CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Sophia Saifi, Bonnie Turner and Tara John, CNN At least 903 people have died in Pakistan from severe rains and flooding this summer, as the country sees its eighth cycle of monsoon rains, Pakistan’s Minister for Climate Change told CNN Wednesday as the country appealed for international assistance. Thousands have no shelter and food

By Reuters India’s Supreme Court will hold a hearing on a petition challenging the release last week of 11 Hindu men convicted of the gang rape of a pregnant Muslim woman during Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002 in the western state of Gujarat. Dozens of women in Mumbai protested on Tuesday against their release and carried

By Tara Subramaniam, Masoud Popalzai and Alex Stambaugh, CNN Flash flooding has killed at least 95 people, injured hundreds of others and swept away thousands of homes in Afghanistan, authorities in the crisis-hit country said Tuesday. The deaths occurred across 10 provinces over the past 10 days, authorities said, as the country reels from an

By Shawn Deng, Simone McCarthy and CNN’s Beijing bureau Thousands of emergency responders are battling to contain fast-spreading wildfires in China’s southwestern city of Chongqing amid a weeks-long, record heat wave in the region. The fires, which have been visible at night from parts of the downtown area, have swept forests and mountains around the

By Kathleen Magramo, CNN A tropical storm forced schools to close across the northern Philippines on Tuesday — just one day after in-person learning had resumed following one of the world’s longest pandemic-related shutdowns. Severe Tropical Storm Ma On — known as Florita in the Philippines — made landfall in Maconacon, Isabela province at 10:30

By Swati Gupta, CNN and Reuters At least 32 people have died since Friday in flash flooding and landslides triggered by heavy monsoonal rains in two of India’s northern states. The rainfall has overwhelmed villages, sweeping away houses and leaving residents stranded as rescue crews race to evacuate survivors. Twenty-seven were killed in the Himalayan

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN Australian Federal Police say they’ve seized more than 5 million doses of fentanyl, the largest shipment of the opioid the country has ever seen. Police said the drugs were hidden in an industrial machine, known as a lathe, that arrived at the Port of Melbourne in December 2021 from Canada. But

By Gawon Bae and Kathleen Magramo, CNN A woman believed to be the mother of two children whose remains were found in suitcases in New Zealand earlier this month is in South Korea, a Seoul police official told CNN on Monday. The official said the woman, a New Zealand citizen, arrived in South Korea in

By Sophia Saifi and Rhea Mogul, CNN Pakistani authorities are investigating whether former prime minister Imran Khan violated anti-terror laws and have banned him from speaking live on television, in moves likely to inflame tensions between Khan, who maintains mass popular support, and the coalition government. According to police documents seen by CNN, police opened

By Eric Cheung, Gladys Tsai and Blake Essig, CNN For the last 18 years, Li Meng-han and his family have grown pomelos in a rural town near the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan. Taiwanese pomelos, known for their juiciness and softness, are highly popular on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, especially during the Mid-Autumn

By Heather Chen, Wayne Chang and Tara John, CNN Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday said the country will repeal the colonial-era Section 377A of Singapore’s Penal Code, thereby decriminalizing gay sex in Singapore, but added that same-sex marriage will continue to be illegal in the city-state. “Sex between consenting men should not

By Reuters North Korea imported more than 1 million facial masks and 15,000 pairs of rubber gloves from China in July, shortly before declaring victory over Covid-19, Chinese trade figures show. Pyongyang last week declared victory over the coronavirus, ending a little-detailed fight against “fever” cases that had risen to 4.77 million in the country

By Nectar Gan, CNN Chinese-Canadian tycoon Xiao Jianhua was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison, more than five years after the billionaire was abducted from a hotel room in Hong Kong and taken to mainland China. Xiao and his company Tomorrow Holdings were convicted of crimes involving tens of billions of dollars, including illegally

By Tara Subramaniam The Chinese coastal city of Xiamen is testing freshly caught fish, crabs and even shrimp for Covid-19 as it goes all out to contain a spiraling outbreak — a policy drawing ridicule online and criticism from experts who say it’s a “waste of resources.” This week, videos of hazmat-suited health workers sticking