CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN When Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr. met US President Joe Biden in New York last week, there was an uncomfortable sense of deja vu for some older Filipinos. But it was not so much that the visit came 40 years after Marcos’ father and namesake was welcomed to Washington by

By Reuters The Vatican on Thursday acknowledged that it had secretly disciplined East Timor bishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Carlos Ximenes Belo two years ago, responding to allegations that he sexually abused boys in East Timor decades before. The Vatican’s acknowledgment came in response to reporters’ questions following an article this week in Dutch

By Manveena Suri and Jack Bantock, CNN Marital rape was defined as rape in a landmark decision by India’s Supreme Court on Thursday. The country’s top court also stated that all women, regardless of their marital status, have the right to an abortion up until 24 weeks, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency

By Kathleen Magramo and Eric Cheung, CNN China’s famous ‘Panda diplomacy’ faces a test — after a bear in Taiwan came down with a life-threatening brain lesion. Taipei Zoo told CNN on Thursday they had requested help from experts in China to treat their Giant Panda, Tuan Tuan, after an MRI scan revealed the damage.

By Heather Chen and Sophie Jeong, CNN A Myanmar military court has sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her former adviser, Australian Sean Turnell, to three years in prison for violating the country’s Official State Secrets Act, a source familiar with the court proceedings confirmed to CNN. Australia immediately rejected the ruling and

By Jessie Yeung and Jasmine Wright, CNN US Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Demilitarized Zone that divides North and South Korea on Thursday, the last stop on her four-day trip to Asia. Harris condemned North Korea’s Kim Jong Un while standing on the heavily reinforced region, one day after Pyongyang fired two ballistic missiles

By Nectar Gan, CNN Chinese leader Xi Jinping has made his first public appearance since returning from a trip to Central Asia, quashing unfounded rumors of a “coup” that sparked a frenzy of speculation ahead of a key Communist Party meeting. Xi on Tuesday visited an exhibition in Beijing showcasing China’s achievements over his decade

By Kocha Olarn and Heather Chen, CNN A beauty queen from Myanmar who took refuge in Thailand after criticizing her home country’s ruling military junta has left Bangkok for Canada where she is expected to seek asylum. Han Lay, 23, captured international attention with an emotional pageant speech during the finals of the Miss Grand

By Kathleen Magramo, Taylor Ward and Jan Camenzind Broomby, CNN Typhoon Noru made landfall near Vietnam’s popular beach resort city of Da Nang on Wednesday morning, bringing powerful winds and heavy rain as hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated. Noru hit Vietnam at 5 a.m. Wednesday local time, according to CNN Weather, less than

By Jessie Yeung and Emiko Jozuka, CNN Japan bid farewell to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in an elaborate state funeral Tuesday, despite public opposition to the cost of the event as the country grapples with their late leader’s legacy. Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was shot dead during a campaign speech in Nara in

By Brad Lendon, CNN The US Navy’s most advanced surface warship is showing its stealthy profile in the western Pacific on a mission that may set the stage for the eventual deployment of US hypersonic missiles to the region. The USS Zumwalt is the first in a class of three multimission guided missile destroyers the

By Jessie Yeung and Jan Camenzind Broomby, CNN People in the northern Philippines were bracing for landslides on Monday after five rescue workers were killed in the aftermath of Typhoon Noru, which made landfall on Sunday and is now heading for Vietnam. The typhoon, known locally as Typhoon Karding, intensified rapidly from Saturday to Sunday,

By Kathleen Magramo, Lauren Faith Lau and Nectar Gan, CNN Cardinal Joseph Zen, a 90-year-old former bishop of Hong Kong and outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party, went on trial Monday over his role in a relief fund for the city’s pro-democracy protests in 2019. The high-profile case has brought renewed focus on the

By Sophia Saifi, Rhea Mogul, Anna Coren, Sandi Sidhu, Javed Iqbal, and Sameer Mandhro, CNN The baby sleeps listlessly on the hospital bed, her frail and dehydrated body fighting for survival. Next to her lies a motionless infant wrapped in a white cloth, who died just minutes earlier. One hour later, another child succumbs to

By Idris Mukhtar, Junko Ogura and Sana Noor Haq, CNN Typhoon Noru blasted the Philippines main Luzon island on Sunday, prompting warnings that heavy winds and torrential rain could cause catastrophic flooding. The eyewall of the storm, known locally as Typhoon Karding, made landfall in the Polillo Islands at 5 p.m. local (5 a.m. ET)

