Jeddah / TNS Car rental offices witnessed a surge in rentals during the Eid by up to 80 percent, compared to other vacation days, which contributed to the rise in rental prices of up to 60 percent. Workers in the sector in Jeddah and Makkah said some offices began to provide more vehicles, either by repairing those vehicles with problems, ...

  BLOOMBERG When Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi turned a standard speech on electricity supplies into an unexpected appeal for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, one man who wasn’t surprised was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The televised address in May capped months of backstage diplomacy by a group including former British premier Tony Blair. Nearly four decades after their ...

  Bloomberg China has intensified the drumbeat of its opposition to an international tribunal’s ruling expected on Tuesday that could threaten its expansive claims in the South China Sea. How Beijing responds to the ruling in the case filed by US ally the Philippines could chart the course of global power relations in an increasingly dangerous hotspot. It comes as ...

  AP  India has triggered the escape clause on dozens of bilateral investment treaties, aiming to renegotiate toward securing better protection from foreign litigation. The notifications, issued earlier this year, effectively let governments know they have 12 months to broker new treaties before the old ones expire. The changes India seeks could make it harder for foreign investors to legally ...

  Bloomberg Russia’s concern about water rights is holding up a $1 billion loan package Mongolia is seeking from China to build a hydroelectric dam that would help the landlocked central Asian nation ensure independent supplies of energy. The Kremlin said in June the project to build the Egiin Gol Hydro Power Plant on the Eg River in northern Mongolia ...

  Frankfurt / AFP The Frankfurt stock exchange said on Monday that it is examining whether to lower a key hurdle for its planned merger with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) to go ahead. The shareholders of German stock market operator Deutsche Boerse have until Tuesday to decide whether to swap their shares for shares in the new merged company. ...

  Bloomberg French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said on Monday that Portugal does not deserve EU penalties for government budgetary overruns. “Portugal has made enormous efforts in the past years. It does not deserve excessive discipline,” said Sapin in Paris, speaking on his way to a meeting of European finance ministers. The ministers are meeting in Brussels and are mulling ...

  Bloomberg Nine of the world’s biggest offshore wind farm developers joined with the Scottish government to fund a 7.9 million-pound ($10.3 million) study aimed at curbing the costs of the expensive renewable energy technology. Companies including Dong Energy A/S, EON SE, Iberdrola SA and RWE AG, will together invest at least 6.4 million pounds over the next four years ...

  Bloomberg Britons won’t have to worry about staying warm this winter and they have Norway to thank. Natural gas imports from Norway are expected to increase October through March by as much as 18 million cubic meters a day, or 15 percent, from a year earlier, according to a forecast released by U.K. gas system operator National Grid Plc. ...

  Bloomberg Romania’s only bout of deflation since the fall of communism eased for the first time in five months as the base effect of a sales-tax cut last year faded, while low oil and energy prices kept price growth subdued. Consumer prices fell 0.7% in June from a year earlier after declining 3.5 percent in May, the National Statistics ...