Rennes / AFP The ad on the French finance ministry website is deadpan and succinct: “For sale: late 19th century prison in the centre of Grasse, 1,277.42 square metres (13,750 square feet). No garage or parking space. Needs renovating.” Prospective buyers of the site in southeast France are required to lodge a deposit of 50,000 euros ($56,000). There are …

  Bloomberg Oil advanced, adding to the biggest monthly gain in five months, after OPEC agreed to its first output cut in eight years on Wednesday. Futures climbed 0.9 percent in New York as equities rose and the dollar retreated against its peers, bolstering the appeal of commodities. Crude surged 7.9 percent this month, providing the first September increase since …

  Bloomberg The oil market gave the clearest sign yet that Nigeria’s Forcados crude is about to flow again for the first time in eight months, after Royal Dutch Shell Plc was among companies said to have purchased the grade halted by militant attacks in February. Axion Energy Argentina SA, Pampa Energia SA, and Shell, operator of the Forcados export …

  Bloomberg Electric car makers may breath a sigh of relief from OPEC’s decision to curb oil output, which if it holds may help tilt the argument in favor of greener transport. Electric car sales stalled in the U.S. last year as gasoline prices fell 5.8 percent on average and demand for the motor fuel rose for the first time …

  BASRA /Reuters Iraq’s oil exports from the southern ports rose to an average of 3.245 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, from 3.230 million in August, the oil ministry said on Saturday. OPEC’s second-largest producer also exported 935,270 barrels – an average of 31,176 bpd – via pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in September, the …

  Reuters Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding , the investment firm owned by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said on Sunday it had sold the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto for a gross price of 225 million Canadian dollars ($171.8 million). The property was sold to family investment vehicles related to Shahid Khan, Pakistani-American founder of automobile parts maker Flex-N-Gate Group and …

  Reuters Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma’aden) said on Sunday that a subsidiary had started commercial production at a new bauxite mine and alumina refinery which could begin exporting some of its output in coming months. Production will reach maximum annual capacity of 1.8 million tonnes of alumina by early 2017, meeting Ma’aden’s domestic requirement of 1.4 million tonnes for …

  Reuters Saudi Arabia’s securities regulator has suspended trade in the shares of the kingdom’s listed telecommunications operators after the government decided to extend their licences, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) said. The CMA said it was acting after the government decided to extend the licence of Zain Saudi Arabia for 15 years, and also allow other telecommunications firms to …

  San Francisco / AFP A high-profile Google event on Tuesday is widely expected to show a new emphasis on hardware, challenging rivals Apple and Amazon and launching a new strategy for the online giant. While the company has offered no official preview, it is expected to unveil a new line of Google-branded smartphones, a tablet and a home virtual …

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. is in negotiations with Sharp Corp. to secure organic LED displays for the iPhone maker’s next-generation of devices, a person familiar with the matter said. Any OLED supply agreement would depend on the Osaka-based company’s output capacity, said the person, who asked not to be identified because talks aren’t public. The discussions stem from Apple’s desire …