CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Jessie Yeung, CNN There’s never been a better time to learn Korean. It’s one of the fastest-growing languages in the world, outpacing traditionally popular rivals like Chinese in multiple markets — reflecting the global phenomenon many call the “Korean wave.” In 2022, Korean was the seventh most-studied language on the learning app Duolingo, according

By Heather Chen, Kathleen Magramo and Angus Watson, CNN A Philippine court on Wednesday acquitted Nobel laureate Maria Ressa of tax evasion, ending a raft of legal hearings against the veteran Filipino-American journalist that she said were “politically motivated.” Ressa, CEO and founder of news site Rappler and a former CNN bureau chief, was cleared

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN A prominent Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist was shot dead on Monday at a court building in the northwestern city of Peshawar, according to police and a witness. Abdul Latif Afridi, 79, a former president of Pakistan’s Supreme Court bar association, was shot six times in a break room at

By Sugam Pokharel, Jonny Hallam and Jessie Yeung, CNN A Facebook Live video purportedly showing the last terrifying moments inside the cabin on Yeti Airlines flight 691 before it crashed in Nepal on Sunday has circulated widely online, as search and recovery efforts continue on the ground. The plane crashed while en route from the

By Rhea Mogul, Manveena Suri and Jessie Yeung, CNN A search and rescue operation has been underway in Nepal following a deadly plane crash that once again highlights the dangers of air travel in a country often referred to as one of the riskiest places to fly. Of 72 people on board, at least 69

By Asha Thapa, Kathleen Magramo and Sugam Pokharel, CNN At least 68 people were killed Sunday when an aircraft went down near the city of Pokhara in central Nepal, a government official said, the country’s deadliest plane crash in more than 30 years. Seventy-two people — four crew members and 68 passengers — were on

By Aliza Kassim and Iqbal Athas, CNN Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Thursday found the country’s former President Maithripala Sirisena and four other senior government officials responsible for failing to prevent the 2019 Easter bombings that killed at least 290 people and injured hundreds. A seven-judge bench ruled Sirisena was negligent because he failed to

By Simone McCarthy, CNN As Jo Wang, an event planner in Beijing, watched her family members fall ill with Covid-19 one by one late last month she had a single goal: find antiviral pills to protect her elderly grandfather when his turn came. After three days of trying and failing to purchase a box of

By Junko Ogura, Emiko Jozuka, Aliza Kassim Khalidi and Heather Chen, CNN Japanese prosecutors on Friday said they have indicted a man suspected of murdering former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last year in a fatal shooting. Nara prosecutors’ office said in a statement it had indicted Tetsuya Yamagami on murder and firearms charges after Abe

By Simone McCarthy and Wayne Chang, CNN At least five people were killed and 13 others injured when a car accelerated through pedestrians at an intersection in the southern Chinese hub of Guangzhou on Wednesday evening, state media said. Videos circulating on social media and geolocated by CNN appeared to show the vehicle, a black

By Sophia Saifi and Kathleen Magramo, CNN Two teenage girls reported missing in Pakistan last week have been found more than 750 miles from home after attempting to travel to South Korea to meet K-pop super band BTS, police in the South Asian country said. The two girls, aged 13 and 14, went missing on

By Sophie Jeong and Wayne Chang, CNN Satellite images taken over a number of Chinese cities have captured crowding at crematoriums and funeral homes, as the country continues its battle with an unprecedented wave of Covid-19 infections following its dismantling of severe pandemic restrictions. The images — taken by Maxar in late December and early

By Eric Cheung and Brad Lendon, CNN China sent 28 warplanes across the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Sunday as Beijing conducted its first large-scale military exercises around the island this year, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said. The 28 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) planes were among 57 spotted near Taiwan, the ministry said, adding

By Emiko Jozuka, CNN An airplane flown by budget carrier Jetstar made an emergency landing in central Japan on Saturday after authorities received an apparent bomb threat from an international caller, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing police sources. Tokyo’s Narita airport received the call at 6:20 a.m. Japan time from a man in Germany saying

By Wayne Chang and Simone McCarthy, CNN The Chinese government announced on Thursday that it will reopen its border with Hong Kong on January 8, nearly three years after it was largely shut in an effort to contain the spread of Covid. Up to 60,000 Hong Kong residents will be able to cross the border

