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- Apple Inc said it was committed to freedom of information and expression in a document it has published on its humans rights policy - a move which follows increased pressure from shareholders. The U.S. tech giant has come under fire for removing virtual network apps from its App store in China and at its February annual general meeting a shareholder proposal called on Apple to publicly commit “to respect freedom of expression as a human right”. While it was defeated, it gained 40.6% of votes cast - far more than similar motions put forward previously and enough to push the company to respond, experts said. “We believe in the critical importance of an open society in which information flows freely, and we’re convinced the best way we can continue to promote openness is to remain engaged, even where we may disagree with a country’s laws,” Apple states in the policy document. It said its policy was based on the United Nations’ guiding principles on business and human rights. Human righ

BERLIN - European food-ordering firm Just Eat Takeaway.com NV thinks GrubHub is better positioned than rivals to prosper in the United States even though it has been pushed into third place, its operating chief told Reuters. The food delivery business has seen a land grab in the last year as companies vie for the market leading positions they say they need to keep customers coming back to their apps. Netherlands-based Takeaway sealed the acquisition of Britain’s Just Eat, a company larger than itself, in January and the combined firm then agreed in June to buy U.S. peer GrubHub for $7.3 billion. The GrubHub acquisition should be completed in the first half of 2021 and the company is well positioned to succeed, Just Eat Takeaway’s Chief Operating Officer Joerg Gerbig said in an interview in the company’s offices in Berlin. “GrubHub is profitable. The largest market by far is New York. The company is particularly well represented on the East Coast,” Gerbig said. The company’s main rival

MOSCOW - The Kremlin said on Friday that it wanted dialogue with Germany over the case of opposition politician Alexei Navalny and that Russian doctors who treated him initially were much more transparent that the German doctors treating him now. Germany, where Navalny is in hospital, has said he was poisoned with a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent and wants the perpetrators held to account. Russia has until now not opened a criminal investigation and said there is no evidence yet of a crime. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow wanted to find out through dialogue with Germany what exact substance caused Navalny to fall ill. He said Russian specialists were looking into the case.

WASHINGTON - The White House has asked U.S. government agencies for extensive details of any funding that seeks to counter China’s global influence and business practices, or supports Beijing, amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing. According to an Aug. 27 White House Office of Management and Budget document seen by Reuters, the OMB directed U.S. agencies to submit “cross-cutting data on federal funding that aids or supports China, or that directly or indirectly counters China’s unfair competition and malign activities and influence globally.” China denies it engages in unfair competitive practices. The document, titled “Strategic Competition with China Crosscut,” does not say how the information will be used other than that it will “inform policymakers” of the myriad ways U.S. government spending involves China. The United States and China have grown antagonistic toward each other with disagreements that stretch from a two-year-old trade war, to the Trump administrati

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian prosecutors on Friday withdrew criminal charges against three Goldman Sachs units accused of misleading investors over $6.5 billion in bond sales they helped organize for a state fund, the Bernama state news agency reported. The move comes after Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $3.9 billion to Malaysia to settle a probe into its alleged role in the scandal involving the fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which counts former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak as one of its co-founders. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB between 2009 and 2014, including some of the funds that Goldman Sachs helped raise. The units - based in London, Hong Kong and Singapore - had pleaded not guilty in February and the bank has consistently denied wrongdoing. “Goldman Sachs International Ltd, Goldman Sachs LLC and Goldman Sachs are therefore discharged amounting to an acquittal from all four charges made against them,” Bernam

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday defended his appearance from Israel at the Republican National Convention last week, saying he did this in his personal capacity and a State Department review concluded that it was lawful. Pompeo, a Trump appointee often believed to harbor presidential aspirations, addressed the convention in a recorded video from a Jerusalem rooftop during an official trip. Critics said he broke with decades of protocol in using his appointed office for partisan purposes. “The State Department reviewed this, it was lawful and I personally felt it was important that the world hear the message of what this administration has accomplished,” Pompeo said in a news conference at the State Department. In his remarks to the Republican convention, Pompeo described what he called Trump’s foreign policy successes, including the president’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and holding talks with North Korean leadership. Pompeo’

- Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee said on Wednesday that they raised a combined $364.5 million in August, shattering the monthly record for fundraising by a presidential campaign. The amount included more than $205 million from online, small-dollar donations, according to the campaign. Biden, who is leading Republican President Donald Trump in most national opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 3 election, raised $140 million in July, but was outpaced by Trump and his allied groups, who raked in $165 million. The previous monthly record - $193 million - was set by former President Barack Obama in September 2008, according to U.S. media outlets. Biden’s haul for August is likely attributable to a number of factors, including the introduction of U.S. Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, enthusiasm over Biden’s nomination at the Democratic convention and mounting fears among Democratic donors that the race between Biden and Trump is tighten