Standard and Poor's grim warning on the British economy is as much an indictment of the political landscape in London as the perilous state of the public finances, according to newspapers, Agence France-Presse reported. An editorial in the Financial Times described the verdict as "dramatic", but said the signs had all been there for some time. The business daily said the biggest risk hanging over recession-hit Britain was political, warning there was a "credibility hiatus" caused by the anticipation of an election, which must be held by June 2010.

Fiat SpA is convinced it has more than a 50 percent chance of succeeding in its bid for Opel because it does not think the other contenders have the expertise to revive the car maker, Reuters reported on an Italian newspaper story. But General Motors Corp, which is selling Opel, has Fiat at the bottom of a list of three contenders, German magazine Der Spiegel said in its online edition, citing what it described as an internal GM ranking list of the bids.

At least three bids were submitted to the German government Wednesday from suitors interested in acquiring or taking a stake in the ailing Adam Opel GmbH, a GM Europe spokesman said. Chris Preuss, a spokesman for the Zurich-based automaker which owns Opel, told The Associated Press that the bids had been received but did not identify who had filed them. So far, Italian automaker Fiat SpA has not been shy about courting Opel. Fiat wants to wrap GM Europe, including Opel, into a global car-making powerhouse along with Chrysler LLC.

Cevdet Caner, the man at the center of Germany’s biggest real estate insolvency in 15 years, is fighting eviction from his 20 million pound ($31 million) London townhouse, complete with basement swimming pool, Bloomberg reported. His group of investment companies called Level One owes €1.5 billion ($2 billion) to creditors led by Credit Suisse Group AG, according to estimates by the German administrator. The two main holding companies defaulted and were placed under court administration in August, U.K.

Norway's non-oil economy sank into recession, reflecting sharply lower manufacturing output, Statistics Norway said Tuesday. Gross domestic product fell 1% in the first quarter compared with a downwardly revised contraction of 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2008. Total GDP, which includes oil and gas and ocean shipping, contracted 0.4% in the first quarter, swinging from growth of 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Germany’s voluntary “bad bank” scheme adopted by the cabinet last week is a substantially watered-down version of the original draft, amended because of a parliamentary revolt, the Financial Times has learnt. Berlin was forced to shelve the earlier draft, which would have saddled taxpayers with hundreds of billions of euros in risks associated with toxic assets held by the nation’s banks, because coalition legislators threatened to vote it down.

Fiat SpA Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne has agreed to hold talks with Italian government officials and unions in an effort to avoid labor opposition that could derail his plans to make Fiat one of the world's largest car makers, The Wall Street Journal reported. Italian Industry Minister Claudio Scajola on Friday released excerpts of a letter Mr. Marchionne recently sent the minister, pledging to meet with the Italian government and unions as soon as Fiat knows the outcome of its proposed merger with Opel, the German unit of General Motors Corp.

Representatives from Opel's 4,000 dealers in Europe are expected to vote in favor of taking a direct equity stake in the ailing German carmaker when they meet in Vienna on Friday, Reuters reported. The umbrella association Euroda wants all of its dealers to contribute 150 euros from every sold car over the next three years into a joint fund that could raise as much as 500 million euros in fresh equity. Together with Opel's 50,000 European workers, they would like to hold a blocking minority in any new Opel company.

Europe’s economy contracted at the fastest pace in at least 13 years in the first quarter as companies cut output and jobs to survive the worst global slump in more than six decades, Bloomberg reported. Gross domestic product in the 16-member euro region dropped 2.5 percent from the fourth quarter, when it fell 1.6 percent, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. That’s the biggest drop since the euro-area GDP data were first compiled in 1995 and exceeded the 2 percent decline economists expected in a Bloomberg News survey.

The German government wants more detailed concepts in the next week from the two rival groups interested in investing in General Motors unit Opel, Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Guttenberg, speaking to reporters after a meeting of top government officials on the Opel matter, said Berlin wanted Opel assets placed with a trustee in the event that GM filed for bankruptcy before a deal with investors had been concluded. Read more.