CNN – Asia/Pacific

By CNN’s Beijing bureau A rare protest against Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his policies was swiftly ended in Beijing Thursday, just days before he is set to secure a third term in power at a key meeting of the ruling Communist Party. Photos circulating on Twitter Thursday afternoon show two banners hung on an

By Brad Lendon and Yoonjung Seo, CNN North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday warned adversaries his nuclear forces are fully prepared for “actual war,” a day after the isolated country’s latest launch in a recent flurry of missile tests. “Our nuclear combat forces … proved again their full preparedness for actual war to

By Heather Chen, CNN A Singapore court on Tuesday sentenced an OnlyFans creator to three weeks in prison for breaching a police order to stay off the adult subscription site while he was under investigation for allegedly breaking obscenity laws. Titus Low, 22, pleaded guilty to the charge and another count of transmitting obscene material

By Rhea Mogul and Jake Kwon, CNN A court in military-run Myanmar has sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s deposed former leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, to three additional years in jail for corruption, a source familiar with the case told CNN, extending her total prison term to 26 years. Wednesday’s verdict is

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN Malaysia’s 97-year-old former leader Mahathir Mohamad is to run for parliament in the country’s looming general election, but is remaining tight-lipped on whether he could be prime minister for a third time. Mahathir, who was hospitalized earlier this year with a heart condition, said Tuesday he will defend his seat representing

By Simone McCarthy, CNN Xi Jinping is poised to cement his role as China’s most powerful leader in decades, as members of the country’s ruling Communist Party meet for a twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle that begins Sunday. In recent years, these meetings have seen a streamlined transfer of power: the convention is for the top party

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN Hundreds of pilot whales have died after becoming stranded near the shark-infested waters of a remote island chain in the South Pacific, according to rescue teams and conservationists. New Zealand’s Department of Conservation told CNN nearly 500 whales washed up in the Chatham Islands, 840 kilometers (520 miles) east of the

By Heather Chen, CNN Buddhist funeral rites have begun in the grieving town of Uthai Sawan in northeastern Thailand, where families are mourning the loss of children killed in a massacre at a day care center. Toys, flowers, milk bottles and sweets were placed alongside the small child-sized coffins, many bearing photographs of children killed

By Eric Cheung, CNN Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen said Monday there is “no room for compromise” over the self-ruled island’s sovereignty but she is willing to work with China to find “mutually acceptable ways” to maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait. “The consensus of the Taiwanese people … is to defend our sovereignty and our

By Brad Lendon, Yoonjung Seo and Gawon Bae, CNN North Korean state media has broken its silence over the country’s recent spate of missile tests, claiming they were part of a series of simulated procedures intended to demonstrate its readiness to fire tactical nuclear warheads at potential targets in South Korea. The Kim regime has

By Mitchell McCluskey, Emiko Jozuka and Gawon Bae, CNN North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles from the Munchon area of Kangwon Province to the waters off the peninsula’s eastern coast, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters on Sunday. The missiles were launched between 1:47 a.m. and 1:53 a.m. local time Sunday, according

By Michelle Toh, CNN A megayacht linked to a sanctioned Russian oligarch has dropped anchor in Hong Kong, amid efforts by the West to seize the luxury assets of Russian elites in allied ports as the war in Ukraine drags on. The Nord, a nearly 142-meter (466-foot) yacht that is said to be one of

By Jessie Yeung, Paula Hancocks and Yoonjung Seo, CNN Tensions are running high in the Korean Peninsula, as the United States and its allies respond to North Korea’s flurry of recent missile tests — including one that flew over neighboring Japan without warning. North Korea has tested ballistic missiles seven times since September 25 —

By Kocha Olarn, Anna Coren and Hilary Whiteman, CNN Smears of dried blood still stained the wooden floor of a classroom in northeastern Thailand on Friday, a day after one of the country’s worst massacres unfolded in perhaps one of the most unlikely places. At the Child Development Center Uthai Sawan, school bags sat uncollected

By Emiko Jozuka and Heather Chen, CNN A military court in Myanmar has sentenced a Japanese journalist to 10 years in prison for sedition and violating a law on electronic communications after he filmed an anti-government protest in July, a Japanese diplomat said on Thursday. Toru Kubota, 26, was arrested by plainclothes police in Yangon,