CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Jessie Yeung and Hilary Whiteman, CNN New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Thursday she will stand aside for a new leader within weeks, saying she doesn’t believe she has the energy to seek re-election in the October polls. Speaking at a news conference, Ardern said her term would end by February 7, when

By Manveena Suri and Tara Subramaniam, CNN Three alleged black-market immigration agents have been arrested in western India in connection with the case of an Indian family who froze to death on the United States’ border with Canada last year, police said Wednesday. Deputy Commissioner Chaitanya Mandlik with Ahmedabad Police’s crime branch named the suspects

By Junko Ogura, Emiko Jozuka and Tara Subramaniam, CNN The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday acquitted three former Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) executives, finding them not guilty of manslaughter over the 2011 triple reactor meltdown at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported Wednesday. The High Court’s ruling was a decision

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 CNN’s Beijing Bureau Close to 60,000 people have died of Covid in China since the country abruptly abandoned its tight “zero-Covid” policy in early December, a medical official from the National Health Commission (NHC) told a press conference in Beijing on Saturday. Jiao Yahui, head of the NHC’s medical affairs department, said China recorded

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 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, 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 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 Ehsan Popalzai, Mostafa Salem, Eyad Kourdi, Karen Smith and Rhea Mogul, CNN At least five people were killed in an explosion near the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday, according to police in Kabul, in the latest sign of a deteriorating security situation in the country’s capital. Five civilians were “martyred and a

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