CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Taylor Ward and Helen Regan, CNN Temperature records are being shattered in countries across Asia as a brutal April heat wave continues to grip large portions of the continent, with little relief in sight. In Southeast Asia, some countries posted their highest ever recorded temperatures this week, while searing heat in the Indian subcontinent

By Nectar Gan, Wayne Chang and CNN’s Beijing bureau The deadliest fire to hit the Chinese capital in two decades killed 29 people in a hospital Tuesday, but most people didn’t hear about it until several hours later, and even then the details were slim as authorities kept a tight lid on details. As flames

By Simone McCarthy and Sophie Jeong, CNN China is making “significant progress” building the country’s fifth research facility in Antarctica after a several years-long lull in construction, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). New support facilities and groundwork for a larger structure have appeared at the site following

By Zahid Mahmood, CNN Mohammad Zafri says his memory is patchy after surviving relentless beatings by the Taliban. But one event that’s hard to forget is being summoned last spring to the militant group’s headquarters to collect documents he had left behind, having been an employee of the previous, internationally-backed administration. Not wanting to cause

By Emiko Jozuka, Krystina Shveda, Junko Ogura, Marc Stewart and Daniel Campisi, CNN It is still morning when Kinzaburo Shiga, 77, returns to Onahama port after catching a trawler full of fish off Japan’s eastern coast. But the third-generation fisherman won’t head straight to market. First, he’ll test his catch for radiation. It’s a ritual

By Nectar Gan and CNN’s Beijing bureau A Chinese acrobat has fallen to her death during an aerial silks performance, sparking horror and outcry on social media over the lack of safety measures. The woman, surnamed Sun, fell to the stage while performing a mid-air routine on Saturday with her husband in a village near

By Yoonjung Seo, CNN North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has ordered officials to prepare to launch the country’s first military reconnaissance satellite, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Wednesday. During his visit to the National Aerospace Development Administration on Tuesday, Kim Jong Un said the country’s military reconnaissance satellite production has been completed

By Wayne Chang, Xiaofei Xu and Nectar Gan, CNN At least 21 people have died in a fire that tore through a hospital in China’s capital Beijing, state media CCTV reported on Tuesday. Amateur video shows people hanging from the façade of the building while attempting to escape the blaze which started around 1 p.m.

By Manveena Suri and Tara Subramaniam, CNN At least 13 people have died from heatstroke in India’s western Maharashtra state after attending a state award ceremony on Sunday at which a senior government official was present, police officials have confirmed. In Navi Mumbai, the city where the ceremony was held, between 50 to 60 people

By Tara Subramaniam and Manveena Suri, CNN The brazen assassination of a former Indian lawmaker and his brother in front of live television cameras while under police custody has sparked renewed anger over the blurred lines between politics and crime in the country’s most populous state. With more than 240 million people, Uttar Pradesh’s population

Story by Reuters Noor Jehan, an elephant in Pakistan’s Karachi Zoo, is critically ill after the 17-year-old fell in a pond on Thursday in a small enclosure. Right after the fall Four Paws, a global animal welfare organization, recommended lifting Noor Jehan with a crane, ropes and belts. She has since been lying visibly weak

Story by Reuters An Australian man has been refused bail after being charged with a foreign interference offense for accepting cash from suspected Chinese intelligence agents, with a Sydney court saying his close ties to China made him a flight risk. Magistrate Michael Barko said Alexander Csergo was a “sophisticated, worldly businessperson” who had been

By Katie Hunt, CNN A nomadic empire dominated the Asian steppes for three centuries from 200 BC, trading goods on the Silk Road, building elaborate tombs for its dead and conquering distant lands on horseback. Known as the Xiongnu, the empire saw conflict with great rival imperial China that resulted in the construction of the

By Junko Ogura, Alex Stambaugh and Kathleen Magramo, CNN Police have raided the home of a man suspected of throwing an explosive near Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, as the leader vowed to ensure maximum security to keep global dignitaries safe during G7 meetings in the country next month. Kishida had to abandon a speech

By Hilary Whiteman, CNN Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s Papua region say they have killed at least 13 Indonesian military soldiers after the army sent troops in search of captured New Zealand pilot, Phillip Mehrtens, who was taken hostage in February. The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) said its soldiers attacked two Indonesian military posts

