CNN – Asia/Pacific

By CNN staff Students and lecturers at Hong Kong‘s most prestigious university returned from summer break this month to a very different institution. The Democracy Wall at the University of Hong Kong (better known as HKU) — a pinboard where students once shared political thoughts — is gone. The student union, which once advocated for

By Nic Robertson, Ingrid Formanek, Taylor Barnes and Ivana Kottasová, CNN The Taliban have denied claims that Afghan women would be banned from secondary schools after calling on boys, but not girls, to resume education, claiming they needed to set up a “secure transportation system” for female students before allowing them back into classrooms. The

By Antonia Mortensen, Tim Lister and Phil Black, CNN Wakil’s eyes fill with tears. He has no idea whether he and his family will get out of Afghanistan, and fears that if they don’t the Taliban will hunt him down and kill him. A former US government employee, Wakil is not his real name; he

By Amy Sood, CNN A Jakarta court on Thursday ruled the Indonesian government had failed to uphold citizens’ right to clean air, in a landmark judgment campaigners hope will force authorities to take action on the city’s notorious smog. The long-awaited decision ends a two-year legal challenge brought by 32 Jakarta citizens against Indonesian President

By Jessie Yeung, CNN An earthquake in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan left at least three people dead and 60 injured on Thursday, according to state-run media. Local authorities put the quake at 6.0-magnitude, while the US Geological Survey (USGS) put it at 5.4-magnitude on an 8-point scale. The quake hit in the early hours

By Brad Lendon and Blake Essig, CNN Japan is drawing a red line around an island chain also claimed by China, pushing back at Beijing’s increasingly aggressive military posturing, and setting the stage for a potential showdown between the region’s two biggest powers. In an exclusive interview with CNN, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said

By Sarah Dean, CNN Taliban co-founder and acting Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar appeared in a television interview Wednesday to refute rumors he had been injured or even killed in a dispute last week at the presidential palace in Kabul. Rumors had been circulating — and widely shared on social media — that

By Becky Anderson, Zeena Saifi and Helen Regan, CNN Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said the best way forward for peace and stability in Afghanistan is to engage with the Taliban and “incentivize” them on issues such as women’s rights and inclusive government. Speaking to CNN from his private Bani Gala residence in Islamabad on

By Brad Lendon, Jake Kwon, Gawon Bae and Yoonjung Seo, CNN Both North and South Korea tested ballistic missiles on Wednesday, ratcheting up tensions exponentially in what was already one of the most volatile regions on the planet. Pyongyang fired the first missiles on Wednesday, sending two into waters off the east coast of the

By Sarah Dean and Ingrid Formanek, CNN Hundreds of people protested in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar Tuesday, against what they say are Taliban orders for citizens to leave their homes on the eve of winter. Protesters marched in front of the governor’s office in the city after 3,500 people living in a government-owned

By Sandi Sidhu, Julia Hollingsworth, Anna Coren, Abdul Basir Bina and Ahmet Mengli, CNN To the United States military, he was an ISIS-K facilitator they feared was involved in a plot to attack Kabul’s international airport. To his family and colleagues at a US nonprofit, 43-year-old Zamarai Ahmadi was an aid worker applying for a

By Tim Lister, CNN The Taliban’s leaders are rarely seen at public events and do not readily grant interviews or hold news conferences. Many of them move in the shadows, their whereabouts unknown, inevitably generating rumors about their health and about possible internal disagreements. Those rumors gained so much traction in recent days that the