CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Sandi Sidhu, Jessie Yeung, Salai TZ and Ivan Watson, CNN Content warning: This story contains descriptions of violence against children and images viewers may find disturbing. Bhone Tayza had been impatient to start school. A broken arm had kept the 7-year-old home while the other kids began their lessons, but now that his cast

By Nectar Gan, CNN China’s southwestern province of Sichuan will drop restrictions on unmarried people having children, part of a broader attempt by the government to boost the country’s plummeting birth rate. The policy shift came after China’s population shrank last year for the first time in more than six decades, marking a historic moment

By Sophia Saifi, Rhea Mogul and Saleem Mehsud, CNN The death toll from a suicide bomb that ripped through a mosque in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan, rose to at least 100 on Tuesday, marking one of the deadliest attacks in the country in years as it faces what one analyst described as “a national security crisis.”

CNN By Brad Lendon, CNN NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday asked South Korea to reconsider its rule on not exporting weapons to countries in conflict so it could help arm Ukraine in repelling Russia’s invasion. “I urge the Republic of Korea to continue and to step up the specific issue of military support,”

By Sophia Saifi, Saleem Mehsud and Hira Humayun, CNN A deadly blast in a mosque in Peshawar on Monday, the latest attack on the city in northwest Pakistan, killed at least 61 people and left about 157 injured, according to Peshawar Police Chief Mohammad Aijaz Khan. Rescue operations are now underway in the mosque, which

By Nectar Gan, CNN For three months, the disappearance of Hu Xinyu gripped China. The whereabouts of the 15-year-old, who vanished from a boarding school in southern Jiangxi province in October, was for months among the most discussed topics on the Chinese internet. It prompted numerous questions, speculation and round after round of exhaustive police

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN New Zealand authorities warned Monday that the situation in flood-hit Auckland was likely to worsen after “unprecedented” rainfall brought devastating floods that have killed at least four people and forced hundreds to evacuate in the country’s largest city. On Monday, New Zealand’s weather authority issued a red heavy rain warning —

CNN By Brad Lendon, CNN NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday asked South Korea to reconsider its rule on not exporting weapons to countries in conflict so it could help arm Ukraine in repelling Russia’s invasion. “I urge the Republic of Korea to continue and to step up the specific issue of military support,”

By Brad Lendon, CNN NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday asked South Korea to reconsider its rule on not exporting weapons to countries in conflict so it could help arm Ukraine in repelling Russia’s invasion. “I urge the Republic of Korea to continue and to step up the specific issue of military support,” he

By Sophia Saifi, CNN Ten children were killed and seven were injured when a boat capsized on a lake in northern Pakistan Sunday, police said. The boat was carrying 25 to 30 students when it capsized on the Tanda Dam Kohat, a lake in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Rescue operations continue, police said. Despite mass drownings

by Asim Khan, CNN At least 39 people were killed when a bus careered into a ditch and caught fire in the southern Pakistan city of Bela on Sunday. The coach had been traveling the Quetta to Karachi route when it hit a bridge pillar at high speed at 4 a.m., the Bela Assistant Commissioner

By Nectar Gan and CNN’s Beijing bureau China saw 226 million domestic trips during the Lunar New Year holiday, state media reported, a 74% surge from last year after the government lifted all travel curbs under its now-abandoned zero-Covid policy. For the first time in three years, Chinese people were free to travel without the

By Jessie Yeung, CNN Last week, K-pop singer Danielle Marsh asked her online fans what they were doing for Chinese New Year. A profuse apology followed two days later, in which she promised to “try to be more careful” and acknowledged the “hurt” she had caused. Her crime? The “Chinese” that preceded “New Year.” A

By Heather Chen and Junko Ogura, CNN Here’s something you don’t see everyday. Pet fish playing a video game in Japan managed to log on to the Nintendo Switch store, change their owner’s avatar, set up a Pay Pal account and rack up a credit card bill. And it was all seemingly livestreamed, in real

By Alex Stambaugh, Martin Goillandeau and Taylor Ward, CNN Three people have died and at least one person is missing as a result of torrential rain that has caused major flooding and numerous evacuations in New Zealand, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said Saturday. “The loss of life underscores just the sheer scale of this weather

By Brad Lendon, CNN The United States Marine Corps on Thursday officially opened its first new base in 70 years, a 4,000-acre installation on the US Pacific island of Guam that one day is expected to host 5,000 Marines. Construction of Camp Blaz, as it is formally known, was partially funded by the Japanese government

CNN By Nectar Gan and CNN’s Beijing bureau China saw 226 million domestic trips during the Lunar New Year holiday, state media reported, a 74% surge from last year after the government lifted all travel curbs under its now-abandoned zero-Covid policy. For the first time in three years, Chinese people were free to travel without

By Junko Ogura, CNN Eight people who were aboard a cargo ship that capsized off the coast of Japan earlier this week have died and nine remain missing, the Japan Coast Guard said Thursday. Six of the dead are Chinese nationals and two are Myanmar nationals, the coast guard said. The Hong Kong-flagged vessel Jin

CNN By Radina Gigova and Simone McCarthy, CNN A Russian warship armed with advanced hypersonic missiles completed a drill in the Atlantic Ocean, ahead of joint naval exercises with the Chinese and South African navies scheduled for next month, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday. Russia’s Admiral Gorshkov frigate, armed with Zircon hypersonic missiles, practiced