CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Rhea Mogul, CNN After more than 50 days, he’s back. Runaway former Sri Lanka president Gotabaya Rajapaksa returned to Colombo early on Saturday, Sri Lankan airport and security officials confirmed. The move threatens to reignite tensions in the crisis-hit country. Rajapaksa, who once ruled Sri Lanka with an iron fist, has kept a low

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN More than one third of Pakistan is underwater, according to satellite images from the European Space Agency (ESA), as deadly floodwaters threaten to create secondary disasters. Food is in short supply after water covered millions of acres of crops and wiped out hundreds of thousands of livestock. Meanwhile, aid agencies have

By Larry Register, Heather Chen, CNN Aung San Suu Kyi, the deposed former leader of Myanmar and Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been found guilty of electoral fraud by a court in the military-run country and sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor. Friday’s verdict against Suu Kyi is the latest in a

By Brad Lendon, Vedika Sud, Esha Mitra and Swati Gupta, CNN India joined an elite league of the world’s naval powers on Friday, when it commissioned its first domestically built aircraft carrier, the INS Vikrant. With the $3 billion Vikrant, India will join only a small number of nations with more than one aircraft carrier

By Kara Fox, CNN and Reuters Pakistan is home to more glaciers than anywhere in the world outside the polar regions, but as the climate warms, it’s becoming more vulnerable to sudden outbursts of melting glacier water that have the power to bring widespread destruction to its people. The country’s chief meteorologist has warned that

By Gladys Tsai and Larry Register, CNN Taiwan says it has shot down an unidentified civilian drone over one of its islands that lies just a few kilometers from mainland China. The drone was spotted shortly after midday Thursday above the waters of Lion Islet, a small island in the Kinmen County grouping that is

By Jessie Yeung, CNN Just minutes before the end of her term on Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights dropped a damning report on China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. The report, which includes interviews with dozens of ethnic minority members, said the Chinese government’s actions in the northwestern region

By Heather Chen, CNN The death of a transgender Harvard graduate student in police custody in Bali is causing anger in his native Peru, where activists are calling for protests outside Peruvian embassies and consulates around the world to demand an independent investigation. Rodrigo Ventosilla, 32, was detained by customs police shortly after arriving in

By Jessie Yeung and CNN’s Beijing Bureau China last year registered the fewest marriages since its public records began more than three decades ago — adding to concerns the country faces a looming demographic crisis. There were 7.6 million marriage registrations in 2021, data released by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs last week shows. That’s

By Nectar Gan and CNN’s Beijing bureau The Chinese metropolis of Chengdu imposed a sweeping city-wide lockdown on Thursday evening, confining 21 million residents to their homes as the country doubles down on its zero-Covid policy ahead of a key Communist Party meeting. The move offered a stark reminder of the lengths the country is

By Brad Lendon, CNN Australian sailors will soon begin training on the United Kingdom’s nuclear-powered submarines as the defense relationship between Britain, Australia and the United States deepens under the AUKUS agreement, the British government announced Wednesday. “Today is a significant milestone in the UK and Australia’s preparation to confront growing threats to the liberal

By Jessie Yeung and Tetsu Sukegawa, CNN A nursing home in southwestern Japan is hiring some unusual new employees: babies. The generous compensation package from the Moyai Seiyukai home in Kitakyushu city includes flexible hours, baby formula and diapers — and cups of tea at the in-house cafe for accompanying mothers. In return, the new

By Simone McCarthy, CNN China has committed “serious human rights violations” against Uyghur Muslims in its northwestern region of Xinjiang, which may amount to “crimes against humanity” according to a long-awaited report released Wednesday by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The detailed 45-page report, published just minutes before outgoing commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s

By Brad Lendon, Paula Hancocks and Gawon Bae, CNN US and South Korean combined forces on Wednesday held their first live-fire exercises since the formation of their unit in 2015, a drill that commanders said showcased the strongest military alliance in the world. The drill, based on a counterattack against invading forces, comes after the

By Brandon Miller, Judson Jones, Sophia Saifi and Kathleen Magramo, CNN Striking new satellite images that reveal the extent of Pakistan’s record flooding show how an overflowing Indus River has turned part of Sindh Province into a 100 kilometer-wide inland lake. Swaths of the country are now underwater, after what United Nation officials have described

By Rachel Ramirez and Angela Dewan, CNN Pakistan was already struggling when the devastating monsoon rains hit. This year, economic and political crises have converged in the South Asian nation of more than 230 million, as food and fuel prices soared and former leader Imran Khan was forced from office. Now its reeling with the

By Gladys Tsai, Jorge Engels and Jennifer Deaton, CNN Taiwanese soldiers on Tuesday fired flares at three unidentified drones that flew near Kinmen County, an offshore grouping of islands, before firing warning shots at one drone which re-entered the area above one of the islands, according to the Kinmen Defense Command. All three drones later