World briefs

China The government promised more improvements in conditions for foreign companies including an end to officials pressing them to hand over technology ― a key irritant in its tariff war with Washington.

Philippines A powerful earthquake shook the southern Philippines yesterday, triggering landslides and loosening boulders that killed six people and injured more than 100 others in a region already damaged by a strong quake two weeks earlier, officials said.

Japan Sadako Ogata (pictured), who led the U.N. refugee agency for a decade and became one of the first Japanese to hold a top job at an international organization, has died. She was 92.

Australia A judge sentenced a man to 36 years in prison yesterday for the murder and rape of an Israeli student whom he bludgeoned into unconsciousness moments after she stepped off a tram in Melbourne before setting her corpse on fire.

Iraq Masked gunmen opened fire at Iraqi protesters in the Shiite holy city of Karbala yesterday, killing 18 people and wounding hundreds, security officials said, in one of the deadliest single attacks on protesters since anti-government demonstrations erupted earlier this month.

Colombia Months before her history-making election, Claudia López was butting heads with a local television anchor over his description of her character.

Chile Fresh protests and attacks on businesses erupted in Chile Monday despite President Sebastián Piñera’s replacement of eight key Cabinet ministers with more centrist figures and his attempts to assure the country he has heard calls for greater equality and improved social services.

UK Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) says “we’re going out there to win” in the early election that Britain is now likely to hold in December.

US A military officer at the National Security Council twice raised concerns over the Trump administration’s push to have Ukraine investigate Democrats and Joe Biden.

US Robert Evans, the protean, fast-living Hollywood producer and former Paramount Pictures production chief who backed such seminal 1970s films as “Chinatown,” ”The Godfather” and “Harold and Maude,” has died. He was 89.