The American father and son duo who helped former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn dramatically escape from Japan have been returned to the United States after spending 20 months in Japanese jails, their lawyer said Monday.

A UK trade minister arrived in Taiwan on Monday for the first in-person talks since the coronavirus pandemic in a bid to boost ties with the self-ruled island, sparking a rebuke from Beijing.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut has announced the expansion of interview waiver eligibility for Lebanese citizens who are renewing B1/B2 tourist and business visas.

Lebanese citizens of ages 50 and older and whose B1/B2 visas have expired within the last 24 months may qualify for Interview Waiver which allows for visa renewal without an interview.

Apple Inc. is warning customers they'll have to wait longer to get its latest iPhone models after anti-virus restrictions were imposed on a contractor's factory in central China.

The company announcement Sunday gave no details but said the factory operated by Foxconn in the central city of Zhengzhou is "operating at significantly reduced capacity."

A parliamentary committees session to discuss the long-awaited capital control law was adjourned Monday due to the absence of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab said.

A Japanese consortium has decided to retain its stake in the new Russian operator of the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project and is set to notify Moscow, moving to secure stable energy supplies for resource-scarce Japan.

"It's an extremely important project," Economy and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said Friday in welcoming the unanimous decision by the shareholders in Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co., or SODECO, a consortium of Japanese companies holding a 30% stake in Sakhalin-1 in Russia's Far East.

Employees braced for widespread layoffs at Twitter Friday as new owner Elon Musk overhauls the social platform.

In a letter to employees obtained by multiple media outlets, the company said employees would find out by 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time if they had been laid off. The email did not say how many people would lose their jobs.

The head of the European Central Bank underlined the bank's determination to fight rampant inflation with more interest rate increases on top of record hikes, saying Friday that "our job is far from being completed" and that even a mild recession would not be enough to bring rising prices back under control.

ECB President Christine Lagarde said in a lecture at the central bank of Estonia that "we will not let high inflation become entrenched" by allowing expectations of higher prices to become baked into wages and costs, creating a spiral of ever-higher inflation.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on a group of individuals, firms and vessels connected to an oil smuggling outfit said to benefit Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

More than a dozen companies, six individuals and 11 vessels flagged from around the world — from Djibouti to Panama — are included in the sanctions package, for allegedly participating in a scheme that included blending and exporting sanctioned Iranian oil.

Lebanon is unable to put its new exchange rate into effect after its outgoing president declared the state budget unconstitutional and refused to sign off on it, officials said.

The Finance Ministry in late September announced that Lebanon would change its pegged exchange rate to the dollar from 1,500 pounds to 15,000 starting Nov. 1, which they called a "necessary corrective action." Parliament passed the cash-strapped country's 2022 national budget in September, which included the amended rate. However, it took at least another week of bureaucracy before reaching President Michel Aoun's office.