CNN By Eric Cheung, CNN Taiwan will not bow to pressure and nobody can force it to accept the path China has laid out for the self-governing democracy, President Tsai Ing-wen said Sunday as the island celebrated its National Day amid heightened tensions with Beijing. During her speech in front of the presidential office in
Continue ReadingBy Sarah Dean, CNN Taliban forces unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras — including nine surrendering former government soldiers and a 17-year-old girl — in Afghanistan’s Daykundi province on August 30, according to a new investigation by Amnesty International. Since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and subsequent Taliban takeover there has been concern that long-persecuted ethnic
Continue ReadingBy Ben Westcott, CNN New Zealand will begin to move away from a zero-Covid strategy toward living with the virus, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday, becoming the latest country to abandon its elimination attempts in the face of the highly-contagious Delta variant. After shutting its borders early in the pandemic, New Zealand has reported
Continue ReadingCNN By Brent Swails, Clarissa Ward and Scott McWhinnie, CNN A terrorist attack didn’t stop Atifa Watanyar from teaching, but she worries the Taliban will. Even before the militant group marched into Kabul, the English teacher felt intense uncertainty and heartache. In early May, she was at the entrance of the Sayed Al-Shuhada school on
Continue ReadingCNN 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
Continue ReadingBy Rebecca Wright, Ivan Watson, Zahid Mahmood and Tom Booth, CNN The raids started after midnight in Xinjiang. Hundreds of police officers armed with rifles went house to house in Uyghur communities in the far western region of China, pulling people from their homes, handcuffing and hooding them, and threatening to shoot them if they
Continue ReadingBy Swati Gupta, CNN India’s top court on Monday approved the government’s decision to pay about $670 for every coronavirus death in the country as compensation to the next of kin of the deceased. The payments tally to more than $300 million based on India’s current death toll, according to CNN’s calculation. It had officially
Continue ReadingBy Brent Swails, Clarissa Ward and Scott McWhinnie, CNN A terrorist attack didn’t stop Atifa Watanyar from teaching, but she worries the Taliban will. Even before the militant group marched into Kabul, the English teacher felt intense uncertainty and heartache. In early May, she was at the entrance of the Sayed Al-Shuhada school on the
Continue ReadingBy Eric Cheung, CNN Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 56 Chinese warplanes made incursions into its air defense identification zone on Monday, the highest number since the island began publicly reporting such activities last year. It said earlier in the day that 52 military planes had encroached into the zone, before reporting that four more entered
Continue ReadingBy Manveena Suri, CNN At least eight people were killed when violence broke out in India’s Uttar Pradesh state on Sunday after a car linked to a federal minister ran over two farmers taking part in a protest against controversial farm laws. A farmers’ union spokesperson said Sunday the deaths happened after a convoy of
Continue ReadingBy Helen Regan, Selina Wang and Junko Ogura, CNN Japan’s Fumio Kishida took office as the country’s new Prime Minister on Monday, tasked with leading the world’s third-largest economy out of the coronavirus pandemic. Kishida, 64, who was elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) last week, was officially confirmed as the country’s
Continue ReadingBy Jake Kwon and Maija Ehlinger, CNN Communication lines between North and South Korea have been restored for the first time in months, Seoul said in a statement Monday. The reopening follows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s vow last week to restart communication in an address to the country’s rubber-stamp legislature. “North Korea has
Continue ReadingBy Clarissa Ward, Tim Lister and Ehsan Popalzai, CNN An explosion ripped through a crowd outside the entrance of a mosque in central Kabul on Sunday, leaving a number of people dead, a senior Taliban spokesman said. The blast targeted the gates of the Eidgah Mosque in the Afghan capital, where a funeral service was
Continue ReadingBy Eric Cheung and Brad Lendon, CNN Taiwan has reported a record number of incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defense identification zone (ADIZ) for the second day in a row, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said on Saturday night. The self-governing island said a total of 39 Chinese military aircraft entered the ADIZ
Continue ReadingBy Radina Gigova, CNN Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said on Saturday he would retire rather than run for vice president next year, in a surprise move that sparked speculation over his political future, according to the Philippines News Agency (PNA). Duterte, 76, is barred by the Philippine Constitution from seeking a second term after his
Continue ReadingBy Eric Cheung and Brad Lendon, CNN China sent 38 warplanes into the skies around Taiwan on Friday, the highest number of Chinese military aircraft to breach the island’s Air Defense Identification Zone in a single day since Taipei began publicly reporting such activities last year, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Friday night. The People’s Liberation
Continue ReadingCNN By Eric Cheung and Brad Lendon, CNN China sent 38 warplanes into the skies around Taiwan on Friday, the highest number of Chinese military aircraft to breach the island’s Air Defense Identification Zone in a single day since Taipei began publicly reporting such activities last year, Tawain’s Defense Ministry said Friday night. The People’s
Continue ReadingBy Junko Ogura and Selina Wang, CNN Japan’s Princess Mako and her commoner fiance Kei Komuro announced Friday they will be married on October 26, public broadcaster NHK reported — a controversial union that requires her to give up her royal status. The 29-year-old granddaughter of former Emperor Akihito and Komuro first announced their engagement
Continue ReadingCNN By Anna Coren, Sandi Sidhu, Julia Hollingsworth and Ahmet Mengli, CNN Every day for the past month, Emal Ahmadi’s 7-year-old daughter Hada has asked him the same thing: “Where is my sister?” She misses playing with her younger sister Malika, he says. She cries a lot, wondering when she is coming home. The tragic
Continue ReadingBy Jake Kwon and Helen Regan, CNN Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has been promoted to the nation’s top decision-making body, state media said on Thursday. The announcement — published in North Korea’s state-run news outlet KCNA — said Kim Yo Jong is now a member of
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