The humble egg has become a star performer for all the wrong reasons as inflation has hit households across the European Union extremely hard over the year.

The EU's statistical agency Eurostat announced Friday that the average price of an egg — that important staple for poor families and gourmet cooks alike — had risen by 30% over the year to January 2023, becoming a symbol of how the cost of living has hit everyone in the 27-nation bloc.

French President Emmanuel Macron insisted on the need for raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 in order to make the French pension system financially sustainable in the coming years, in a letter to workers' unions released Friday.

The move comes after more than a million demonstrators marched in cities and towns across France this week as train and metro drivers, refinery workers and others started open-ended strikes against the centrist government's plan.

Only a few months into its term, Iraq's government is suddenly enforcing a long-dormant law banning alcohol imports and arresting people over social media content deemed morally offensive. The crackdown has raised alarm among religious minorities and rights activists.

Some see the measures as an attempt by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to head off potential political challenges from religious conservatives and to distract from economic woes, such as rising prices and wild currency fluctuations.

Independent MP Charbel Masaad on Friday stormed a bank in the southern city of Sidon to demand that a depositor be paid his money in cash, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The lawmaker, who is still inside the bank, held “banks, the banking system and the central bank governor responsible for people’s suicide,” NNA added.

The pro-business track record of the man poised to become China's top economic official will make his term a test of whether he might moderate President Xi Jinping 's tendency to intervene.

Li Qiang, 63, who is expected to be chosen China's premier on Saturday, will have to grapple with a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy, which is dealing with emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, weak global demand for exports, lingering U.S. tariff hikes, a shrinking workforce and an aging population.

Inflation in Egypt again hit a new high for this year in February, the government said Thursday, with prices rising most steeply for food. The country is in the midst of an economic crisis and a currency depreciation.

Annual inflation rose to 32.9% in February, the government statistics agency said, up from 26.5% in January. Grains, meat, poultry, fish and fruit were among the products with the biggest price spikes.

Wall Street drifted modestly lower early Thursday amid increasing anxiety following Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell's warning to Congress this week that rate hikes might accelerate because upward pressure on prices has been stronger than expected.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials slipped 0.1% and the S&P 500 fell 0.3% before the bell.

The Association of Banks in Lebanon announced Thursday that the country’s banks will resume their open-ended strike on Tuesday, March 14, decrying recent judicial rulings.

U.S. auto safety regulators have opened an investigation into Tesla's Model Y SUV after getting two complaints that the steering wheels can come off while being driven.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the probe covers an estimated 120,000 vehicles from the 2023 model year.

Global shares were mostly lower Wednesday as investors fretted that the Federal Reserve might raise interest rates faster if pressure stays high on inflation.

France's CAC 40 shed 0.2% to 7,325.65 in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 dipped 0.3% to 7,898.54. Germany's DAX inched down less than 0.1% to 15,555.97. U.S. shares were set to drift higher with Dow futures up 0.1% at 32,901.00. S&P 500 futures rose nearly 0.1% to 3,993.25.