Struggling carrier Air France regained altitude Friday, with its stock rising well more than three percent after a key pilots' union endorsed a draft agreement that paves the way for a restructuring plan.

Shares in Franco-Dutch airline Air France-KLM closed with a gain of 3.72 percent at 4.40 euros on the Paris stock exchange, which was 0.23 percent higher overall.

New home prices in more Chinese cities rose in July than in the previous month, the government said Saturday, amid cautious optimism the country's property market may be bottoming out.

Prices in 50 out of the 70 Chinese cities tracked by the government increased in July from June, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement. That represented a doubling from 25 in June.

The Syrian economy has been hit hard by more than 17 months of revolt but may still hold on despite international sanctions with the help of friendly countries such as Russia, Iran and Iraq, experts say.

All economic indicators in Syria, where President Bashar Assad is trying to crush an uprising against his rule, are in the red: the economy is contracting, inflation rates have skyrocketed, unemployment has risen and the current account deficit continues to increase.

U.S. regulators are investigating claims Deutsche Bank and other global banks funneled billions of dollars for Iran, Sudan and other sanctioned nations, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The probe is still in its very early stages, law enforcement officials told the Times, adding that Deutsche Bank was not believed to have moved funds on behalf of Iranian clients through its U.S. operations after 2008.

The Eurozone’s current account surplus grew to 12.7 billion euros ($15.7 billion) in June from 10.3 billion euros the previous month, European Central Bank data showed on Friday.

The current account on the balance of payments, which includes imports and exports in both goods and services plus all other current transfers, is a closely tracked indicator of the ability of a country or area to pay its way in the world.

Syria's chief economic negotiator this weekend will pay his second visit to Moscow in two weeks for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the country's ambassador said on Friday.

Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil will probably arrive in Moscow on Saturday and meet Lavrov either on Monday or Tuesday, Syrian Ambassador Riyad Haddad was quoted as saying by Interfax.

German leader Angela Merkel on Thursday pressed for a quick wrap-up of talks on a free trade pact between Canada and the European Union, calling it crucial to much-needed global economic growth.

"Once I go back to Germany, I will see to it that these negotiations come to a speedy conclusion because... Canada and Germany are convinced free trade is one of the best engines of growth that we can have," Merkel said in Ottawa.

World oil prices tumbled in Asian trade Friday as traders cashed in gains from a recent rally, analysts said.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude for delivery in September, was down 37 cents to $95.23 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for October delivery sank 67 cents to $114.60.

Eurozone inflation was unchanged in July for the third month running at an annualized 2.4 percent, still above the European Central Bank's target, EU data showed on Thursday.

The figures from the Eurostat agency, a second estimate confirming a release earlier in the month, marked the 20th consecutive month that inflation came in above the ECB's medium-term inflation target of just below but close to 2.0 percent.

Swedish furniture giant Ikea plans a one-billion-euro move into the hotel sector, opening at least 100 hotels in Europe, according to a company executive cited by a Swedish daily.

"We've been searching for property across Europe for a while and we'll announce in a few weeks where we'll open our own hotel," Svenska Dagbladet quoted as saying Harald Mueller, the Ikea group executive in charge of the project.