Where to sleep? It's among the biggest questions facing fans traveling to tiny Qatar for the World Cup amid a feverish rush for rooms in Doha. Some will sleep on cruise ships. Others will camp in the desert. Others will fly in from Dubai and elsewhere.

But in the run-up to the world's biggest sporting event in the world's smallest host country, the struggle for housing is hardly limited to tourists. Qatar's real estate frenzy has sent rents skyrocketing and priced long-term residents out of their own homes, leaving many in the lurch.

Lebanese depositor Wafik Mohammed Kalo on Monday locked up himself and other people inside BLOM Bank’s branch in the southern city of Sidon, demanding that he be paid $5,000 from his account to pay for his son’s heart surgery.

The drama ended a few hours later after the bank paid Kalo LBP 280 million.

Norwegian oil and gas workers normally don't see anything more threatening than North Sea waves crashing against the steel legs of their offshore platforms. But lately they have noticed a more troubling sight: unidentified drones buzzing in the skies overhead.

With Norway replacing Russia as Europe's main source of natural gas, military experts suspect the unmanned aircraft are Moscow's doings. They list espionage, sabotage and intimidation as possible motives for the drone flights.

China's economic growth picked up in the latest quarter but still was among the weakest in decades as the ruling Communist Party tries to reverse a slump while enforcing anti-virus controls and a crackdown on debt in its vast real estate industry.

The world's second-largest economy grew by 3.9% over a year earlier in the three months ending in September, up from the previous quarter's 0.4%, official data showed Monday.

French prosecutors said Monday that Credit Suisse has agreed to pay 238 million euros ($234 million) to settle tax fraud allegations, the latest blow for the embattled Swiss bank.

The bank will pay 123 million euros in fines and 115 million in damages and interest to France, whose investigators will close an inquiry launched in 2016 on possible charges of aggravated tax fraud laundering and illegal soliciting, French prosecutor Jean-François Bohnert said in a statement.

Spanish fashion giant Zara is facing boycott calls in an Arab-majority town in southern Israel after the company's local franchise head hosted extreme-right leader Itamar Ben-Gvir for a campaign event.

Recent opinion polls suggest Ben-Gvir has been gaining strength ahead of the November 1 election, which could see his nationalist alliance emerge as the third-largest bloc in parliament.

In nearly every corner of the globe, people are spending more on food and fuel, rent and transportation.

But inflation isn't affecting people equally. For migrants with relatives relying on money they send back, higher prices are pinching families twice: at home and abroad.

The dollar exchange rate dropped from LBP 40,600 to 36,000 on the black market overnight, shortly after Central Bank Governor Riad Salamah said in a statement that the Central Bank would stop buying dollars on the Sayrafa platform as of Tuesday.

The unofficial exchange rate later surged to LBP 37,000.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of "deliberately delaying" the export of grain from Ukrainian ports bound for countries in Africa and Asia.

"Today more than 150 ships are in a queue to fulfil contractual obligations for the supply of our agricultural products," Zelensky said in a video address.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is traveling to Australia for talks with his counterpart Anthony Albanese, said Friday he wants to bolster military and energy cooperation between the two countries amid their shared concerns about China.

Kishida said he hoped to update their 2007 bilateral security pact to factor in the progress they've made and further promote their partnership.