Top Asian News 4:01 a.m. GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia has decided to formally recognize west Jerusalem as Israel's capital, but won't move its embassy until there's a peace settlement between Israel and Palestinians, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Saturday. He said in a speech that Australia will recognize east Jerusalem as Palestine's capital only after a settlement has been reached on a two-state solution. The Australian Embassy won't be moved from Tel Aviv until such a time, he said. While the embassy move is delayed, Morrison said his government will establish a defense and trade office in Jerusalem and will also start looking for an appropriate site for the embassy.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan lawmaker said that disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will resign Saturday to end the country's political crisis. The pro-Rajapaksa lawmaker, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, told reporters that Rajapaksa decided in a meeting Friday with President Maithripala Sirisena to resign to allow the president to appoint a new government. Sri Lanka has had no functioning government for nearly two weeks and is facing the prospect of being unable to pass a budget for next year. "Unless the prime minister resigns, another prime minister cannot be appointed. But the country needs to face situations that it needs to face in January; a country cannot function without a budget," Abeywardena said.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Supporters say disputed Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to resign in an attempt to end the country's political crisis. The decision Friday came a day after the Supreme Court ruled that President Maithripala Sirisena's decision to dissolve Parliament and appoint Rajapaksa as prime minister was unconstitutional. A look at how Sri Lanka has plunged into a political crisis and what could happen next: ___ HOW IT CAME ABOUT The conflict began when Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointed Rajapaksa, a former strongman president, in his place. Wickremesinghe said that Sirisena didn't follow the constitution in removing him and claimed to still be the lawful prime minister.

WASHINGTON (AP) — By detaining two Canadians in an apparent act of retaliation, China is looking like the country its harshest critics say it is: one unbound by the laws, rules and procedures that govern other major industrial nations. Canada's arrest of a top Chinese technology executive at the request of the United States has set off a diplomatic furor with Beijing. And the way the countries have acted in the controversy draws a clear distinction between their political and legal systems — at a time when the United States, Canada and other advanced economies are rethinking the way they do business with China.

TORONTO (AP) — Canada's tourism minister is postponing a trip to China amid tensions over the arrest of a Chinese tech executive on behalf of the United States and the detentions of two Canadians in China in apparent retaliation. Jeremy Ghio, a spokesman for minister Melanie Joly, said Friday that Canada and China "mutually agreed to postpone" her planned trip. Canada arrested the chief financial officer of telecoms giant Huawei on Dec. 1. The U.S. wants her extradited on charges related to company violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran. A Canadian judge released her on bail Tuesday. Meanwhile, the high-end parka maker Canada Goose has postponed the opening of its flagship Beijing store for "construction reasons." There have been calls in China to boycott the Canadian company.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Canada moved Friday to ease tensions between them over the case of a top Chinese technology executive whose arrest by Canadian authorities has sparked a diplomatic crisis entangling the three countries. Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, was arrested in Canada on Dec. 1 at the request of the United States, which wants her extradited to face charges that she and her company misled banks about the company's business dealings in Iran. China detained two Canadians this week in apparent retaliation for Meng's detention. The case has set off a three-way diplomatic spat in which Canada is stuck in the middle.

BEIJING (AP) — China announced a 90-day suspension on Friday of tariff hikes on U.S. cars, trucks and auto parts following its cease-fire in a trade battle with Washington that threatens global economic growth. The suspension is China's first step in response to President Donald Trump's Dec. 1 agreement to suspend U.S. tariff hikes for a similar 90-day period while the two sides negotiate over American complaints about Beijing's technology policy and trade surplus. China has indicated it plans to move ahead with the talks despite strains over the arrest of a Chinese technology executive in Canada to face possible U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says China's economy is feeling the pressure of his tariffs, and he thinks a "big and very comprehensive deal" could happen. Trump asserts in a tweet that China's economy is "growing much slower than anticipated because of our Trade War." China on Friday reported underwhelming gains in monthly retail sales and industrial production, which could be a possible consequence of the Trump administration's import taxes against China. But China also is engaged in a broader slowdown, after a decades-long boom, in hopes of boosting consumer demand and fostering a sustainable level of continued growth. Also Friday, China announced a 90-day suspension of tariff increases on $126 billion of U.S.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A New Hampshire husband and wife used a messaging system popular in China to entice women to come to the U.S. on tourist visas to serve in the sex industry in northern New England, according to court documents. Sou Chao Li, 37, and his wife, Derong Maio, 37, orchestrated an elaborate scheme involving at least 27 women and hotels and rented houses across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, prosecutors wrote. The pair made their initial appearance in court Thursday and will remain detained until their next hearing on Tuesday. The indictment unsealed Thursday upon their arrest indicated the pair arranged for travel for the women and collected proceeds either themselves or through intermediaries, the documents indicate.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In a rare step, the California Supreme Court has blocked Gov. Jerry Brown's attempt to issue a pardon to a 37-year-old Cambodian refugee who killed a woman when he was 14 years old. The court gave no reason for the rejection, but earlier noted it only had the authority to do so in the case of an "abuse of power." Brown's pardon would have effectively stopped Borey Ai's deportation to Cambodia, a nation where his mother was born but he has never seen. The governor in the last 10 months has pardoned seven ex-convicts who otherwise faced the threat of deportation to Cambodia, drawing the ire of President Donald Trump, whose administration has stepped up efforts to deport immigrants with criminal convictions.