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  Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew is set to meet with European Union antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager this week as she prepares to deliver a final verdict on a probe into Apple Inc.’s tax affairs in Ireland. The showdown comes days after Vestager’s team came up with two possible scenarios on how much tax Apple owes in Ireland, ...

  Bloomberg Chile’s government cut its forecast for growth this year and predicted the second-largest fiscal deficit in the 25 years after the unemployment rate jumped to a five-year high and mining revenue slumped. Gross domestic product will expand 1.75 percent, compared with the 2 percent forecast in March, Finance Minister Rodrigo Valdes told the Senate. The fiscal deficit will ...

  Bloomberg New York’s insurance regulator has conditionally approved Aetna Inc.’s $37 billion takeover of Humana Inc., one of the last state sign-offs needed for the deal, people familiar with the matter said. The transaction is still under review by U.S. officials. State insurance regulators have been conducting their own assessments, which are in some cases required before a transaction ...

  Bloomberg NBC expects to sell at least 15 percent more advertising for the Rio Olympics next month than it did during the London games in 2012, benefiting from having more live events in prime time. Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal has deals with more than 100 Olympics advertisers, Seth Winter, executive vice president of sales at NBC Sports, said at a ...

  The Hague / AFP An international tribunal ruled on Tuesday against China’s claims it had “historical rights” in the South China Sea in a bitter dispute that risks further stoking regional tensions. Manila — which had lodged the suit against Beijing —welcomed the decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration but Beijing reacted furiously, saying it “neither accepts nor ...

  Beijing / AFP European Union President Donald Tusk on Tuesday cautioned China to respect the international system, as the world’s second-largest economy finds itself locked in disagreements over maritime law and global trade practices. His comments preceded a judgement from a UN-backed tribunal declaring that China had no “historic rights” in the strategically vital South China Sea, a ruling ...

Afghanistan / AFP US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter arrived in Afghanistan on Tuesday for talks with President Ashraf Ghani, days after the United States and NATO pledged to keep thousands of troops in the troubled country. Carter flew in to Bagram air base outside Kabul, and was due to meet with Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in the capital later. The ...

  Damascus / AFP Syria’s army has extended a nationwide truce for another three days, but continued Tuesday to press its campaign against rebels in the battered northern city of Aleppo. In a statement late Monday, the armed forces said it would “extend the freeze on fighting on all Syrian territory for 72 hours beginning at 00:01 on July 12.” ...

  Geneva / AFP At least 36,000 people have fled their homes in Juba since heavy fighting erupted in the South Sudanese capital on Friday, the United Nations said on Tuesday. “The latest fighting since Friday has displaced 36,000 people,” Vanessa Huguenin, spokeswoman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said, speaking in French. She added that the number was likely ...

  Kathmandu / AFP Nepal’s former rebel Maoists withdrew from the ruling coalition on Tuesday, leaving the government without a majority and threatening to plunge the quake-hit country into a fresh political crisis. The Maoists, who hold 80 out of 575 elected seats in parliament, said they wanted to form a “national consensus government” to implement a divisive new national ...