Shares opened higher Monday in Europe after a mixed session in Asia as investors await an interest rate decision by the Federal Reserve.

Shares rose in most markets apart from Shanghai and Seoul and U.S. futures also advanced. Oil prices fell sharply.

UBS said Monday that it has completed its takeover of embattled rival Credit Suisse, nearly three months after the Swiss government hastily arranged a rescue deal to combine the country's two largest banks in a bid to safeguard Switzerland's reputation as a global financial center and choke off market turmoil.

A statement from the bank said that "UBS has completed the acquisition of Credit Suisse today, crossing an important milestone."

When it comes to skyrocketing pasta prices, Italians are crying: Basta!

They have had enough after the cost of the staple of every Italian table soared by twice the rate of inflation. One consumer advocate group is calling for a weeklong national pasta strike starting June 22 after the Rome government held a crisis meeting last month and decided not to intervene on prices.

Iraq's parliament on Monday approved a budget that boosts public spending in the war-scarred nation and grants the federal government the upper hand over oil exports from the autonomous Kurdistan region.

The 198.9 trillion dinar ($153 billion) budget -- valid for three years though subject to future amendments -- also sets out record spending on public wages, investments and development projects.

Before fleeing North Korea in 2014, Jeon Jae-hyun kept U.S. dollars as a store of value and used Chinese yuan to make everyday purchases at markets, restaurants and other places. He used the domestic currency, the won, only occasionally.

"There were not many places to use the won, and we actually had little faith in our currency," Jeon said during a recent interview in Seoul. "Even the quality of North Korean bills was awful as they often ripped when we put them in our pockets."

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is studying the history books and considering the appointment of a mix of lawmakers and business leaders as he lays the groundwork for a new commission to tackle the nation's growing debt.

McCarthy is fresh off his biggest political victory since becoming speaker in January. He got the White House to negotiate on a bill that suspends the debt ceiling into January 2025 while also producing a projected $1.5 trillion in deficit savings over the coming decade. But the legislation only focused on a sliver of the federal spending that occurs each year and excluded programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that account for the majority of government spending and are the biggest drivers of the debt.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won reelection last month despite a battered economy and a cost-of-living crisis that experts say are exacerbated by his unconventional economic policies.

The longtime leader appointed an internationally respected former banker as finance and treasury minister and on Friday named a former co-CEO of a U.S.-based bank as head of the central bank.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday appointed a former U.S.-based bank executive to head Turkey's central bank, in another sign that his administration might pursue more conventional economic policies.

Erdogan named Hafize Gaye Erkan, a former co-chief executive officer of the First Republic Bank, as governor, according to an announcement in the Official Gazette. The Princeton-educated Erkan, 41, becomes the Turkish central bank's first woman governor.

The European economy contracted slightly at the end of last year and beginning of 2023, revised figures showed Thursday, underlining the impact of the loss of Russian natural gas and high inflation on consumer spending.

Economic output in the 20 countries that use the euro currency dropped 0.1% in both the final three months of 2022 and first three months of this year from the previous quarters, according to the European Union's statistics agency Eurostat.

The Turkish lira tumbled to a fresh record low Wednesday, extending its slide against the U.S. dollar since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan started his third term.

The lira weakened by around 7% on Wednesday, hitting 23.16 against the dollar. The decline took the currency's loss since the appointment of Erdogan's new government to more than 8%. The currency has weakened by around 20% since the start of the year.