CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Sophie Tanno, CNN When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 in a lightning takeover following the withdrawal of US troops, the radical Islamist group appeared keen to distance itself from its earlier period of rule in the 1990s, presenting itself as more moderate and committed to the internal peace process.

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 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 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 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

CNN By Ehsan Popalzai, Sahar Akbarzai and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN The Taliban administration in Afghanistan has ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female employees from coming to work, according to a letter by the Ministry of Economy sent to all licensed NGOs. Non-compliance will result in revoking the licenses of

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 Ehsan Popalzai and Ivana Kottasová, CNN The Taliban government has suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan, the latest step in its brutal clampdown on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women. A spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education confirmed the suspension to CNN on Tuesday. A letter published by

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

CNN 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

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.