Iraq, once synonymous with conflict and chaos, is becoming a land of opportunity for Lebanese job-seekers fleeing a deep economic crisis back home.

Akram Johari is one of thousands who fled Lebanon's tumbling currency and skyrocketing poverty rates.

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan -- when the faithful fast from dawn to dusk -- began at sunrise Saturday in much of the Middle East, where Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sent energy and food prices soaring.

The conflict cast a pall over the holiday, when large gatherings over meals and family celebrations are a tradition. Many in the Southeast Asian nation of Indonesia planned to start observing Sunday and some Shiites in Lebanon, Iran and Iraq were also marking the start of Ramadan a day later.

Israel and the United Arab Emirates said Friday they had agreed on the terms of a free trade agreement to boost commercial relations following their normalization of ties.

Israel described as "historic" the deal abolishing customs duties on "95 percent of the products" exchanged between the Jewish state and Gulf Arab country.

Inflation in Europe soared to another record, according to new EU figures released Friday, in a fresh sign that rising energy prices fueled by Russia's war in Ukraine are squeezing consumers and adding pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates.

Consumer prices in the 19 countries that use the euro currency rose by an annual rate of 7.5% in March, according to the European Union statistics agency, Eurostat.

The European Union's executive arm is proposing that the 27-nation bloc's countries allow the millions of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine to exchange their hryvnia banknotes into the currencies of host member nations.

The European Commission said Friday its proposal aims at promoting a coordinated approach within the region.

Hizbullah's MP Hassan Ezzeddine said Friday that the capital control law should have been issued at the start of the financial crisis and not after three years from its onset.

Ezzeddine claimed that Hizbullah is concerned about protecting the depositors' rights, just the way it is concerned about protecting the Lebanese from the Israeli enemy.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati met in the past days with a number of potential candidates for replacing embattled Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, who is facing a host of lawsuits inside and outside Lebanon, a media report said on Friday.

The latest European measures against Salameh and some associates are what pushed Miqati to consider Salameh’s replacement, especially after Monaco “requested judicial cooperation from the Lebanese Justice Ministry in filed related to Miqati and members of his family” and after “the French threatened sanctions should the obstruction of investigation continue,” informed sources told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Friday.

A spike in global energy prices benefits Saudi Arabia as the world's top oil exporter, but problems remain for the kingdom's impulsive crown prince.

Whether trying to find jobs for a growing number of unemployed youth or finding a way to end the long war he launched in Yemen, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father King Salman now face a potential pivot point for the kingdom amid Russia's war on Ukraine.

Dozens of people were arrested in Sri Lanka following protests near the president's home demanding that he resign amid the country's worst economic crisis in memory, police said Friday.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's office blamed "organized extremists" within the group of protesters for violence during Thursday night's demonstration, where police fired tear gas and a water cannon at thousands of protesters and arrested 54 people.

Tia Rutherford is worried about her 3-year-old son.

As energy prices soared last fall, she tacked fleece blankets over her doors and windows to keep the cold out and started serving Jacob breakfast in his room so she didn't have to heat the living room. But she's consumed by worry that she can't pay her utility bills and that her son isn't warm enough.