Qatar Airways announced on Monday that it suffered a more than $4 billion loss in revenues over the last fiscal year, as lockdowns triggered by the coronavirus pandemic slashed demand for long-haul travel.

The major loss, which the state-owned airline largely attributed to the grounding of its Airbus A380 and A330 wide-body jets, highlights the dramatic toll of the pandemic on the industry.

Head of Parliament's Finance and Budget Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan said Monday that the central bank has requested a grace period until the end of the year to study the issue of raising the value of withdrawals.

The Finance and Budget Committee had met with representatives of BDL and the depositors, in the presence of the minister of finance and the association of banks to discuss raising the exchange rate for bank withdrawals, currently set at LBP 3,900/USD.

European stock markets rose Monday after Germany's tight election result, but the prospect of coalition talks weighed on the euro.

Lines of cars formed at some British gas stations for a fourth day on Monday, as the government mulled sending in the army to help ease supply disruption triggered by a shortage of truck drivers.

Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association, said training had been taking place "in the background" for military personnel to drive tankers, though the government has not announced whether troops will be deployed.

Google is heading to a top European Union court Monday to appeal a record EU antitrust penalty imposed for stifling competition through the dominance of its Android operating system.

The company is fighting a 2018 decision from the EU's executive Commission, the bloc's top antitrust enforcer, that resulted in the 4.34 billion-euro ($5 billion) fine — still the biggest ever fine Brussels has imposed for anticompetitive behavior.

Global shoppers face possible shortages of smartphones and other goods ahead of Christmas after power cuts to meet government energy use targets forced Chinese factories to shut down and left some households in the dark.

In the northeastern city of Liaoyang, 23 people were hospitalized with gas poisoning after ventilation in a metal casting factory was shut off following a power outage, according to state broadcaster CCTV. No deaths were reported.

Thousands of Indian farmers blocked traffic on major roads and railway tracks outside of the nation's capital on Monday, marking one year of demonstrations against government-backed laws that they say will shatter their livelihoods.

The farmers have renewed their protests with calls for a nationwide strike on the anniversary of the legislation's passage. The drawn-out demonstrations have posed one of the biggest political challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who swept the polls for the second time in 2019.

Britain's transport secretary on Sunday accused lorry industry representatives of helping to spark petrol panic-buying, as he defended a U-turn on post-Brexit immigration policy to ease an escalating supply crisis.

Trying to dispel investor fears, some Chinese banks are disclosing what they are owed by a real estate developer that is struggling under $310 billion in debt and say they can cope with a potential default.

The announcements came as Evergrande Group promised to talk with some individual investors in its debt. Other creditors waited to see whether Beijing will step in to oversee a restructuring to prevent financial disruption.

China's central bank on Friday declared all transactions involving Bitcoin and other virtual currencies illegal, stepping up a campaign to block use of unofficial digital money.

Chinese banks were banned from handling cryptocurrencies in 2013, but the government issued a reminder this year. That reflected official concern cryptocurrency mining and trading might still be going on or the state-run financial system might be indirectly exposed to risks.