CNN – Asia/Pacific

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 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 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 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 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

By Wayne Chang and Simone McCarthy, CNN The Chinese government announced on Thursday that it will reopen its border with Hong Kong on January 8, nearly three years after it was largely shut in an effort to contain the spread of Covid. Up to 60,000 Hong Kong residents will be able to cross the border

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his Philippine counterpart Ferdinand Marcos Jr. have agreed to strengthen economic ties and resume talks on oil exploration, as they look to revive their economies amid the pandemic downturn and friction over contested areas of the South China Sea. Xi met with Marcos Jr. on Wednesday

By Simone McCarthy, CNN The World Health Organization has accused China of “under-representing” the severity of its Covid outbreak and criticized its “narrow” definition of what constitutes a Covid death, as top global health officials urge Beijing to share more data about the explosive spread. “We continue to ask China for more rapid, regular, reliable

By Paula Hancocks, Sandi Sidhu and Rhea Mogul, CNN Hatemon Nesa weeps as she clings to her 5-year-old daughter, Umme Salima, at a rescue shelter in Indonesia’s Aceh province. Their faces appear gaunt, their eyes sullen, after drifting for weeks at sea on a boat with little food or water. “My skin was rotting off