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his Philippine counterpart Ferdinand Marcos Jr. have agreed to strengthen economic ties and resume talks on oil exploration, as they look to revive their economies amid the pandemic downturn and friction over contested areas of the South China Sea. Xi met with Marcos Jr. on Wednesday

By Paula Hancocks, Sandi Sidhu and Rhea Mogul, CNN Hatemon Nesa weeps as she clings to her 5-year-old daughter, Umme Salima, at a rescue shelter in Indonesia’s Aceh province. Their faces appear gaunt, their eyes sullen, after drifting for weeks at sea on a boat with little food or water. “My skin was rotting off

By Alex Stambaugh, Rhea Mogul and CNN’s Beijing bureau The wave of Covid infections sweeping across China may already have peaked in some of the country’s largest cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, according to a new study. The study, published on December 29 in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers of Medicine, said mathematical modeling predicted the

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at Tibet, an autonomous region within China. About Tibet (from National Bureau of Statistics of China)Area: 1.22 million sq km (approximately 474,000 sq miles) Capital: Lhasa Language: Tibetan Government (China): Governed by the Chinese Communist Party; the head of state is President Xi Jinping. Government (Exiled): Centered in Dharamsala,

By Nectar Gan, Jessie Yeung and Laura He, CNN After a tumultuous end to a momentous and challenging year, China heads into 2023 with a great deal of uncertainty — and potentially a glimpse of light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. The chaos unleashed by leader Xi Jinping’s abrupt and ill-prepared exit from

By Emiko Jozuka and Jessie Yeung, CNN Japanese Emperor Naruhito greeted well-wishers at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo for the first time in three years on Monday, reviving an annual New Year tradition that was paused during the Covid pandemic. “Even today, wars and conflicts frequently occur worldwide, and I feel a deep sadness that

By Brad Lendon and Gawon Bae, CNN North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is calling for an “exponential increase” in his country’s nuclear weapons arsenal in response to what he claims are threats from South Korea and the United States, Pyongyang’s state media reported Sunday. Kim’s comments come as North Korea twice over the weekend

By Gawon Bae, Jonny Hallam, Tara John and Emiko Jozuka, CNN North Korea fired at least three short-range ballistic missiles from a site south of Pyongyang on Saturday, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the latest in an unprecedented year of weapons testing. In a text to reporters, the Joint Chiefs said the

By Azaz Syed, Sophia Saifi and Rhea Mogul, CNN The mutilated body of a Hindu woman was found in a field Thursday in southeastern Pakistan, police said, as they investigate her alleged murder in the latest suspected attack against minorities in the Muslim-majority country. The woman’s son, Somar Chand, said he found her disfigured body

By Rhea Mogul, CNN A court in military-run Myanmar has sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to seven years in prison for corruption, a source familiar with the case told CNN, bringing an end to a string of secretive and highly-politicized proceedings against the ousted former leader. Friday’s verdict is the final punishment meted out to

By Jessie Yeung, Darya Tarasova and Alex Stambaugh, CNN Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in a virtual meeting Friday that their partnership was more important than ever in the face of “unprecedented pressure” from the West, as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine leaves it increasingly isolated on the global stage. While

By Sahar Akbarzai, Ehsan Popalzai and Jen Deaton, CNN A Kabul professor who tore up his diplomas live on television in Afghanistan in protest over the Taliban’s barring of women from higher education has been arrested. The man, named Ismail Mashal, is the founder of the private Mashal University in Kabul and also a lecturer

By Sophia Saifi and Rhea Mogul, CNN A court in Pakistan on Monday freed a convicted rapist after it was “agreed” he would marry his victim, his lawyer said, enraging rights activists who say the ruling risks normalizing sexual violence in the South Asian country. Daulat Khan, 23, was convicted in May of raping the

By Yin Soeum, Kocha Olarn and Heather Chen, CNN The death toll has risen to 24 following a huge fire that engulfed a casino complex in Cambodia as search and rescue operations resumed Friday with dozens still unaccounted for, according to authorities. Banteay Meanchey province spokesman Sek Sokhom told CNN that officials were now working

By Jessie Yeung and Jennie Chen, CNN One person was killed during a massive pileup involving more than 200 vehicles in the central Chinese city Zhengzhou on Wednesday, according to state media. The pileup took place on a bridge that was shrouded in heavy morning fog, which caused multiple vehicles to crash, according to state-owned

By Heather Chen and Kocha Olarn, CNN A 45-year-old Irish tourist died in Thailand on Tuesday after falling from a moving train, Thai police said. Patrick Ward fell from the train in Kanchanburi province, west of the capital Bangkok, as it passed a scenic view at low speed, according to Sai Yok district Pol. Maj.

