As Europe edges toward emergency guarantees to stem market panic over one of the most profligate members of the euro bloc, the country that the region turns to for leadership, Germany, is suffering from growing doubts about the European experiment it long championed, The New York Times reported. Reluctant German leaders now find themselves forced to help Greece remain solvent, or risk watching markets attack one weak member after the next, from Portugal to Spain to Italy, threatening the stability of the euro, the European currency Germany fought so hard to create.

A messy Greek default would harm almost everybody, The Economist reported in an editorial. As markets and governments know only too well, behind Greece stand others: Portugal, Ireland, Spain and even Italy, the world’s third-biggest sovereign debtor. Hence the selfish case for other euro-area countries to help. There is plenty of money around. The EU can advance structural-fund aid that is due to be paid in future years. The European Investment Bank can lend more.

The Australian sharemarket fell to a five-month low today, taking the market's loss this week to $30.83 billion, The Australian reported. The surprise 268 point plunge on the Dow Jones Index on Wall Street overnight created an instant negative lead for equities markets across the Asia Pacific region. In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 dropped 107.3 points to 4514.3 while the All Ordinaries was down 111.4 points to 4532.7.

Gordon Brown received a twin blow today when a leading ratings agency warned Britain to get a tighter grip on its record budget deficit and figures revealed that the slump of the past 18 months was now officially the deepest since the second world war, The Guardian reported. Fitch said that the UK – along with France and Spain – needed to "articulate more credible and stronger fiscal consolidation during the course of 2010 to underpin confidence in the sustainability of public finances".

A senior General Motors Co. executive said Tuesday that the final restructuring plan for GM's Opel/Vauxhall unit still could hinge on aid commitments from European governments, Dow Jones reported. The company aims to advance a new €3.3 billion turnaround plan for the European operation in two to three weeks and wants aid to supplement further investment of its own. Nick Reilly, president of GM's international operations, said there was no "bidding war" among European countries looking to preserve local auto jobs with financial support.

The Bank of Spain said on Tuesday that it has approved the takeover of the only Spanish bank to be bailed out during the financial crisis, Caja Castilla La Mancha (CCM), Reuters reported. A savings bank from the region of Asturias, Cajastur, will take control of CCM if the general assemblies of both regional banks approve the terms of the deal, the Bank of Spain said in a statement.

At this time last year Jim Flynn and Nathan Berkley seemed to have it made. Their publishing house, Derwent Howard Media, looked to be thriving, with a string of successful specialist magazines led by flagship titles Official PlayStation Magazine, Ultimate Nintendo and Australian 360, The Australian reported. Just a year later it has all fallen apart. As of last week the company is in administration and faces being wound up. Berkley has moved to Spain and seemingly cut off all contact and a lot of people are concerned for their jobs, potentially out of pocket, and very confused.

Labor unions at the Adam Opel AG car factory in northeastern Spain said Monday they had accepted a new restructuring agreement reached with Magna International Inc., clearing at least one obstacle to the Canadian company's plans to take over the General Motors Co. subsidiary together with Russia's OAO Sberbank, The Wall Street Journal reported. The European Commission, the European Union's executive branch, meanwhile, said it has set a Nov. 27 deadline for its antitrust review of the planned takeover.

The IMF forecasts that Spain will be within the group of European economies that recorded a higher rate of bad loans above the European average along with France and Italy, because these countries have a high rate of loans on total assets, according to the Barcelona Reporter. As far as estimates of losses for banks and financial institutions are concerned, their financial losses for the period 2007/10 could be around 412 million euros to 2.3 billion euros, but warned that risks to global financial stability "remains high".

More uncertainty was injected into the planned sale of General Motors Co.'s Opel to a group led by Magna International Inc. as Spain urged European regulators to investigate the agreement and Germany's Free Democrats, consistent critics of the deal, were poised to win a powerful voice in Germany's new government, The Wall Street Journal reported. The deal has run into steady fire from Magna customers and European governments alike since the Canadian auto-parts maker reached a preliminary agreement to buy a majority stake in Opel earlier this month.