CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Manveena Suri, Swati Gupta and Hira Humayun, CNN Nine people have been arrested over the collapse of a suspension bridge in India’s western Gujarat state that killed at least 134 people on Sunday, police said. The suspects are all associated with Oreva, a Gujarat-based electrical appliances manufacturer that performed maintenance on the 230-meter long

By Christian Edwards, CNN British entrepreneur Richard Branson has declined an invitation from the Singaporean government to take part in a live television debate on the death penalty. Branson — a long-time campaigner against capital punishment — had criticized Singapore’s decision in April this year to execute 33-year-old Nagaenthran Dharmalingam for drug trafficking. In a

By Jessie Yeung, Sophie Jeong, Gawon Bae, Jake Kwon and Mayumi Maruyama, CNN South Korean authorities said Monday they had no guidelines to handle the huge crowds that gathered for Halloween festivities in Seoul, as families in the country and around the world mourn the 156 victims of Saturday night’s crowd crush. The crush took

By Swati Gupta and Hira Humayun, CNN The death toll has risen to 134 after a suspension bridge collapsed in India‘s western state of Gujarat on Sunday, as authorities revealed the structure had only recently reopened following repairs. Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi said Monday some 200 people are estimated to have been on the

By Rob Picheta and Gawon Bae, CNN South Korean authorities are investigating the crowd surge that killed at least 154 partygoers in Seoul, as the rattled nation attempts to come to terms with one of its worst-ever disasters. The country has begun a week-long period of mourning while officials attempt to understand how the devastating

By Sophie Jeong, Gawon Bae, Paula Hancocks, Hilary Whiteman and Jessie Yeung, CNN Most weekends, the narrow alleys of Itaewon, the neon-lit nightlife district in South Korea’s capital Seoul, are busy with partygoers and tourists. Now it’s the site of one of the country’s worst disasters. On Saturday night, tens of thousands of people flooded

By Gawon Bae, Paula Hancocks, Sophie Jeong, Jessie Yeung and Will Ripley, CNN South Korea is searching for answers after Halloween celebrations in the capital Seoul turned into one of the country’s worst disasters, with authorities declaring a national mourning period as they investigate how a chaotic crush left at least 151 people dead. Tens

By Heather Chen, Philip Wang and Angus Watson, CNN Tropical Storm Nalgae has killed at least 45 people and injured dozens more in the Philippines, the country’s disaster agency said Saturday. A further 14 people were missing after the storm, known locally as Paeng, made landfall on Friday packing winds of 75 kilometers (46 miles)

By Gawon Bae, Heather Chen and Jake Kwon, CNN North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missile into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula on Friday, according to South Korean military officials, adding to tensions in the region. The missiles were fired from Tongchon county in North Korea’s eastern Kangwon province between 11:59

By Heather Chen, CNN A man who fooled dozens of women into sending him photos of their genitalia by posing as a female gynecologist on Facebook has been sentenced to jail in Singapore. The state courts on Wednesday found Ooi Chuen Wei, 37, from Malaysia, guilty of “cheating by personation” and sentenced him to three

By Jessie Yeung and Yoonjung Seo, CNN South Korean authorities have launched an investigation after the decomposing remains of a North Korean defector were found in the capital Seoul last Wednesday. The defector was a woman in her 40s who escaped to South Korea in 2002, according to police and South Korea’s Unification Ministry. The

By Sandi Sidhu, Jessie Yeung, Eyad Kourdi and Salai TZ, CNN Dozens of people have reportedly been killed in military airstrikes at a celebratory event in Myanmar‘s mountainous Kachin state on Sunday, drawing international condemnation of the junta that seized power in the country more than a year and a half ago. Victims had been