By Nectar Gan, CNN 2022 was supposed to be a triumphant year for China and its leader Xi Jinping, as he began his second decade in power with a pledge to restore the nation to greatness. Instead, China had its most difficult year under Xi’s rule as it reeled from his costly zero-Covid policy —

By Kathleen Magramo and Richard Roth, CNN The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday said it was “deeply alarmed” by the ruling Taliban’s ban on women attending university or working for aid groups in Afghanistan. In moves widely condemned by the international community, the Islamist group last week ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations

By Eric Cheung, CNN Taiwan will extend the period of mandatory military service for all eligible men from four months to a year amid rising threats from China, President Tsai Ing-wen said at a news conference in Taipei on Tuesday. Four months of mandatory military training can “no longer suit the needs” of Taiwan’s defense,

By Rhea Mogul, CNN They battled hunger and dehydration after the engine of their rickety boat cut out, leaving them adrift in the Andaman Sea for weeks. Some grew so desperate, they drank seawater. Others prayed for rain, so they could briefly quench their thirst. Starving and without medicine, some reportedly succumbed to illness. Despite

By Jake Kwon, Sophie Jeong, Ivana Kottasová and Jessie Yeung, CNN South Korea’s military scrambled fighter jets and attack helicopters on Monday after five North Korean drones crossed into its airspace, with one aircraft crashing, according to the country’s defense ministry. The ministry said South Korea’s military fired shots at the drones, which measured under

By Nectar Gan, Eric Cheung and Selina Wang, CNN Beijing will begin distributing Pfizer’s Covid-19 drug Paxlovid to the city’s community health centers in the coming days, state media reported Monday. The report comes as the city grapples with an unprecedented wave of infections that has severely strained its hospitals and emptied pharmacy shelves. The

By Rhea Mogul, CNN After spending more than a month adrift on a stricken boat without food or water, dozens of starving Rohingya have been rescued in Indonesia, the United Nations refugee agency said Sunday, offering a glimmer of hope for the persecuted group who fled their refugee camps last month in search of a

By Eric Cheung, Jessie Yeung and emiko jozuka, CNN China sent 47 aircraft across the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, its largest incursion into Taiwan’s air defense zone in recent months, as Beijing steps-up efforts to normalize aggressive military operations around the self-ruled island. The incursions were made by 42 J-10, J-11,

By Chris Liakos, Ehsan Popalzai, Sahar Akbarzai, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Ivana Kottasová, CNN At least half a dozen major foreign aid groups have said they are temporarily suspending their operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban barred female employees of non-governmental organizations from coming to work. “We cannot effectively reach children, women and men in desperate

By Kocha Olarn, CNN Thailand‘s navy said Sunday that the death toll from the sinking of one of its warships earlier in the week had risen to 18. The HTMS Sukhothai sank in severe weather early Monday, leaving dozens of its crew missing in stormy seas in the Gulf of Thailand. 11 officers remain missing,

By Xiaofei Xu, CNN China’s top health authority has announced that it has stopped publishing daily Covid-19 case numbers, as reports claimed that the true toll of the country’s ongoing outbreak is much worse than the official figures published by authorities. The National Health Commission (NHC) said Sunday that “relevant outbreak information” would instead be

By Hannah Ritchie and Artemis Moshtaghian, CNN For months, Leila has barely seen sunlight. “I miss being in the open air…I miss being able to walk freely,” she told CNN. “I miss my family, my room.” Her life now is largely confined to four walls, in a house that is not her own, with people

By Hannah Ritchie, Nectar Gan, Simone McCarthy, Selina Wang and Mengchen Zhang, CNN Almost 250 million people in China may have caught Covid-19 in the first 20 days of December, according to an internal estimate from the nation’s top health officials, Bloomberg News and the Financial Times reported Friday. If correct, the estimate — which

By Sugam Pokharel, Alex Hardie and Duarte Mendonca, CNN Charles Sobhraj, the infamous French serial killer who inspired the award-nominated TV series “The Serpent,” walked free from a Nepali prison Friday. “Sobhraj has been released from the jail. He has been handed over to the immigration department. The officials at the immigration department informed us