By Simone McCarthy, CNN Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s Defense Minister Li Shangfu met Sunday in Moscow, where the two hailed their countries’ close military cooperation. The meeting kicked off Li’s four-day visit to Russia — his first overseas trip since stepping into the role last month. It comes as Western countries have ramped

By Junko Ogura, Alex Stambaugh and Chris Lau, CNN Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed on Sunday to keep world leaders safe during G7 meetings in the country, a day after a man threw what appeared to be a smoke bomb at him during a campaign speech. “Japan as a whole must strive to provide

By Emi Jozuka and Junko Ogura, CNN Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated unharmed Saturday after an explosion at a venue where he was giving an outdoor speech. Video footage released by Japan’s public broadcaster NHK showed members of the public fleeing and a man being arrested following the explosion. The footage showed multiple

By Jessie Yeung and Gawon Bae, CNN Some South Korean youth are so cut off from the world, the government is offering to pay them to “re-enter society.” The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced this week that it will provide up to 650,000 Korean won (about $500) per month to isolated social recluses,

By Brad Lendon and Gawon Bae, CNN North Korea says the new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) it tested Thursday was solid-fueled, a development that analysts say could allow it to launch long-range nuclear strikes more quickly and easily as it ramps up its missile program. The new missile, called the Hwasong-18, was launched just after

By Sugam Pokharel and Hira Humayun, CNN Three Nepali Sherpas are missing after being buried by a block of snow on Mount Everest, according to a statement from Nepal’s Tourism Department on Wednesday. The trio were delivering materials to construct and clear a route to be used by climbers for this year’s spring climbing season

By Helen Regan, Sophie Jeong and Alex Stambaugh, CNN A former J-pop star trainee came forward with allegations Wednesday that he and multiple other young men were sexually abused by the late Johnny Kitagawa, once a powerful figure in Japan’s entertainment industry. Japanese-Brazilian singer-songwriter Kauan Okamoto alleged during a press conference that over the course

By Nectar Gan, CNN Sea levels on China’s coastline have hit their highest on record for the second year in a row, rising more quickly than the global average and posing a serious threat to coastal cities such as the financial hub of Shanghai. In 2022, China’s coastal sea levels were 94 millimeters (3.7 inch)

Story by Reuters A Hanoi court on Wednesday sentenced a prominent Vietnamese political activist to six years in prison for conducting anti-state activities, his lawyer said, in a case that has raised international concerns over the communist country’s treatment of dissidents. Nguyen Lan Thang, 48, participated in environmental and anti-China protests, voiced support for other

By Chris Lau, CNN Escaping police custody by swapping identities seems like a plot straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster, but police in Hong Kong are on the hunt for a suspect who did just that. A 37-year-old man who had been detained on suspicion of drug offenses is thought to have slipped out of

CNN Editorial Research Here is a look at the life of his Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, Buddhist spiritual leader of the people of Tibet. Personal Birth date: July 6, 1935 Birth place: Taktser, Amdo, Eastern Tibet Birth name: Lhamo Dhondup Father: Choekyong Tsering Mother: Dekyi Tsering Education: Geshe Lharampa Degree (Doctorate of

By Brad Lendon, CNN Japan on Tuesday announced plans to develop and build an array of advanced long-range missiles as it bolsters its defenses amid increasing tensions with neighboring China. The Japanese Defense Ministry said it had signed contracts with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to develop and mass produce the weapons under a plan extending

By Helen Regan, Sandi Sidhu, Salai TZ and Anna Coren, CNN Relatives were still recovering the charred bodies and limbs of victims killed in a military airstrike on a village in central Myanmar Wednesday, a day after one of the deadliest attacks since the junta seized power in a coup two years ago. An eyewitness,

By Celine Alkhaldi and Ehsan Popalzai, CNN The United Nations said it was being forced into making an “appalling choice” after instructing all of its personnel in Afghanistan to stay away from its offices in the country, following the Taliban’s ban on female Afghan aid workers. “UN national personnel — women and men — have

