François Hollande, the Socialist opposition candidate and opinion-poll leader, said that if he is elected France's president in May, he will seek help from the only institution he feels can salvage the euro: the European Central Bank, The Wall Street Journal reported. Speaking in an interview at his campaign's headquarters in central Paris, Mr. Hollande, 57 years old, said only the ECB has enough credibility and financial firepower to restore investor confidence and unravel the debt crisis that has been roiling the euro zone for two years.

Europe's banks are being squeezed from all sides, the Associated Press reported. They're holding risky government debt. They're struggling to get loans to operate. They're paying higher rates when they do borrow. And regulators want them to build bigger cushions against bad loans. The banks share the blame for Europe's debt crisis. They enabled governments to pile up too much debt. But they also provide the grease that keeps an economy running. Without them, there can be no recovery. A flurry of ominous news for Europe's banks has fueled fears about the ability of some to survive the crisis.

Struggling carmaker Saab suffered its latest embarrassment on Thursday as it was forced to name a new administrator a day after identifying another lawyer to take the key role, himself a replacement for a previous administrator who had quit, Reuters reported. The appointment comes days ahead of a court decision that could push Saab closer to bankruptcy. Sweden's Vanersborg District Court said Saab had put forward Lars Soderqvist of law firm Hokerberg & Soderqvist as its new administrator, having said on Wednesday another lawyer called Lars-Henrik Andersson would take the position.

Nikos Lekkas' team of tax investigators knew they were on to something when they found that a humble Greek farmer on the island of Thasos owned a red Ferrari and a Porsche, Reuters reported. Intrigued by how a farmer who had declared just 100,000 euros (84,000 pounds) in income over the past decade could afford such luxuries, Lekkas dispatched an undercover tax agent to the north Aegean island. The agent was back soon -- not only was the Thasos "farmer" earning far more than he had disclosed to the state, he was in an entirely different line of business: loan sharking.

Solon SE’s insolvency, the first of a publicly traded solar company in Germany, won’t affect its units in Italy, France and the U.S., Bloomberg Businessweek reported. The insolvency is for now confined to the holding company and its German units with 532 of a total 800 employees, said Moeller PR, which represents the administrator Ruediger Wienberg of law firm HWW Wienberg Wilhelm. Wienberg will contact customers and suppliers to maintain production and order processing, it said. Wages are secured through February.

The number of unemployed Britons has soared to the highest level for 17 years, increasing pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to do more to fuel growth and raising fresh questions about the wisdom of his government's fierce austerity drive, The Wall Street Journal reported. The jobless total rose 128,000 in the three months to October to 2.64 million, the highest level since the third quarter of 1994, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. The jobless rate rose to 8.3%, its highest level since the three months to January 1996. Mr.

Ireland has made “important progress” in consolidating its finances and implementing structural reforms, a new report from the European Commission said today, the Irish Times reported. The reforms pave the way for Ireland to receive the third instalment of European funding, worth €4.2 billion, in January. However, the comission warned that the country was facing a number of challenges, including the weakening global economic outlook, which could impact exports, a strong driver of growth in the economy.

Ailing Swedish carmaker Saab and its court-appointed administrator Guy Lofalk want him replaced amid reports of disagreement as the company struggles to stay in business, a court said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The court is due to decide whether to keep Saab in a scheme which grants it protection from creditors while it secures itself a stable future. Lofalk, who applied to have the creditor protection scheme ended, now wants to leave his position.

Dozens of euro-zone banks flocked to Eastern Europe in recent years, hoping to harness the region's fast-growing economies and relatively untapped banking markets. Amid Europe's banking crisis, the situation has suddenly been thrown into reverse, The Wall Street Journal reported. Banks are beating hasty retreats from the region, scrambling to conserve limited resources and facing pressure to concentrate on their domestic markets.

Greece’s international rescue program continues to slip as the nation’s leaders shirk promised changes, investors flee a beleaguered banking system and concern that Europe will fall into recession adds to the pressure, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday in its latest report on the country, the International Herald Tribune reported.