozuka and Mayumi Maruyama, CNN The body of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived back at his home in Tokyo on Saturday, a day after he was assassinated in a daylight shooting, sending a nation unaccustomed to gun violence into a state of shock and anger. His widow, Akie Abe,

By Rhea Mogul, Helen Regan, Amy Woodyatt, Adrienne Vogt and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By CNN Staff Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot during a campaign speech Friday in Nara. He was 67. Abe was pronounced dead by doctors at the Nara Medical University hospital in central Japan at 5:03 p.m. local time. He was admitted into hospital in a state of cardiac arrest

By Helen Regan, Junko Ogura and Tara John, CNN Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died on Friday after being shot while giving a campaign speech on a street in central Japan. The assassination of the former world leader in broad daylight has shocked a nation not used to gun violence and prompted an outpouring

By Nectar Gan, CNN The assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has shocked Japan, a country with one of the world’s lowest rates of gun crime due to its strict laws on gun ownership. Abe was shot dead on Friday in the city of Nara while delivering a campaign speech, Prime Minister Fumio

By Jessie Yeung, Rhea Mogul, Helen Regan, Rob Picheta, Amy Woodyatt, Ed Upright, Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt and Elise Hammond, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Helen Regan, Junko Ogura and Emiko Jozuka, CNN Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in critical condition and fighting for his life after being shot in the street in broad daylight while making a campaign speech in the central city of Nara, in an attack that has shocked the nation. Prime Minister Fumio

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN Singapore on Thursday executed two men for drug trafficking, ignoring pleas for mercy from human rights campaigners who fear “a new wave” of hangings in the Asian city state notorious for its strict drugs laws. Singaporean Norasharee bin Gous, 48, and Malaysian national Kalwant Singh, 31, had their capital sentences carried

By Nectar Gan, Shawn Deng and CNN’s Beijing Bureau Beijing on Wednesday announced a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for residents to enter public venues, becoming the first city in mainland China to do so as it attempts to contain a highly infectious Omicron subvariant. From July 11, people will need to show proof of vaccination to

By Nectar Gan and Shawn Deng, CNN China’s northwestern city of Xi’an, home to 13 million people, was partially shut down on Wednesday after it reported the country’s first outbreak of a highly transmissible new Omicron subvariant that is fast dominating the United States and Europe. The city recorded 18 Covid infections from Saturday to

By Jessie Yeung and Gawon Bae, CNN South Korea, one of the world’s most fossil fuel-reliant economies, is re-embracing nuclear energy, with the government announcing Tuesday it will restart construction on two nuclear reactors and extend the life of those already in operation. By 2030, the Energy Ministry wants nuclear to make up at least

By Brad Lendon and Gawon Bae, CNN Top-of-the-line F-35 stealth fighter jets from the United States and South Korea are teaming up for the first time in a 10-day exercise meant to send a message to North Korea. Six US Air Force F-35As from Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska arrived in South Korea on

Story by Reuters North Korea appears to have released water from a dam near its border with South Korea, prompting vacationers in the neighbouring country to evacuate due to rising water levels on the Imjin River, officials said Tuesday. The water level at a bridge on the river in the South’s border county of Yeoncheon

By Yong Xiong, Hannah Ritchie and Nectar Gan, CNN A massive online database apparently containing the personal information of up to one billion Chinese citizens was left unsecured and publicly accessible for more than a year — until an anonymous user in a hacker forum offered to sell the data and brought it to wider

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN The trial in China of a missing Chinese-Canadian tycoon who was abducted from a hotel room in Hong Kong five years ago will take place without consular access, the Canadian Embassy in Beijing told CNN on Tuesday. Billionaire financier Xiao Jianhua, known for his close connections to some of China’s most

By Jessie Yeung and Gawon Bae, CNN As employees return to the office in South Korea, so does gapjil — the country’s longstanding problem of toxic workplace culture. Nearly 30% of Korean office workers have experienced some form of workplace harassment in the past year, according to an online survey in June of 1,000 respondents

By Heather Chen, CNN China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called on Myanmar’s junta leaders to talk to their opponents amid concerns over escalating violence and deteriorating human rights in the Southeast Asian country. Wang is in Myanmar for his first visit since the junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Su Kyi

By Kathleen Magramo and Lauren Lau, CNN A rescue team from mainland China saved a crew member of a ship that broke in half and sank during Typhoon Chaba in the early hours of Monday morning — just hours after their counterparts in Hong Kong said a “miracle” would be needed to find any more

By Wayne Chang and Ivana Kottasová, CNN A Hong Kong lawmaker who was photographed standing close to Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this week announced Sunday he had tested positive for Covid-19. Steve Ho Chun-Yin said he tested negative on Thursday when he attended the photo session during the celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of

Story by Reuters North Korea has criticized an agreement between the United States, South Korea and Japan to strengthen military cooperation — claiming it is part of a US plan to create a military alliance like NATO in the region. North Korea’s foreign ministry spokesperson said as much to a question put by KCNA, the