U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday he was not giving up hope for a deal to avert a shutdown of the federal government in a matter of hours.

"I am not at all resigned" to a shutdown, Obama told reporters when asked about it.

Syria's tourism industry has lost 300 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) in revenues since the country's brutal conflict broke out in March 2011, Tourism Minister Bishr Riad Yaziji told Agence France Presse on Monday.

"The tourism industry has lost some 300 billion Syrian pounds in direct and indirect losses," Yaziji said.

Annual inflation in the 17-nation eurozone fell sharply to 1.1 percent in September after a 1.3 percent drop in August, according to a first estimate on Monday by the Eurostat data agency.

A strong drop in energy prices, which decreased 0.9 percent after 0.3 percent in August, largely contributed to the new fall in inflation, which a year ago stood at 2.6 percent.

Greece's international creditors announced Sunday a pause in their discussion with Athens over the release of rescue loans.

Teams from the International Monetary Fund, European Union and European Central Bank have been in the Greek capital since September 17 for a fresh audit of the country's finances.

Lawmakers have one final day to try to prevent the first U.S. government shutdown in 17 years, but a deal appeared remote Monday as congressional leaders showed little intent to compromise.

With Congress going into crunch sessions ahead of an 11:59 pm (0359 GMT Tuesday) deadline, a House Republican leader offered a glimmer of hope when he hinted that his party could offer a new plan that might pass muster in the Democratic-held Senate.

The Reserve Bank of Australia on Monday admitted staff from a subsidiary visited Iraq at the height of U.N. sanctions after it was accused of attempting to strike an illegal deal with Saddam Hussein.

A joint investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Fairfax Media said secret files showed officials from the central bank's scandal-hit Note Printing Australia (NPA) went to Iraq to discuss a contract to turn the country's paper currency into polymer notes.

China launched a free trade zone in its commercial hub Shanghai on Sunday, state-media reported, with the project seen as a testing ground for much-needed reforms in the world's second largest economy.

The zone, which covers 29 square kilometers (11 square miles), "started operating Sunday", the official Xinhua news agency said, adding that it was "a test bed for the Chinese leadership's drive of deepening market-oriented reforms and boosting economic vigor".

Algerians demanding work protested across the energy-rich North African nation on Saturday as organizers vowed more days of "rage".

Despite its vast hydrocarbon wealth, Algeria is plagued by high unemployment affecting 21.5 percent of those under 35, according to state and International Monetary Fund estimates.

At a time when Indian, Russian and Brazilian car markets are stumbling, China remains the major growth engine for the global automotive industry, analysts say.

"For many years it's been the Bric nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) which have accounted for the growth of global sales, taking over from the more mature markets," explains Carlos da Silva, an analyst at IHS Automotive.

The World Bank removed Iran from its list of deadbeat borrowers Friday, saying the Islamic Republic had paid outstanding loan amounts.

The Bank said that its key lending unit, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, "has moved all loans to the Islamic Republic of Iran from non-performing status to performing status following the payment of all overdue amounts on these loans."