By Chris Lau, CNN A severe sandstorm has cloaked Beijing and China’s northeastern regions for the fourth time in a month forcing some residents to stay indoors to protect themselves from dense air pollution. Images showed the Chinese capital engulfed in a cloud of orange haze on Monday which hung thick in the air into

By Nectar Gan, CNN Lawyer Xu Zhiyong has spent nearly two decades fighting for human rights in China, and on Monday he was handed one of the longest prison sentences ever issued for civil activism under Xi Jinping’s crackdown on dissent. Xu was sentenced to 14 years in prison and his long-time partner and fellow

By Brad Lendon, CNN For the first time, the Chinese navy appears to have simulated strikes by aircraft carrier-based warplanes on Taiwan, as drills around the island wrapped up on their third day. Beijing launched the drills on Saturday, a day after Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen returned from a 10-day visit to Central America and

By Heather Chen, CNN An elderly couple has died after eating poisonous pufferfish in Malaysia, prompting an appeal from their daughter for stronger laws to prevent others from suffering the same fate. Ng Chuan Sing and his wife Lim Siew Guan, both in their early 80s, unknowingly purchased at least two pufferfish from an online

By Brad Lendon, CNN The US Navy has sent a destroyer close to a contested island in the South China Sea that Beijing has fortified with military installations to stake its territorial claims on the region. The sailing came as the Chinese military entered a third day of a show of force around Taiwan, a

By Wayne Chang The Covid-19 virus may have originated from humans, a Chinese scientist has claimed. The genetic sequences of viral samples taken from the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan — thought to be the ground zero site of the pandemic — were “almost identical” to those of patients infected with the coronavirus, suggesting that

By Eric Cheung, Larry Register and CNN’s Beijing bureau, CNN China said Sunday it was simulating precision attacks on key targets in Taiwan as the military drills it launched in response to the island president’s meeting with the US House Speaker entered a second day. The mock drills included “tactical maneuvers” by the Chinese navy,

By Heather Chen and Kocha Olarn, CNN Her father was ousted from power by a military coup in 2006. Her aunt’s government suffered a similar fate eight years later. Now, Paetongtarn Shinawatra is set to become the latest member of Thailand’s famed political dynasty — after father Thaksin and aunt Yingluck — to take on

By Heather Chen There’s an old Chinese saying that goes: “Kill the chicken to scare the monkey.” Roughly translated it means the best way to intimidate a big rival is to destroy a smaller one. But what happens after that? One man in China appears to have just found out. In a curious court case

By Xiaofei Xu, Wayne Chang, Jade Wurapa and Heather Chen, CNN A Chinese court on Friday sentenced six people to jail for their roles in the human trafficking and abuse of a woman whose appearance in an online video showing her chained by the neck sparked a public outcry. The Xuzhou Intermediate People’s Court in

By Wayne Chang, Sophie Jeong, Heather Chen, Brad Lendon and Eric Cheung, CNN China has started three days of military exercises around Taiwan after the island’s president met the US House Speaker in defiance of repeated threats by Beijing. The exercises, dubbed “United Sharp Sword,” have been denounced by Taiwan. China sees Taiwan as its

By Mohammed Tawfeeq and Heather Chen, CNN North Korea claimed on Saturday to have tested a new type of underwater drone it said was “capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.” The drone — called the “Haeil-2 Unmanned Underwater Nuclear Attack Boat’” — was tested between April 4 and 7, according to a report by the

By Andrew McNicol and Andrew Raine, CNN It was a Chinese dream driven by the same sort of ambition that has seen this country rise from poverty to the world’s second-largest economy in the space of just a few decades. In 2011, around a year before becoming the country’s leader, Xi Jinping outlined a vision

By Simone McCarthy, Jake Kwon, and CNN’s Beijing bureau China has slapped sanctions on two American organizations that hosted Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen during her recent travel in the United States, which Beijing had fiercely condemned. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Friday the Washington-headquartered think tank Hudson Institute and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

By Emiko Jozuka and Brad Lendon, CNN Rescuers are scanning waters off southern Japan for 10 people on board a Japanese military helicopter that apparently crashed into the sea on Thursday, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said. “I will continue to do my best to collect information on the damage and search for human lives,” said

By Jessie Yeung and Moeri Karasawa, CNN Across Japan, nearly 1.5 million people have withdrawn from society, leading reclusive lives largely confined within the walls of their home, according to a new government survey. These are Japan’s hikikomori, or shut-ins, defined by the government as people who have been isolated for at least six months.

