CNN By 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
Continue ReadingBy 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 answer
Continue ReadingBy Nectar Gan and Jessie Yeung, CNN When it comes to keeping Covid-19 at bay, few countries seem willing to go as far as China. As countries around the world reopen borders and loosen coronavirus restrictions, Beijing is doubling down on its zero-Covid strategy. The latest example: a $260 million, 5,000-room quarantine facility for incoming
Continue ReadingBy Junko Ogura, Selina Wang and Helen Regan, CNN Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) elected former top diplomat Fumio Kishida as its new leader on Wednesday after a tightly contested race that ended in a runoff vote — clearing a path for him to become the country’s next Prime Minister. Kishida is widely expected
Continue ReadingCNN By 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
Continue ReadingBy Kara Fox, CNN When the khaki-colored landscapes of Afghanistan are transformed by a patchwork of pink, white and purple each spring, farmers rejoice. Their cash crop of poppies is ready for harvesting. Opium cultivation has long been a source of income for rural communities across the country, a land besieged by decades of war.
Continue ReadingCNN, POOL, UNTV, KOREAN CENTRAL TV, AVN, KBS, SOUTH KOREAN MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, AVN/KBS By Yoonjung Seo, CNN North Korea has fired a projectile presumed to be a short-range missile into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, according to statements from South Korean officials — just hours before Seoul launched a new
Continue ReadingBy Eliza Mackintosh, Karen Smith and Tara John, CNN Correction: A previous version of this story and headline incorrectly attributed remarks to a Twitter account purporting to be the chancellor of Kabul University. CNN has subsequently learned that this account was not affiliated with the chancellor or the university. This story has been updated. (CNN)
Continue ReadingBy Brad Lendon, CNN China has finally showed off its most advanced fighter aircraft with domestic-made engines — a significant milestone as Beijing pushes the capabilities of its J-20 stealth jets in a bid to rival the United States’ F-22. The pair of twin-engine J-20s that put on a show for crowds at Airshow China
Continue ReadingCNN By Yoonjung Seo, CNN North Korea has fired a projectile presumed to be a short-range missile into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, according to statements from South Korean officials — just hours before Seoul launched a new submarine. The missile was fired around 6:40 a.m. local time Tuesday, the South
Continue ReadingBy Yoonjung Seo, CNN North Korea has fired a projectile presumed to be a short-range missile into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, according to statements from South Korean officials — just hours before Seoul launched a new submarine. The missile was fired around 6:40 a.m. local time Tuesday, the South Korean
Continue ReadingBy Radina Gigova, CNN The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu wants the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to weigh in the rights of current and future residents to be protected from climate change. During a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday, Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Bob Loughman called on the international community to
Continue ReadingBy Nectar Gan, CNN Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who spent nearly three years in house arrest in Canada, returned home late Saturday, ending a prolonged extradition fight with the United States and sparking an outburst of national pride in China, where her release has been portrayed as a diplomatic victory for Beijing. Meng, who was
Continue ReadingBy Jessie Yeung, Gladys Tsai and Kazumi Duncan, CNN At 75, Isao Kakehi was in good health and in love. It was 2013, and he had embarked on an exciting new relationship with Chisako Kakehi, a 67-year-old widow he met through a Japanese matchmaking agency. Within two months, the couple married, moved in together, and
Continue ReadingBy Tim Lister, Ehsan Popalzai, Brent Swails, Sandi Sidhu and Celine Alkhaldi The Taliban in Afghanistan have put on public display the bodies of four men who were killed after they allegedly carried out a kidnapping in the western city of Herat. A journalist in the city told CNN that a group of four men
Continue ReadingBy Paula Newton, CNN Two Canadians detained by China for nearly three years have been released, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday night. Trudeau said Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor boarded a plane headed for Canada at about 7:30 p.m. ET Friday night and would land in Canada sometime Saturday. “These two men have
Continue ReadingBy Ben Westcott, CNN In the nearly two years since the pandemic began, Turkmenistan has not seen a single case of Covid-19. Or at least, that’s what the central Asian country’s secretive, authoritarian government claims. Turkmenistan, a former Soviet republic home to nearly 6 million people, is one of at least five countries that have
Continue ReadingBy Jessie Yeung, CNN With China facing a looming demographic crisis, the government last month passed into law a three-child policy raising the permitted limit on family sizes. But with many couples still hesitant to expand their families, some places are now offering cash incentives to encourage more births. Huangzhugen village, in Lianjiang city in
Continue ReadingBy Eric Cheung and Brad Lendon, CNN Taiwan on Thursday accused China of “bullying” after Beijing sent a total of 24 warplanes into its air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the third-largest incursion in the past two years of heightened tensions between Beijing and Taipei. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including bombers, fighter jets, anti-submarine
Continue ReadingBy Paula Hancocks and Salai TZ, CNN Five-year-old Su Htet Waing often wakes up crying for her mother and older sister. Hiding in the mosquito-infested jungles of Myanmar in a makeshift tent with her father, her young world has been torn apart. “I want to sleep with mummy, but the police have taken her,” she
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