By Yoonjung Seo, Junko Ogura and Larry Register, CNN North Korea has fired a ballistic missile into the waters off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, according to officials in both South Korea and Japan. The short range missile was fired early Sunday morning local time from the Taechon area of North Pyongan Province,

By Kathleen Magramo and Larry Register, CNN Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has warned that climate change will not spare other countries the sort of disaster that left up to one third of his country underwater and millions of its children at risk of water-borne diseases. He told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at Japan, a country of islands located off the eastern coast of mainland Asia. About Japan (from the CIA World Fact Book)Area: 377,915 sq km Population: 124,214,766 (2022 est.) Median age: 48.6 years (2020 est.) Capital: Tokyo Ethnic groups: Japanese 97.9%, Chinese 0.6%, Korean 0.4%, other 1.1% Religion: Shintoism

By Wayne Chang, CNN China’s former deputy public security minister Sun Lijun has been sentenced to life in prison on corruption charges, state media reported Friday, as a purge of officials intensifies ahead of a twice-a-decade key Communist Party gathering. Sun, 53, who was accused of leading a “political clique” in China’s security establishment, was

By Nectar Gan and Wayne Chang, CNN A Chinese man has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for his leading role in a brutal attack on female diners in the city of Tangshan, in a case that shocked the country and sparked widespread anger over violence against women. Chen Jizhi, along with four other

By Heather Chen, Yoonjung Seo and Gawon Bae, CNN A criticism used on US lawmakers by the President of South Korea has gone viral on social media — after a hot mic picked him up using an expletive. Yoon Suk Yeol appears to have made the remark after meeting US President Joe Biden at a

By Jessie Yeung and Lauren Lau, CNN A man was arrested in Hong Kong on suspicion of sedition after playing the harmonica at a vigil for Queen Elizabeth II, under a colonial-era law that once outlawed insulting the Queen — and has now been revived by authorities amid an ongoing crackdown. Videos posted to social

By Junko Ogura, Emiko Jozuka, Jake Kwon and Heather Chen, CNN A Japanese man in his 70s has been taken to hospital in Tokyo after setting himself on fire near the prime minister’s office, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK. “I have heard that police found a man who had suffered burns near the cabinet

By Rhea Mogul and Sophia Saifi, CNN Angelina Jolie is set to visit flood-ravaged Pakistan, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said in a statement Monday, in a trip intended to draw international attention to the country’s unfolding humanitarian crisis. Floods caused by record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan’s northern mountain regions have submerged

By Kevin Liptak and Brad Lendon, CNN President Joe Biden in an interview that aired Sunday said US military personnel would defend Taiwan if the Chinese military were to launch an invasion of the democratically ruled island, in comments that yet again appear to venture beyond the longstanding US policy on the issue. The comments

By Junko Ogura, Heather Chen and Jake Kwon, CNN At least two people have died after Typhoon Nanmadol brought record-breaking rains and strong winds to Japan’s southernmost island of Kyushu and cut power to hundreds of thousands of people, according to local authorities. A man in his 60s was confirmed dead in the city of

By Yong Xiong, Nectar Gan and Philip Wang, CNN Anger and criticism over China’s unrelenting zero-Covid policy has erupted after a bus transporting residents to a coronavirus quarantine facility crashed on Sunday, killing 27 people. According to authorities, the bus was carrying 47 people from Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province, to a remote county

By Rob Picheta and Eric Cheung, CNN A 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Taiwan on Sunday, causing buildings to collapse and triggering tsunami warnings. The quake hit the Chishang township in rural southeastern Taiwan and had a depth of 10 kilometers. Japan’s Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning for Miyako island in the East China Sea,

By Jessie Yeung and CNN’s Beijing bureau A top Chinese health official has warned people against touching foreigners, a day after mainland China confirmed its first case of monkeypox. Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote on China’s Twitter-like platform Weibo on Saturday that the country’s Covid-19 restrictions

By Jessie Yeung, Junko Ogura, Sahar Akbarzai and Jennifer Hauser, CNN About two million people in southwestern Japan have been ordered to evacuate ahead of a powerful typhoon forecast to hit the region on Sunday, according to public broadcaster NHK-World Japan. Unprecedented storms and rainfall could strike Japan’s southwest island of Kyushu, the Japan Meteorological

By Heather Chen, CNN They called it the “Goddess of the Yangtze” — a creature so rare that it was believed to bring fortune and protection to local fishermen and all those lucky enough to spot it. But overfishing and human activity drove it to the brink of extinction and it hasn’t been seen in