By Simone McCarthy, Jake Kwon and Pauline Lockwood, CNN French President Emmanuel Macron told Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping he was counting on him to “reason” with Russia and help end the war in Ukraine. In his opening remarks at talks in Beijing on Thursday, Macron said Russia had “put an end to decades of peace

By Helen Regan, CNN Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said farewell to politics Wednesday with a rousing speech that assured other nerds, criers, and huggers that they too could one day lead. “You can be anxious, sensitive, kind, and wear your heart on your sleeve, you can be a mother or not, you

By Richard Roth, Jessie Gretener and Jessie Yeung, CNN Afghan men working for the United Nations in Kabul will stay home in solidarity with their female colleagues after the Taliban prohibited Afghan women from working for the global organization, according to a senior UN official. Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN Deputy Special Representative, Resident and Humanitarian

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN A slow-moving environmental catastrophe is unfolding in a marine ecosystem home to some of the world’s rarest species, including the critically endangered hawksbill turtle, as well as whale sharks, giant manta rays and dugongs. It has been more than a month since the MT Princess Empress, carrying 800,000 liters (211,340 gallons)

By Simone McCarthy and Michelle Toh, CNN French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen arrive in Beijing this week for a visit France has framed as a high stakes chance to push China to do more for peace in Ukraine, but where European economic interests will also loom large. Macron

By Sania Farooqui, CNN Seven tourists were killed and 13 others injured in a major avalanche in India’s northeastern state of Sikkim, local police said Tuesday. The incident occurred at about 11.10 a.m. local time, the army said in a statement to CNN. The army said at least 20 people were rescued alive after several

By Brad Lendon, CNN The Philippines on Monday identified the locations of four new military bases the US will gain access to, as part of an expanded defense agreement analysts say is aimed at combating China. The four bases include three on the main island of Luzon, close to Taiwan, and one in Palawan province

By Sophia Saifi and Chris Lau, CNN At least 13 people were killed and 10 others injured Friday in a crush among people waiting for Ramadan food donations in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi, local police said. The crowd crush is the latest in a string of deadly incidents at food distribution centers across Pakistan as

By Kocha Olarn and Helen Regan, CNN Firefighters in central Thailand have spent days battling a wildfire that has engulfed two mountains and part of a forest park. The fire started at the Khao Chaplu mountain in Nakhon Nayok province, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Bangkok. Authorities said the blaze ignited during a

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN At least 29 people were killed Wednesday night after an inter-island ferry caught fire in the southern Philippines, with many of the 250 passengers jumping overboard into dark waters trying to escape the blaze, authorities said. The Philippine Coast Guard said Thursday that search and rescue efforts are ongoing after the

By Simone McCarthy, CNN Taiwan’s relationship with the United States has “never been closer,” its President Tsai Ing-wen said after arriving in New York City Wednesday, as Beijing warned her visit could lead to “serious confrontation” between China and the US. Taiwan faced “tremendous challenges,” Tsai said from the city, where she is making the

By Riley Zhang and Jessie Yeung, CNN Valery Gergiev, the star Russian conductor fired in Germany last year for his refusal to condemn the invasion of Ukraine, was given a warm welcome in China this week as he started a three-day performance at the country’s top art center. “It is like coming home,” Gergiev said

By Simone McCarthy Taiwan has every right to “connect with the world,” its President Tsai Ing-wen declared Wednesday as she embarked on a diplomatic mission to Central America, which will include transit in the United States — and has already been condemned by China. Tsai departed Taiwan on Wednesday for a 10-day trip in which

By Nectar Gan, CNN For 12 years, Program Think, an anonymous Chinese blogger, mounted an open challenge to China’s tightening authoritarian grip and expanding surveillance state. The freewheeling blog offered a mixture of technical cybersecurity advice and scathing political commentary — including tips on how to safely circumvent China’s Great Firewall of internet censorship, develop

By Shafi Kakar, Hande Atay Alam and Helen Regan, CNN A prominent activist for girls’ education in Afghanistan was arrested by the Taliban on Monday, according to an official, the latest step in its repressive clampdown on the rights of Afghan women. Matiullah Wesa, 30, is well known for his activism and is the founder

