CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Ben Westcott, CNN A Chinese court has sentenced Canadian businessman Michael Spavor to 11 years in prison for espionage, more than two years after he was first detained. Spavor, a Beijing-based businessman who regularly traveled to North Korea, was sentenced after being found guilty of spying and illegally providing state secrets to foreign countries,

By Kocha Olarn and Rob Picheta, CNN Police in Thailand have arrested a 27-year-old man who they say confessed to killing a Swiss tourist on the resort island of Phuket. Nicole Sauvin-Weisskopf, 57, arrived on the island on July 13, and her body was found on August 5 by a local resident. At a press

By Rob Picheta, CNN A baby born weighing just 212 grams (7.5 ounces) — about as heavy as a softball or an apple — has left hospital after more than a year and arrived at her family home. Kwek Yu Xuan was born almost four months prematurely in Singapore in June 2020, and was considered

By Nectar Gan, CNN China has punished more than 40 local officials for failing to control a spiraling Delta variant outbreak, as authorities scramble to curb the worst resurgence of Covid-19 the country has seen in over a year. The current outbreak, which first emerged in the eastern city of Nanjing, has spread to over

Story by Reuters Myanmar’s foreign ministry said on Monday that an alleged plot in New York against United Nations ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, an opponent of the ruling junta, had nothing to do with the country and was a US domestic case. It was the military government’s first statement since the arrest of two Myanmar

By Jessie Yeung and Steven Jiang, CNN A Chinese court has upheld the death sentence for Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian convicted of drug smuggling in China in 2018. The Liaoning High People’s Court said in a statement Tuesday that they rejected his appeal because “the facts identified in the first trial were clear, the

By Nectar Gan and Steve George, CNN With the Olympic flame extinguished in Tokyo, all eyes are now on Beijing for the 2022 Winter Games less than six months away. Scheduled to take place from February 4 to 20, the Winter Games is seen as a major moment of pride in China, with Beijing poised

By Kareem Khadder, Nick Paton Walsh and Jessie Yeung, CNN The Taliban have seized the city of Taloquan in northeastern Afghanistan, marking the fifth provincial capital to fall under their control in just a matter of days, a local journalist confirmed to CNN on Monday. Taloquan, the capital of Takhar Province, is just the latest

By Julia Hollingsworth, CNN A year and a half since the first Covid-19 cases were identified, many countries in Asia-Pacific feel right back where they started. While Britons hit the nightclubs after a long winter of coronavirus restrictions, millions of people in Australia and China are back in lockdown. Health systems in Malaysia, Thailand and

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at Myanmar, a country in southeast Asia formerly known as Burma. About Myanmar (from the CIA World Factbook)Area: 676,578 sq km (slightly smaller than Texas) Population: 57,526,449 (2022 est.) Median age: 29.2 years Capital: Naypyidaw Ethnic Groups: Burman 68%, Shan 9%, Karen 7%, Rakhine 4%, Chinese 3%, Indian 2%,

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at the life of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Personal Birth date: August 17, 1926 Birth place: Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China Birth name: Jiang Zemin Father: Jiang Shijun Mother: Wu Yueqing Marriage: Wang Yeping Children: Jiang Miankang and Jiang Mianheng Education: Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Electrical Engineering, 1947

By Jennifer Hauser, Tara John and Nick Paton Walsh, CNN The Taliban has seized control of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, local officials told CNN on Sunday. It is the first major city to fall to the insurgent group since they began their offensive in May, and marks a big blow to the Afghan government. Kunduz

By Sophia Saifi, CNN Few cases of femicide make headlines in Pakistan, but the beheading of an ambassador’s daughter promises to test a legal system activists say has repeatedly failed victims of violence and needs urgent reform. According to a police report seen by CNN, Noor Mukadam, 27, died on July 20 after being allegedly

By Helen Regan and Jamie Crawford, CNN Two Myanmar citizens have been charged in New York with allegedly plotting to kill or injure Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, the US Attorney’s Office said Friday. The duo are accused of conspiring with an arms dealer in Thailand who sells weapons to the

By Julia Hollingsworth, Yong Xiong and David Culver, CNN When Dennis Hu came home to China for the 2020 Lunar New Year, he thought it would be a brief visit. He planned to enjoy the festivities with his family, renew his United States visa, and then head back to Boston to continue the fourth year

By Clarissa Ward, Brent Swails and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN A wedding hall in the west of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second city, now lies on the front line of fierce fighting between Taliban forces and Afghan government troops. Dust coats the chairs where the guests would normally sit. Instead of the chatter of celebration, gun shots crack