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Monday's euro-zone downgrade warning by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services is a muscular move by a firm that was pilloried for its supposed laxity in the financial crisis. S&P put the long-term sovereign-debt ratings of 15 euro-zone nations, including struggling Italy and Spain, on negative watch. That typically means there is at least a 50% chance of a downgrade within 90 days, but the firm said Monday that it expected to announce any rating changes "as soon as possible" following this week's European Union summit, where policy makers are expected to lay out plans to enforce stricter budget rules.

Stock indexes gave back some of their gains Monday and the euro turned lower against the dollar following a report that Germany and five other major European nations could risk having their credit ratings downgraded.

Paris, in its latest bid to be an innovator of the City of Tomorrow, is launching an electric car-sharing program to cut air and noise pollution on the city's medieval cobblestone streets and beyond.

Officials in Germany’s western city of Koblenz say some 45,000 residents have to be evacuated as officials try to defuse a World War II era bomb discovered in the Rhine river. City officials said Saturday the massive British 1.8 ton bomb will be defused early Sunday, requiring all residents within a radius of about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the bomb site to leave their homes for the day.

Olympics organisers publish a list of hotspots that businesses, Londoners and visitors to the capital should avoid during the Games.

A German patent owner has ordered HTC to halt sales of its devices in Germany, but the mobile phone maker says the claim is "invalid".

Italy and Spain have not asked to be rescued by the International Monetary Fund, the head of the lender said on Monday as she urged European leaders to quickly solve the region's festering debt crisis.

Europe’s debt crisis is going from bad to worse. The borrowing rates for troubled--and even not-so-troubled--European governments once again soared Friday, heightening the danger of an all-out collapse in Europe’s common currency. It comes as political leaders across the continent are all pointing to each other as needing to act to avert a worse outcome.

The worst week for the stock market in two months ended with a whimper in thin trading Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 4.8 percent this week, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 4.7 percent. Both had their worst weeks since Sept. 23.

Rating agency Fitch downgraded Portugal's rating to junk status on Thursday, citing large fiscal imbalances, high debts and large fiscal imbalances.