For hours, French investigators on Thursday questioned fugitive former auto magnate Carlos Ghosn in the Lebanese capital as a witness in a probe over Renault's pollutant emissions, according to two Lebanese officials.

A prosecution official and a judge said the French questioned Ghosn before leaving Beirut later in the day. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media. The officials said Lebanese investigators sat through the questioning of Ghosn. There was no immediate comment from French officials.

Former auto magnate Carlos Ghosn expects to get hit with at least one preliminary charge when French investigators travel to Beirut to question him over suspicions of financial misconduct. But he insists he's done nothing wrong and hopes their investigations are eventually dropped.

Lavish parties in Versailles, questionable payments to an Omani car dealer, suspected tax evasion -- these are the subjects of multiple investigations in France involving Ghosn's actions as the head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi car alliance. They were opened amid new scrutiny of Ghosn after his shocking 2018 arrest in Japan.

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has backed his former colleague American lawyer Greg Kelly's insistence he is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Ghosn said in an interview with The Associated Press in Beirut on Tuesday that Kelly, a former Nissan executive vice president, had sought only legal methods to arrange post-retirement compensation for his boss.

President Michel Aoun on Wednesday signed a decree for referring to parliament an urgent draft law aimed at approving and financing the ration cards plan.

Caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni had on Monday signed the draft law, which was prepared by the Premiership and is aimed at “approving ration cards and opening an additional and extraordinary line of credit for funding them.”

French judicial investigators heard fugitive ex-auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn as a witness Wednesday in Beirut ahead of further questioning next week, two sources said.

The hearing came before French magistrates officially question Ghosn, who holds Lebanese, French and Brazilian citizenship, on Monday over other judicial inquiries lodged against him in France.

Migrant workers in Lebanon have been hit hard by its multiple crises and half of them left jobless, the U.N. warned Wednesday, calling for voluntary returns to be scaled up.

European stocks were rangebound Monday after a mixed session in Asia, while U.S. shares advanced and bitcoin tried to rally after a weekend plunge.

Caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni on Monday signed an urgent draft law prepared by the Premiership and aimed at “approving ration cards and opening an additional and extraordinary line of credit for funding them,” the National News Agency said.

Al-Akhbar newspaper had earlier reported that “after political blocs refused spending from the obligatory reserve” of the central bank, “the Premiership threw the ball yesterday in the court of the Finance Ministry.”

Iran has started rolling blackouts, local media reported Sunday, which officials blamed on heat, drought impacting hydropower generation, and surging electricity demand blamed in part on crypto-currency mining.

The U.S. breathed new hope into global tax talks with a proposal, welcomed by Germany and France on Friday, to set a minimum rate of 15 percent on profits of multinationals worldwide.