By Andrew Raine and CNN’s Beijing bureau With the sun shining, drinks on the table and music in the air, it looks like the young men in the video, which has gone viral on Chinese social media, have picked a great day for a picnic. Dressed casually in jeans and T-shirts, shorts and sandals, and

By Sophia Saifi, Jake Kwon, Larry Register and Heather Chen, CNN “Super floods” in Pakistan have left 3.4 million children in need of “immediate, lifesaving support,” according to UNICEF. The floods — caused by record monsoon rains and dubbed by one minister as “the worst humanitarian disaster in a decade” — have impacted 16 million

By Gawon Bae, CNN The Chinese and South Korean soldiers stood face to face, the wind whipping through their ranks and their national flags flapping in the gusts. A Chinese military transport jet nearby on the runway of Incheon International Airport opened its rear door to receive precious cargo. Nine South Korean soldiers then moved

By Nectar Gan and Rhea Mogul, CNN When Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin sit down with other Asian leaders at a summit in Central Asia Friday, they will seek to present a united front to counterbalance the United States and its allies. But within their “no-limits” relationship, potential differences over Russia’s

By Brad Lendon, CNN China’s military leaders share a potential weakness that has undermined their Russian counterparts in Ukraine and could hamper their ability to wage a similar war, according to a new report from the US National Defense University. The report identifies a lack of cross-training as a possible Achilles’ Heel within the People’s

By Nectar Gan, CNN Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised China’s “balanced position” on the Ukraine war, though he conceded Beijing had “questions and concerns” over the invasion, in what appeared to be a veiled admission of their diverging views over the protracted military assault. Putin made the comments when meeting Chinese leader Xi

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN Thousands of people in Hong Kong have turned out to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II, in one of the largest public gatherings since China clamped down on shows of political dissent in the former British colony more than two years ago. Crowds of more than 2,500 people of varying

By Nectar Gan and Simone McCarthy, CNN Chinese leader Xi Jinping has arrived in Central Asia in his first foreign trip in almost 1,000 days, returning to the world stage in an attempt to reassert Beijing’s global influence during a time of increased friction with the West. The trip will see Xi make a state

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at Pakistan. It borders Iran, Afghanistan and India in Southeast Asia. In 1947, Pakistan gained its independence from Great Britain. About Pakistan (from the CIA World Factbook)Area: 796,095 sq km (slightly less than twice the size of California) Population: 242,923,845 (2022 est.) Median age: 22 years Capital: Islamabad Ethnic

CNN Editorial Research Here’s some background information about the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), also called North Korea. It borders China, Russia and South Korea. About North Korea (from the CIA World Factbook)Area: 120,538 sq km, slightly smaller than Mississippi Population: 25,831,360 (July 2021 est.) Median age: 34.6 years Capital: Pyongyang Ethnic Groups: Racially

By Sophia Saifi, Aliza Kassim and Kathleen Magramo, CNN Authorities in Pakistan have warned it could take up to six months for deadly flood waters to recede in the country’s hardest-hit areas, as fears rise over the threat posed by waterborne diseases including cholera and dengue. Floods caused by record monsoon rains and melting glaciers

By Rhea Mogul, CNN From the pandemic to the climate crisis, disasters of the past five years have upended daily life, and a new report shows that in many countries the ensuing economic uncertainty has pushed millions into modern slavery. An estimated 50 million people worldwide are believed to be victims of forced marriage and

By Nectar Gan, Shawn Deng and Philip Wang, CNN As Russian forces suffer a string of stunning defeats in Ukraine, Moscow is playing up Beijing’s support for its invasion ahead of a key meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week. Russian troops were forced to flee the strategic city

By Simone McCarthy and Kathleen Magramo, CNN A Hong Kong court on Saturday sentenced five speech therapists to 19 months in prison over children’s books deemed to be seditious, in a case that rights defenders say marks a major blow to free speech amid a tightening of civil liberties in the Chinese territory. On Wednesday,

By Jake Kwon, CNN A massive 7.6 earthquake struck Papua New Guinea on Sunday, causing landslides, cracking roads and damaging buildings. While the extent of the damage remains unclear, photos showed debris strewn across highways and cracks opening up in roads. The quake struck at a depth of 90 kilometers (roughly 56 miles) near Kainantu,

