CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Shafi Kakar, Hande Atay Alam and Helen Regan, CNN A prominent activist for girls’ education in Afghanistan was arrested by the Taliban on Monday, according to an official, the latest step in its repressive clampdown on the rights of Afghan women. Matiullah Wesa, 30, is well known for his activism and is the founder

By Nectar Gan, CNN For 12 years, Program Think, an anonymous Chinese blogger, mounted an open challenge to China’s tightening authoritarian grip and expanding surveillance state. The freewheeling blog offered a mixture of technical cybersecurity advice and scathing political commentary — including tips on how to safely circumvent China’s Great Firewall of internet censorship, develop

By Chris Lau, CNN Wearing numbered lanyards, a small group of 80 demonstrators took part in Hong Kong‘s first authorized protest in three years on Sunday — a carefully choreographed event that campaigners say offers a chilling insight into the future of protest in the city. Numbers were capped at 100, and during the hour-long

By Tara Subramaniam and Manveena Suri, CNN A Namibian cheetah relocated to India last year as part of plans to reintroduce the species on the subcontinent died on Monday from a kidney infection, according to Namibia’s Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF). The deceased cheetah, named Sasha, was one of eight brought from Namibia to India’s Kuno

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN Russia’s Pacific Fleet fired a pair of supersonic missiles at a mock target in waters off Japan’s coast on Tuesday morning, the Russian Ministry of Defense said. “A team of two missile boats carried out a joint missile strike against a sea shield simulating a simulated enemy warship,” the ministry said

By Rhea Mogul, CNN Myanmar’s ruling military paraded an arsenal of weapons in the capital Naypyidaw on Monday, in a grand display of force days after the United States imposed fresh sanctions against the junta for inflicting “pain and suffering on the people of Burma.” The array of equipment — ranging from rocket launchers to

By Chris Lau, CNN A child riding on his father’s shoulders smiles as they stroll through a park lined with yellow autumn-touched leaves — that is the typical image of a Japanese “ikumen”. The term strings together the Japanese words ikuji, meaning care for children, and ikemen, referring to cool-looking men. Japanese authorities have widely

By Eric Cheung, CNN Honduras has formally established diplomatic ties with China and severed them with Taiwan, ending a decades-long relationship and dealing a blow to the self-ruled island democracy in its struggle for recognition. “The government of the Republic of Honduras recognizes the existence of one China in the world and that the government

By Brad Lendon, CNN A day after China said it drove a US Navy destroyer away from Beijing-claimed waters in the South China Sea, the US 7th Fleet said the same warship sailed through those waters to challenge the Chinese claims. The “guided-missile destroyer USS Milius asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China

By Yoonjung Seo and Chris Lau, CNN A male zebra broke loose in South Korea’s capital on Thursday, trotting down busy roads and back alleys for hours before being tranquilized and returned to a zoo. Videos on social media showed 3-year-old Sero galloping through the Gwangjin district of Seoul amid heavy traffic, strolling down narrow

By Brad Lendon and Yoonjung Seo, CNN North Korea on Friday claimed to have tested an underwater drone capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that could create a “radioactive tsunami,” however, analysts urged skepticism noting a lack of proof. A report from the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the drone, called the “Unmanned

By Yoonjung Seo, Andrew Raine and Gawon Bae, CNN Extrajudicial executions, rape, forced abortions, jail without trial, torture, starvation rations that leave prisoners so hungry some turn to eating insects. These are just some of the abuses commonplace in North Korean prisons and other detention facilities, according to former detainees whose testimony forms the basis

By Jessie Yeung and Eric Cheung, CNN Taiwan announced Thursday it will recall its ambassador to Honduras as ties between the two worsen, with the Central American nation preparing to switch diplomatic recognition from the self-governing island to China. In a statement, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it had recalled the ambassador to “express our strong

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN New Zealand thinks it’s time for its teenagers to say “thank u, next” to their exes and they’re spending millions to make it happen. The Love Better campaign, launched Wednesday, will receive $4 million (NZ$ 6.4 million) over three years from the Ministry of Social Development to help teens recover from

By Jessie Yeung and CNN’s Beijing bureau Beijing, the sprawling Chinese capital and one of the world’s biggest cities, saw its population drop last year for the first time in 19 years as the country grapples with a demographic crisis decades in the making. The city’s population of permanent residents fell from 21.88 million in

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN A severe sandstorm has swept across Beijing and several northern provinces in China, blanketing the region in thick clouds of orange dust and sending air pollution soaring to hazardous levels, state weather authorities said on Wednesday. Dense clouds enveloped the Chinese capital where the air quality index of PM10 — particles

By Sahar Akbarzai, Hira Humayun, Sophia Saifi, Masoud Popalzai and Helen Regan, CNN The death toll from a strong earthquake that struck northeast Afghanistan on Tuesday could rise much higher, authorities warned Wednesday, after tremors were felt in several major Pakistani cities and as far away as the Indian capital New Delhi. At least 13