Hundreds of British workers walked off the job today, part of a rising tide of industrial unrest sweeping Europe as the continent's economic downturn worsens, the Los Angeles Times reported. Employees at two nuclear power plants in northern England staged wildcat strikes in support of workers at an oil refinery who have been out in protest since the end of last week.

Hundreds of thousands of French workers staged a nationwide strike on Thursday to try to force President Nicolas Sarkozy and business leaders to do more to protect jobs and wages during the economic crisis, Reuters reported. The strike, in a country with a strong protest culture, aimed to highlight fears over growing unemployment, discontent over Sarkozy's reluctance to help consumers and resentment toward bankers blamed for the economic slump.

The French government said Tuesday it is prepared to inject as much as €6 billion ($7.86 billion) to jump-start the stalled French automotive industry but warned that companies that close even one plant in France won't get any aid, The Wall Street Journal reported. Prime Minister François Fillon said the government stands ready to provide funds to the cash-starved sector. But Mr. Fillon said that recipients of the aid will have to guarantee they will maintain their industrial operations in France.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Man Group and Nomura on Monday joined a growing list of financial groups acknowledging exposure to the alleged $50 billion fraud surrounding Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff, Reuters reported. A report in the Financial Times said HSBC Holdings Plc had emerged as one of the largest victims, with potential exposure of about $1 billion. RBS said its potential loss could amount to some 400 million pounds ($595 million), if it assumed that the value of its assets in market-making firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC were nil.

Wagon, one of Britain’s largest car parts makers, has gone into administration, the company announced on Monday. The news puts up to 500 jobs at risk in the company’s two plants in Coventry and Walsall, and its head office in Birmingham, the Financial Times reported. Trading in Wagon’s shares was halted in October, when the company entered into refinancing talks with Royal Bank of Scotland and its majority shareholder, the billionaire investor Wilbur Ross.

The European Commission plans to propose that “fundamentally sound” banks can repay government aid at rates as low as 7 percent, laying the groundwork for approval of plans by France and Austria to recapitalize lenders, Bloomberg reported. European governments are seeking to shore up the financial system after the credit crisis froze inter-bank lending over the past two months. European Union finance ministers asked European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes to impose less stringent repayment conditions on fundamentally sound banks.

The Italian financial police say they have arrested fashion designer Gai Mattiolo on a charge of fraudulent bankruptcy, the Associated Press reported. Officer Stefano Catorci says Mattiolo was placed under house arrest in Rome early Friday for allegedly siphoning funds from his fashion house before declaring bankruptcy. Catorci says another suspect was also arrested on the same charges. He did not give further details because the investigation was continuing. The Rome-based fashion house Gai Mattiolo declined comment. Mattiolo was seen as a rising star of Italian fashion in the 1990s.

Swiss Life Holding AG Wednesday said it would cut 200 jobs in Switzerland, citing ongoing restructuring efforts across the group, making it one of the first Swiss insurers to reduce staff in the current credit crisis, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The measures should help the life insurer reduce costs by around 90 million Swiss francs ($75.6 million) up to 2012, with half of the savings due in 2009. Restructuring costs amount to around CHF40 million, 80% of which will be charged to the 2008 financial year.

Creditors of French building materials manufacturer Terreal are urgently seeking dialogue with its private equity owner, LBO France, after Terreal defaulted on a 915 million euro loan, Reuters reported today. Terreal failed a leverage covenant test last Friday on the loan, which specified that its leverage ratio must be eight times and the company instead reported leverage of 8.4 times, banking sources said. Terreal's all-senior loan, which was arranged by ING, is now quoted in the secondary market at a steep discount of 22-32 percent of face value, which indicates distress.

The economy of the euro zone slipped into recession for the first time during the third quarter, the European Union’s statistics agency confirmed Friday, as the financial crisis continued to depress manufacturing activity and consumer demand, the New York Times reported today. Gross domestic product declined 0.2 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months in both the euro zone, which comprises the 15 countries that use the euro as their currency, and the European Union as a whole, according to an initial estimate published by the agency Eurostat.