By Yoonjung Seo, Larry Register and Heather Chen, CNN North Korea has passed a new law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state in a move leader Kim Jong Un says is “irreversible.” Kim vowed the country would “never give up” its nuclear weapons and said there could be no negotiations on denuclearization as he hailed

By Nectar Gan, Yong Xiong, and CNN’s Beijing bureau China’s mega city of Chengdu has extended its Covid lockdown for a second time, with no end in sight as authorities struggle to eradicate an outbreak that is continuing despite stringent restrictions that have upended businesses and daily life. Home to 21 million people and the

By Simone McCarthy and Kathleen Magramo, CNN Five speech therapists in Hong Kong were found guilty of a conspiracy to publish seditious children’s books on Wednesday, in a case that rights defenders say marks a major blow to free speech amid a tightening of civil liberties in the Chinese territory. The charges center around a

By Kathleen Magramo, Mengchen Zhang, CNN A man who lost control of his hydrogen balloon while harvesting pine nuts in China has been found and rescued — after landing in a forest two days later and more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) away. The man, surnamed Hu, had been working alongside a colleague on Sunday

By Javed Iqbal, Sameer Mandhro and Kathleen Magramo, CNN “There is too much water. We are going to drown.” That was the warning from the villagers of Sehta Sehanj, where flooding caused by the overflow of Pakistan’s largest lake has left many residents trapped by rising water levels and fearing for their lives. Lake Manchar

By Simone McCarthy and Nectar Gan, CNN Chinese leader Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on the sidelines of a summit in Uzbekistan next week, Russia’s envoy to Beijing Andrey Denisov told reporters on Wednesday, according to Russian state news agency Tass. The expected meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

By Simone McCarthy, CNN Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia had not lost anything as a result of its ongoing military actions in Ukraine. Speaking at an economic forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, Putin attempted to defend the costs of what he termed his country’s “special military operation” in

By Simone McCarthy and Brenda Goodman, CNN China has become the first country to green-light an inhaled Covid-19 vaccine, paving the way for potential use of the needle-free product in the country, where suppressing the spread of Covid-19 remains a top priority. The vaccine maker, CanSino Biologics, said in a statement Sunday that China’s medicines

By Javed Iqbal, Sameer Mandhro and Kathleen Magramo, CNN It was raining when Kainat Solangi’s daughter was born on August 14 and it’s barely stopped since, stranding her family in a makeshift tent on a thin strip of land surrounded by Pakistan’s worst-ever floods. The family of eight built their shelter from furniture and sheets

By Masoud Popalzai, Anna Chernova, Eyad Kourdi and Ehsan Popalzai, CNN Two Russian embassy employees were among six people killed in a suicide blast near Russia’s embassy in Kabul on Monday. Russia‘s foreign ministry said in a statement that “an unknown militant set off an explosive device. As a result of the attack, two employees

By Sahar Akbarzai and Tara Subramaniam, CNN Rescuers have evacuated survivors of a climbing expedition on Eurasia’s highest volcano that claimed eight lives, local authorities say. The deceased were part of a group of 12 individuals, including two guides, who have been climbing Klyuchevskaya Sopka in the north eastern Kamchatka peninsula region of Russia since

By Hannah Ritchie, Kathleen Magramo and Jan Camenzind Broomby, CNN Water levels at Pakistan’s largest freshwater lake remain dangerously high despite efforts to release water and spare nearby cities further flooding, according to officials. It’s the latest challenge facing officials as the country grapples with an escalating disaster as heavy monsoon rains combine with melting

By Idris Mukhtar, Hannah Ritchie and Tara Subramaniam, CNN Humanitarian agencies have warned Pakistan is in need of long-term aid as the death toll from its catastrophic flooding continues to climb. The cumulative number of deaths since June 14 rose to 1,282 on Saturday, the country’s National Disaster Management Authority reported, and almost a third

By Jessie Yeung and Yoonjung Seo, CNN Growing up in North Korea, Kang Na-ra had never used the internet. Even the privileged few of her compatriots who were allowed smartphones could access only the nation’s tightly restricted intranet. YouTube, Instagram, and Google were entirely alien concepts. Today, Kang is a YouTube star with more than

By Teele Rebane, Shawn Deng, Larry Register and Heather Chen, CNN China has warned the United States it will take “counter-measures” after the Biden administration approved more than $1.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan. Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said Saturday China was “firmly opposed” to the sales, which “severely jeopardize China-US relations and

