CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Eric Cheung, CNN At least 46 people died and dozens were injured after a major fire broke out in a building in southern Taiwan on Thursday, authorities said. The blaze started in the 13-story commercial and residential building at 2:54 a.m. local time (2:54 p.m. ET) in Kaohsiung city’s Yancheng district, according to Taiwan’s

By Emiko Jozuka, CNN Suicides among Japanese schoolchildren hit a record high during the last school year, according to an education ministry report published Wednesday. Japan recorded 415 suicides among schoolchildren aged 6 to 18 during the 2020 school year — the highest number since records began in 1974. A range of factors were behind

By Emiko Jozuka, CNN Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida dissolved Parliament’s lower house on Thursday, setting the stage for a general election this month as he seeks to rouse support for his newly formed government. The vote, to be held on October 31, will be Kishida’s first major test after he won the ruling party’s

By Nic Robertson and Tim Lister, CNN The Taliban are the most unlikely of populists: brutal, myopic, the epitome of intolerance. During five years in power until 2001, they banished women to their homes, banned music and most sport and imposed pitiless punishments on offenders. Adulterers were stoned in public; thieves had their hands amputated.

Exclusive by Nick Paton Walsh, International Security Editor China is preparing to test tens of thousands of blood bank samples from the city of Wuhan as part of a probe into the origins of Covid-19, according to a Chinese official. The move comes amid increasing calls for transparency over the emergence of the virus. The

By Yoonjung Seo and Gawon Bae, CNN North Korea’s weapons are needed to defend the country against a “hostile” United States, said leader Kim Jong Un, state media KCNA reported Tuesday. Kim made the comments as he stood against a backdrop of missiles at the Defense Development Exhibition to mark the 76th anniversary of North

By Julia Hollingsworth, CNN At least 15 people were killed after heavy rain and flooding battered China’s northern province of Shanxi, destroying thousands of homes and forcing more than 120,000 people to relocate to safer areas, local officials said Tuesday. The province experienced its worst flooding this month since records began, meteorological official Wang Wenyi

By Brent Swails and Clarissa Ward, CNN The blood-stained bodies of the four accused kidnappers were hung off construction cranes with heavy chains, one with a warning sign strung around his neck, “Abductors will be punished like this.” In the public spaces in the western Afghan city of Herat, the crowds squinted into the sun,

By Sophia Saifi, CNN Abdul Qadeer Khan, the man known as the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, has died in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, according to the country’s Ministry of Information. He was 85 years old. Khan was given a state funeral at Islamabad’s Faisal Mosque on Sunday. The funeral, attended by thousands of

By Eric Cheung, CNN Taiwan will not bow to pressure and nobody can force it to accept the path China has laid out for the self-governing democracy, President Tsai Ing-wen said Sunday as the island celebrated its National Day amid heightened tensions with Beijing. During her speech in front of the presidential office in the

By Ben Westcott and Jinky Jorgio, CNN A dictator’s son. A former actor. A champion boxer. A diverse field of candidates have put up their hands to succeed Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who is stepping down after a single six-year term in line with the Philippines constitution. Although the 2022 presidential election campaign is yet

By Wayne Chang, Yong Xiong and Ben Westcott, CNN Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to pursue “reunification” with Taiwan by peaceful means in a speech in Beijing on Saturday. Speaking in the Great Hall of the People to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the revolution that ended the country’s last imperial dynasty, Xi said the

By Tim Lister, CNN Health care in Afghanistan has literally collapsed in a matter of months, disrupted by conflict and starved of foreign assistance, according to UN agencies and NGOs working in the country. Thousands of medical staff have not been paid in six months and clinics have no medicine or equipment. The NGO Save

By Ehsan Popalzai and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN A suicide blast ripped through a Shia mosque in northern Afghanistan Friday, killing 46 people and injuring 143 others, provincial spokesman Matiullah Rohani told CNN. The attack occurred during Friday prayers at the Sayed Abad mosque in Kunduz, Rohani said. A Taliban spokesman said security forces were on