By Rhea Mogul, CNN The plight of nearly 200 Rohingya refugees adrift in the Indian Ocean for the past month is growing increasingly desperate, the United Nations’ refugee agency said Friday, as it repeated its call for countries in the region to help save them. Many passengers are feared dead and survivors are said to

By Yoonjung Seo, Emiko Jozuka and Jessie Yeung, CNN North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles on Friday, according to South Korean officials, the latest in an unprecedented year of weapons testing. The missiles were fired from Pyongyang’s Sunan area at around 4:32 p.m. local time, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in

By Jessie Yeung and Tetsu Sukegawa, CNN Several members of a QAnon group in Japan were sentenced by a Tokyo court on Thursday for breaking into multiple Covid vaccination centers, according to CNN affiliate TV Asahi. The five defendants were members of YamatoQ, an offshoot of the larger QAnon conspiracy theory that originated in the

By Selina Wang, Nectar Gan and CNN’s Beijing bureau For much of the pandemic, images of overflowing hospitals and busy funeral homes from the United States have featured heavily on China’s state-controlled television, where the deaths of over a million Americans from Covid is depicted as a gross failing of Western democracy. Now, as an

By Jessie Yeung, CNN For weeks, the 21-year-old student had been studying hard for the final exams of her first year of university. She was almost done, with just two tests left, when she heard the news: the Taliban government was suspending university education for all female students in Afghanistan. “I did not stop and

By Richard Roth, CNN The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has called on Myanmar’s ruling military junta to release all political prisoners, including deposed State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and former President Win Myint, in its first resolution passed on the Southeast Asian country since its independence. UNSC Resolution 2669 on Myanmar expressed “deep

By Rhea Mogul, CNN Many Rohingya are feared dead at sea more than three weeks after their boat became stranded off the Indian coast, where at least 160 people remain aboard on the brink of starvation, family members and the United Nations’ refugee agency said. Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, whose sister and 5-year-old niece are on

By Kocha Olarn, CNN Thai naval officials said Tuesday there were not enough life jackets for everyone aboard a warship that sank early Monday in severe weather in the Gulf of Thailand with the loss of at least six lives. Twenty-three people remain missing after the sinking of the corvette HTMS Sukhothai, while 76 people

By Yoonjung Seo and Brad Lendon, CNN North Korea is ready to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at a normal trajectory, leader Kim Jong Un’s sister said Tuesday in state media, a flight pattern that could prove the weapons can threaten the continental United States. In a statement carried by the Korean Central News

By Nectar Gan and Cheng Cheng, CNN China’s abrupt and under-prepared exit from zero-Covid could lead to nearly 1 million deaths, according to a new study, as the country braces for an unprecedented wave of infections spreading out from its biggest cities to its vast rural areas. For nearly three years, the Chinese government has

By Kocha Olarn and Brad Lendon, CNN A Royal Thai Navy warship sank in severe weather early Monday, leaving 33 of its crew of 106 sailors missing in stormy seas in the Gulf of Thailand, Thai authorities said. Three rescued sailors were in critical condition, and a search operation was underway for the missing crew,

By Jessie Yeung and Yoonjung Seo, CNN South Korea has a problem: thousands of people, many middle aged and isolated, are dying alone each year, often going undiscovered for days or weeks. This is “godoksa,” or “lonely deaths,” a widespread phenomenon the government has been trying to combat for years as its population rapidly ages.

By Yoonjung Seo, Junko Ogura and Brad Lendon, CNN North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the waters off its east coast on Sunday, the latest in what has been a record year for test launches by the Kim Jong Un regime. The launches, reported by both South Korean and Japanese authorities, marked the 35th

By Brad Lendon, CNN It was one of the heaviest bombardments in history. A shock-and-awe campaign of overwhelming air power aimed at bombing into submission a determined opponent that, despite being vastly outgunned, had withstood everything the world’s most formidable war machine could throw at it. Operation Linebacker II saw more than 200 American B-52

By Eric Cheung, CNN Taiwan has noticed a hole in its defense plans that is steadily getting bigger. And it’s not one easily plugged by boosting the budget or buying more weapons. The island democracy of 23.5 million is facing an increasing challenge in recruiting enough young men to meet its military targets and its

