CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Jessie Yeung and Junko Ogura, CNN Japan’s prime minister issued a dire warning about the country’s population crisis on Monday, saying it was “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions” due to the falling birth rate. In a policy address to lawmakers, Fumio Kishida said it was a case of

By CNN Staff When one by one, the friends of a young woman living in Beijing began disappearing — detained by the police after attending a vigil together weeks earlier — she felt sure that her time was nearing. “As I record this video, four of my friends have already been taken away,” the woman,

By Mayumi Maruyama and Tara Subramaniam, CNN New Zealand’s Labour party has unanimously endorsed Education Minister Chris Hipkins to succeed current Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as party leader. Hipkins was the only nominee for the leadership position so his endorsement on Sunday was largely a formality. At a news conference in Wellington after the decision,

By CNN’s Beijing Bureau Eight in 10 people in China have now been infected with Covid-19, a prominent government scientist has claimed. Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Saturday — the eve of the Lunar New Year — that the present “wave of epidemic has already

By Angus Watson and Kathleen Magramo, CNN Two popular Sydney beaches were closed Saturday after swimmers witnessed several bull sharks attacking a dolphin, according to Surf Life Saving New South Wales. The closures led to the canceling of several surfing and Ironman and Ironwoman events. The dolphin suffered injuries to its tail and was later

By Kathleen Magramo A butcher died while trying to slaughter a pig in Hong Kong on Friday, the city’s police said. The 61-year-old butcher, who worked in the Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse on the city’s northern outskirts close to its border with mainland China, was knocked to the ground by the struggling pig and sustained a

By Emiko Jozuka, Junko Ogura, Gawon Bae and Kathleen Magramo, CNN Japan will consider downgrading Covid-19 to the same category as seasonal influenza this spring, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Friday. Kishida said he had instructed Health Ministry officials to discuss the move and his administration would also review rules on face masks and other

By Heather Chen, CNN Indonesia is warning people against consuming liquid nitrogen after more than 20 children were harmed eating a street snack known as “dragon’s breath” that’s at the center of a dangerous new viral video trend. The children suffered burns to their skin, severe stomach pains and food poisoning after consuming the colorful

By Jessie Yeung, CNN China may be one step closer to losing its place as the world’s most populous country to India after its population shrank for the first time since the 1960s. The country’s population fell in 2022 to 1.411 billion, down some 850,000 people from the previous year, China’s National Bureau of Statistics

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