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  London / AFP British workers on the Eurostar cross-Channel rail service will strike for seven days this month, including over a public holiday weekend, in a dispute over hours, a union said on Wednesday. Fifty-five members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will begin the action this Friday, which the company said would see a maximum of ...

  Prague / AFP European energy heavyweight CEZ said its net profits for the first half of 2016 had fallen by 10 percent against a year ago due to a drop in energy prices. The Czech state-run power group, which ranks among Europe’s top electricity exporters, earned 13.8 billion koruna (511 million euros, $566 million) on sales of 98.9 billion ...

  Paris / AFP French industrial production dropped for a second straight month in June, statistics bureau Insee said Wednesday, alarming analysts who had been looking for a modest increase. Output fell 0.8 percent in June, after dropping 0.5 percent in May, with oil refining posting the largest single decline after strikes in France’s oil industry. Connor Campbell, an analyst ...

  Bloomberg As loss-laden power distribution companies delay millions of dollars in payments for clean-energy capacity, India is looking to create a dedicated green energy trading platform in a bid to give the renewable sector more selling options. The country’s largest power exchange, Indian Energy Exchange Ltd., is looking to roll out a dedicated platform for the trade of clean ...

  Bloomberg As Chinese companies go on a record $157 billion overseas buying binge, they’re collecting their corporate trophies at the cheapest levels in four years. The median price they’re paying this year amounts to 14 times the Ebitda — or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — of the target companies, down from a multiple of 16 in ...

  Bloomberg Palm oil stockpiles in Malaysia declined in July as exports from the world’s second-largest producer surged to the highest this year. Inventories fell 0.2 percent to 1.77 million metric tons at the end of July from a revised 1.775 million tons a month earlier, according to data released by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board on Wednesday. That compares ...

  BLOOMBERG China’s official bad-loan ratio held at 1.75 percent in the second quarter after almost three years of increases, suggesting some progress as President Xi Jinping’s officials try to defuse risks from the nation’s explosion in credit. The China Banking Regulatory Commission didn’t give reasons in Wednesday’s data release. Lenders have stepped up efforts to clean up nonperforming debt ...

  Bloomberg China’s imports of corn and feed grains are set to slump after the government increased the amount auctioned from state reserves and domestic prices dropped to a decade low, according to analysts. The government is offering about 7.9 million metric tons of corn from its stockpiles for a third week. That compares with 6 million tons offered in ...

  DUBAI / WAM Dubai’s master developer Nakheel on Tuesday announced that it has awarded an AED1.5 billion construction contract for its Al Khail Avenue mall, and said it plans to add a 252-room hotel to the retail hub. The contract to build the billion retail, dining and entertainment complex in Dubai’s Jumeirah Village district was awarded to the UAE-based ...

  DUBAI / WAM Officials from the Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai have held a meeting with seven major vehicle dealers in Dubai to discuss the establishment of Consumer Protection counters in car showrooms. The dealers were briefed on guidelines regarding the counters and the need for establishing them by the beginning of 2017. The Consumer Protection counter ...