By Chris Lau, CNN Wearing numbered lanyards, a small group of 80 demonstrators took part in Hong Kong‘s first authorized protest in three years on Sunday — a carefully choreographed event that campaigners say offers a chilling insight into the future of protest in the city. Numbers were capped at 100, and during the hour-long

By Tara Subramaniam and Manveena Suri, CNN A Namibian cheetah relocated to India last year as part of plans to reintroduce the species on the subcontinent died on Monday from a kidney infection, according to Namibia’s Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF). The deceased cheetah, named Sasha, was one of eight brought from Namibia to India’s Kuno

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN Russia’s Pacific Fleet fired a pair of supersonic missiles at a mock target in waters off Japan’s coast on Tuesday morning, the Russian Ministry of Defense said. “A team of two missile boats carried out a joint missile strike against a sea shield simulating a simulated enemy warship,” the ministry said

By Rhea Mogul, CNN Myanmar’s ruling military paraded an arsenal of weapons in the capital Naypyidaw on Monday, in a grand display of force days after the United States imposed fresh sanctions against the junta for inflicting “pain and suffering on the people of Burma.” The array of equipment — ranging from rocket launchers to

By Chris Lau, CNN A child riding on his father’s shoulders smiles as they stroll through a park lined with yellow autumn-touched leaves — that is the typical image of a Japanese “ikumen”. The term strings together the Japanese words ikuji, meaning care for children, and ikemen, referring to cool-looking men. Japanese authorities have widely

By Eric Cheung, CNN Honduras has formally established diplomatic ties with China and severed them with Taiwan, ending a decades-long relationship and dealing a blow to the self-ruled island democracy in its struggle for recognition. “The government of the Republic of Honduras recognizes the existence of one China in the world and that the government

By Brad Lendon, CNN A day after China said it drove a US Navy destroyer away from Beijing-claimed waters in the South China Sea, the US 7th Fleet said the same warship sailed through those waters to challenge the Chinese claims. The “guided-missile destroyer USS Milius asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China

By Yoonjung Seo and Chris Lau, CNN A male zebra broke loose in South Korea’s capital on Thursday, trotting down busy roads and back alleys for hours before being tranquilized and returned to a zoo. Videos on social media showed 3-year-old Sero galloping through the Gwangjin district of Seoul amid heavy traffic, strolling down narrow

By Brad Lendon and Yoonjung Seo, CNN North Korea on Friday claimed to have tested an underwater drone capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that could create a “radioactive tsunami,” however, analysts urged skepticism noting a lack of proof. A report from the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the drone, called the “Unmanned

By Yoonjung Seo, Andrew Raine and Gawon Bae, CNN Extrajudicial executions, rape, forced abortions, jail without trial, torture, starvation rations that leave prisoners so hungry some turn to eating insects. These are just some of the abuses commonplace in North Korean prisons and other detention facilities, according to former detainees whose testimony forms the basis

By Jessie Yeung and Eric Cheung, CNN Taiwan announced Thursday it will recall its ambassador to Honduras as ties between the two worsen, with the Central American nation preparing to switch diplomatic recognition from the self-governing island to China. In a statement, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it had recalled the ambassador to “express our strong

By Jessie Yeung and CNN’s Beijing bureau Beijing, the sprawling Chinese capital and one of the world’s biggest cities, saw its population drop last year for the first time in 19 years as the country grapples with a demographic crisis decades in the making. The city’s population of permanent residents fell from 21.88 million in

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN A severe sandstorm has swept across Beijing and several northern provinces in China, blanketing the region in thick clouds of orange dust and sending air pollution soaring to hazardous levels, state weather authorities said on Wednesday. Dense clouds enveloped the Chinese capital where the air quality index of PM10 — particles

By Sahar Akbarzai, Hira Humayun, Sophia Saifi, Masoud Popalzai and Helen Regan, CNN The death toll from a strong earthquake that struck northeast Afghanistan on Tuesday could rise much higher, authorities warned Wednesday, after tremors were felt in several major Pakistani cities and as far away as the Indian capital New Delhi. At least 13