By Rhea Mogul, CNN After more than 50 days, he’s back. Runaway former Sri Lanka president Gotabaya Rajapaksa returned to Colombo early on Saturday, Sri Lankan airport and security officials confirmed. The move threatens to reignite tensions in the crisis-hit country. Rajapaksa, who once ruled Sri Lanka with an iron fist, has kept a low

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN More than one third of Pakistan is underwater, according to satellite images from the European Space Agency (ESA), as deadly floodwaters threaten to create secondary disasters. Food is in short supply after water covered millions of acres of crops and wiped out hundreds of thousands of livestock. Meanwhile, aid agencies have

By Larry Register, Heather Chen, CNN Aung San Suu Kyi, the deposed former leader of Myanmar and Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been found guilty of electoral fraud by a court in the military-run country and sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor. Friday’s verdict against Suu Kyi is the latest in a

By Brad Lendon, Vedika Sud, Esha Mitra and Swati Gupta, CNN India joined an elite league of the world’s naval powers on Friday, when it commissioned its first domestically built aircraft carrier, the INS Vikrant. With the $3 billion Vikrant, India will join only a small number of nations with more than one aircraft carrier

By Kara Fox, CNN and Reuters Pakistan is home to more glaciers than anywhere in the world outside the polar regions, but as the climate warms, it’s becoming more vulnerable to sudden outbursts of melting glacier water that have the power to bring widespread destruction to its people. The country’s chief meteorologist has warned that

By Gladys Tsai and Larry Register, CNN Taiwan says it has shot down an unidentified civilian drone over one of its islands that lies just a few kilometers from mainland China. The drone was spotted shortly after midday Thursday above the waters of Lion Islet, a small island in the Kinmen County grouping that is

By Jessie Yeung, CNN Just minutes before the end of her term on Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights dropped a damning report on China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. The report, which includes interviews with dozens of ethnic minority members, said the Chinese government’s actions in the northwestern region

By Heather Chen, CNN The death of a transgender Harvard graduate student in police custody in Bali is causing anger in his native Peru, where activists are calling for protests outside Peruvian embassies and consulates around the world to demand an independent investigation. Rodrigo Ventosilla, 32, was detained by customs police shortly after arriving in

By Jessie Yeung and CNN’s Beijing Bureau China last year registered the fewest marriages since its public records began more than three decades ago — adding to concerns the country faces a looming demographic crisis. There were 7.6 million marriage registrations in 2021, data released by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs last week shows. That’s

By Nectar Gan and CNN’s Beijing bureau The Chinese metropolis of Chengdu imposed a sweeping city-wide lockdown on Thursday evening, confining 21 million residents to their homes as the country doubles down on its zero-Covid policy ahead of a key Communist Party meeting. The move offered a stark reminder of the lengths the country is

By Brad Lendon, CNN Australian sailors will soon begin training on the United Kingdom’s nuclear-powered submarines as the defense relationship between Britain, Australia and the United States deepens under the AUKUS agreement, the British government announced Wednesday. “Today is a significant milestone in the UK and Australia’s preparation to confront growing threats to the liberal

By Jessie Yeung and Tetsu Sukegawa, CNN A nursing home in southwestern Japan is hiring some unusual new employees: babies. The generous compensation package from the Moyai Seiyukai home in Kitakyushu city includes flexible hours, baby formula and diapers — and cups of tea at the in-house cafe for accompanying mothers. In return, the new

By Simone McCarthy, CNN China has committed “serious human rights violations” against Uyghur Muslims in its northwestern region of Xinjiang, which may amount to “crimes against humanity” according to a long-awaited report released Wednesday by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The detailed 45-page report, published just minutes before outgoing commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s

By Brad Lendon, Paula Hancocks and Gawon Bae, CNN US and South Korean combined forces on Wednesday held their first live-fire exercises since the formation of their unit in 2015, a drill that commanders said showcased the strongest military alliance in the world. The drill, based on a counterattack against invading forces, comes after the

By Brandon Miller, Judson Jones, Sophia Saifi and Kathleen Magramo, CNN Striking new satellite images that reveal the extent of Pakistan’s record flooding show how an overflowing Indus River has turned part of Sindh Province into a 100 kilometer-wide inland lake. Swaths of the country are now underwater, after what United Nation officials have described

By Rachel Ramirez and Angela Dewan, CNN Pakistan was already struggling when the devastating monsoon rains hit. This year, economic and political crises have converged in the South Asian nation of more than 230 million, as food and fuel prices soared and former leader Imran Khan was forced from office. Now its reeling with the