Bloomberg European stock markets diverged on Wednesday with traders reacting to mixed regional data ahead of key US jobs numbers due later in the week. Around 1030 GMT, London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index was 0.3 percent lower. In the eurozone, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 lost 0.2 percent and the Paris CAC 40 gained 0.5 percent compared with the close on Tuesday. ...

  Dubai / Reuters Gulf stock markets diverged in early trade on Wednesday, with Qatar’s edging lower and Dubai’s gaining slightly. Qatar’s index slipped 0.3 percent after closing higher in four of the last five sessions. After the close on Wednesday, FTSE is expected to release a list of Qatari stocks to be included in its emerging market index from ...

  London / AFP Oil fell further on Wednesday as dealers awaited the latest update on crude reserves in the United States. At around 1145 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in October declined 36 cents at $45.99 a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for October lost 54 cents to $47.83 a barrel compared with the close on ...

  Buenos Aires / DPA Patients wait in long lines for turns to see physicians, mothers hold their babies close to their bosoms and scores of people walk up and down staircases, some of them carrying the results of medical tests. But none of that seems to bother musicians and singers at the Dr. Cosme Argerich Hospital in Buenos Aires, ...

  Ketapang / AFP Ignoring the shrieks of his rowdy, wrestling classmates, baby orangutan Otan practises swinging alone at his “jungle school” on Borneo island, switching hands and hanging upside down as he builds confidence high above the forest floor. The three-year-old is learning to fend for himself since being found wandering a palm oil plantation, alone and suffering smoke inhalation, ...

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, won’t boost output to capacity and flood the market, the kingdom’s Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said as OPEC members plan to meet this month to discuss ways to stabilize crude prices. Saudi Arabia isn’t concerned about global demand in spite of a drop in prices and a slower economy, Al-Falih said ...

Bloomberg Iraq would support a proposal for OPEC and other major oil producers to freeze output at talks in Algeria next month, Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi said in Baghdad. The endorsement marks a slight shift by Al-Abadi, who was quoted by Reuters on Aug. 23 saying that Iraq still hadn’t raised production sufficiently. The country’s deputy oil minister, Fayyad Al-Nima, ...

  Bloomberg A Libyan armed force controlling some of the country’s southern oilfields has stopped pumping at two of them because the government has not paid the funds needed to maintain security operations, a brigade commander said. The closures underscore the new Libyan government’s complex task in reviving oil production, which has been battered by strikes, protests and militant attacks ...

  Reuters Egypt’s state grains buyer GASC received only one offer on Wednesday at its first wheat purchase since reinstating a zero-tolerance policy on ergot fungus, a near complete boycott that underscores the difficulty of sourcing grains under the rule. A ban on the common grain fungus caused huge disruption to Egypt’s massive wheat imports earlier this year, with global ...

  Bloomberg Oil is poised for the biggest monthly advance since April as the global surplus diminishes and OPEC’s planned talks fan speculation it could reach an accord on output. Futures slid 1 percent in New York, trimming the monthly gain to 10 percent. Iraq’s Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi said Tuesday the country would support a proposal among major producers ...