Story by Reuters and CNN The number of people killed in a landslide Friday near the Malaysian capital has risen to 23, while 10 people are still missing, Malaysia’s state media agency Bernama reported Saturday. The authorities have identified six bodies so far, Bernama reported, citing Malaysia’s National Disaster Management Agency. The landslide in Batang

By Brad Lendon, Wayne Chang, Emiko Jozuka and Junko Ogura, CNN Japan on Friday unveiled a new national security plan that signals the country’s biggest military buildup since World War II, doubling defense spending and veering from its pacifist constitution in the face of growing threats from regional rivals. In an early evening televised address

By Paula Hancocks, Yoonjung Seo and David Hawley, CNN “She’s smiling, look at her smile, her face.” Oh Il-seok looks lovingly at a photograph of his daughter taken in the last hours of her life. As he takes off his glasses to wipe his eyes, his wife whispers, “Ji-min is my friend, she is my

By Brad Lendon, CNN North Korea on Friday said it has successfully tested a solid-fueled rocket motor, a development that could lead to Kim Jong Un’s regime being able to more quickly and reliably fire an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the future. The new high-thrust rocket motor was tested at a satellite launching ground

By Kocha Olarn, CNN Thailand’s Princess Bajrakitiyabha is in a stable condition after she was hospitalized due to a heart problem, the Thai royal palace said in a statement on Thursday. The statement said the princess, 44, lost consciousness early Wednesday in northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima province, where she was treated at a local hospital. She

By Kathleen Magramo and Kathleen Benoza, CNN Police in Japan’s capital are urging people to moderate their alcohol consumption this holiday season following an increase in deaths of drinkers hit by vehicles after falling asleep on the street. As of November 25, 10 people had been killed in such accidents this year, Tokyo police said

By Jessie Yeung and Celina Tebor, CNN A Chinese student appeared in a federal court in the United States on Wednesday, charged with one count of stalking after allegedly threatening and harassing someone who advocated for democracy in China, US authorities said. Xiaolei Wu, 25, a student at the Berklee College of Music in Boston,

By Wayne Chang, CNN Hong Kong’s High Court ruled on Wednesday that a decision by police to ban a Tiananmen square vigil last year was “unlawful,” thereby overturning an earlier conviction against jailed pro-democracy activist Chow Hang-tung, who helped organize the event. For three decades, Hong Kong has been the only place on Chinese-controlled soil

By Brad Lendon, CNN The US military activated its first Space Force command on foreign soil on Wednesday in South Korea, with the unit’s new commander saying he is ready to face any threat in the region. The creation of the US Space Forces Korea gives the newest branch of the US military its first

By Jessie Yeung, CNN Video of what appears to be a previously unreported violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops at their disputed Himalayan border has emerged online, offering a rare window into the long-simmering territorial tensions between the two Asian powers. The video, according to a serving Indian military officer with knowledge of the

By Wayne Chang and Jessie Yeung, CNN China has sent a record 18 nuclear-capable H-6 bomber aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense zone, the island’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday, as Beijing continues to step-up pressure on the self-ruled island. The 18 bombers were part of 21 total Chinese warplanes sent into Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification

By Vedika Sud and Simone McCarthy, CNN Indian and Chinese troops have clashed on their disputed Himalayan border, the first known incident between the two nuclear-armed Asian powers in nearly two years. In a statement, India’s Ministry of Defense said soldiers from both sides sustained minor injuries in the face-off, which took place Friday in

By Ehsan Popalzai and Jessie Yeung, CNN Three people were killed and many others injured after gunmen attacked a hotel in Kabul, the Afghan capital, on Monday. The attack started around 2:30 p.m. local time in Kabul’s commercial Shar-e-Naw area, with civilians in the building, according to police chief spokesman Khalid Zadran. An eyewitness who

By Nectar Gan, CNN Beijing and large swaths of northern China woke to choking sand and dust on Monday, as a winter sandstorm sent air pollution levels off the charts. A thick cloud of dust blanketed the Chinese capital, where the air quality index of PM10 — particles of pollution that are less than 10

By Simone McCarthy, Selina Wang and Wayne Chang, CNN China is bracing for an unprecedented wave of Covid-19 cases as it dismantles large parts of its repressive zero-Covid policy, with a leading expert warning Omicron variants were “spreading rapidly” and signs of an outbreak rattling the country’s capital. Changes continued Monday as authorities announced a