China leader backs free trade amid tariff hikes

Compiled from news services

BEIJING — China’s No. 2 leader appealed Wednesday for support for free trade and promised to improve conditions for foreign companies following tit-for-tat U.S. and Chinese tariff hikes in an escalating battle over Beijing’s technology policy.

Premier Li Keqiang’s comments add to Beijing’s effort to portray itself as a defender of global trade and multilateralism in the face of complaints by Washington and other trading partners about industry policies they say violate its market-opening commitments.

Speaking at a business conference, Mr. Li made no direct mention of the dispute but appealed to governments to resolve disputes through negotiation and reject unilateralism.

“It is essential that we uphold the basic principles of multilateralism and free trade,” the premier said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in the eastern city of Tianjin.

Formr PM arrested

HONG KONG — Najib Razak, the former prime minister of Malaysia, was arrested Wednesday on charges that hundreds of millions of dollars were transferred to his personal account, the country’s anticorruption agency said.

Mr. Najib, 65, was previously arrested in July and charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust and one count of corruption as part of an investigation into the diversion of money from a state investment fund he founded.

His latest arrest was over $681 million deposited into his account in 2013, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said in a statement. Mr. Najib has long said the money came from Saudi donors, but prosecutors say it was taken from the investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

Pakistan trio out of jail

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter and son-in-law were released from prison Wednesday after a court suspended their sentences and granted them bail pending their appeals hearings.

The Islamabad High Court made the decision after the Sharifs petitioned to appeal their sentences, which were handed down by an anti-graft tribunal earlier this year in a corruption case against them. The three were released from a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

The development is the latest twist in a series of scandals involving the former prime minister, beginning with his ouster from office last year, to several corruption cases and trials he still faces.

Quakes remembered

MEXICO CITY — Mexico on Wednesday marked the anniversaries of two earthquakes that hit the country on the same date in 1985 and 2017, claiming about 10,000 and 369 lives, respectively.

President Enrique Pena Nieto and Cabinet members attended a ceremony commemorating the moment when the first quake, the country’s deadliest ever, struck central Mexico at 7:19 a.m. at a magnitude of 8.1.

The Mexican flag was raised and those present sang the national anthem.

The second earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.1, rocked Mexico City and surrounding states at 1:14 p.m. 32 years later.