Carlos Ghosn's 2019 escape from Japan, where he was awaiting trial, was virtually made for Hollywood, complete with private jets, a former special forces operative and a giant case to hide inside.

Stock markets climbed Monday with investors looking ahead to a meeting of the Federal Reserve this week hoping for fresh clues about prospects for higher interest rates as inflation soars.

Lebanon's currency hit a new low against the dollar on the black market Monday, continuing its freefall in a country gripped by political deadlock, an economic crisis and increasing shortages.

Lebanon's local currency hit a new record low on Sunday, with the country's economic and political crisis worsening with no apparent solutions in the near future.

The currency has lost more than 90% of its value since October 2019, when anti-government protests erupted. Inflation and prices of basic goods have skyrocketed in the country, which imports more than 80% of its basic goods.

The G7 endorsed Sunday a drive to create a "fairer tax system", with a global minimum corporation tax and a collective crackdown on avoidance, that it said would help tackle inequality.

G7 leaders on Sunday vowed to start delivering one billion doses of Covid vaccines and to step up action on climate change, in a summit call to arms by a revived democratic alliance that also confronted China and Russia.

Turkmenistan's autocrat leader said that his country's debts to China for a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline and another gas project had been paid off "in full", state media reported Saturday. 

The online reservation platform Booking.com is suspected of having avoided 150 million euros ($182 million) in value-added tax in Italy, financial police in Genoa said Thursday.

Sudan has ended fuel subsidies as part of an IMF-backed reform programme, state media reported Wednesday, doubling pump prices at the risk of stoking popular discontent.

Lebanon's central bank said Tuesday that depositors will be allowed to withdraw limited monthly amounts from their foreign currency accounts, nearly 20 months after banks denied them access amid a severe financial crisis.

The move is a small step toward instituting formal capital controls after Lebanese banks arbitrarily imposed policies preventing depositors from accessing their dollar accounts even as the local currency collapsed and a black market thrived.