The funds earmarked by the central bank for the subsidization of fuel “have run out,” an official source concerned with the file said on Tuesday.

“Banque du Liban has stopped granting permissions for subsidized importation,” the source told Annahar newspaper.

French energy giant Total signed mega contracts with Iraq worth $27 billion to develop oil fields, natural gas and a crucial water project that officials said Monday will be key for the oil-rich country to maintain crude output.

The deals were inked Sunday with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in attendance, according to an Oil Ministry statement.

The Middle East on Monday got its first completely automated cashier-less store, as retail giant Carrefour rolled out its vision for the future of the industry in a cavernous Dubai mall.

Like Amazon's breakthrough unmanned grocery stores that opened in 2018, the Carrefour mini-market looks like any ordinary convenience store, brimming with sodas and snacks, tucked between sprawling storefronts of this city-state.

Rising eurozone inflation will provide the backdrop for the meeting of European Central Bank governors Thursday, with markets hoping for hints of when policymakers might start easing their massive pandemic-era stimulus.

Rights activists said Monday they had filed a criminal complaint in Germany against five retailers including C&A, Lidl and Hugo Boss, accusing them of benefiting from forced labor among China's Uyghur population.

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) said it had filed the case, which also targeted the two supermarket chains Aldi Nord and Aldi Sued, after carrying out an open source investigation.

Chinese singer and actor Lu Han, a former member of popular K-pop boy band EXO, said Sunday he would cut ties with Swiss luxury watch brand Audemars Piguet after its CEO referred to Taiwan as a country in an interview.

China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, objects to any reference to the self-governing island as a country. Under the one-country policy, other countries have diplomatic relations with either China or Taiwan, but not both.

The United Arab Emirates announced on Sunday a major plan to stimulate its economy and liberalize stringent residency rules for foreigners, as the country seeks to overhaul its finances and attract visitors and investment.

The nation's plan to lure foreign talent over the next decades reflects an emerging contrast with the other sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf that are growing increasingly protectionist as they try to diversify their oil-bound economies.

The UAE announced a new visa Sunday allowing foreigners to work in the country without being sponsored by an employer, loosening residency requirements in an attempt to boost economic growth.

Syria has agreed to help crisis-hit Lebanon by letting gas and electricity transit through its territory, an official said, during the first high-level visit from Beirut to Damascus since Syria's civil war erupted.

Dozens of worshippers knelt in prayer Friday at the center of hundreds of cars and unruly motorists surrounding a gas station south of Beirut.

Sheikh Ali al-Hussein led the session to highlight the hardship suffered by people who could not leave their spots in line for gas during the worst economic crisis in Lebanon's history. So, he says, he brought the mosque to the people, who were queued up for five kilometers (three miles) near a station in Jiyeh.