WSJ.com: What's News Europe

BP assumed that a deal with Gazprom was a Russian oil jackpot, but what followed was a series of miscalculations that has left BP's position in Russia shakier.

Madoff built a vast base of European clients through multi-layered chains of borrowers and investors that allowed his firm's alleged fraud to remain hidden.

An ECB official touted the formation of a clearinghouse to guarantee the loans that banks make to one another as an option to help thaw money markets.

Siemens and U.S. authorities settled a longstanding bribes-for-business investigation with a record $800 million fine. The firm also agreed to pay over $528 million to German authorities.

Top oil exporters appear poised to agree to steep production cuts as they try to keep pace with an expected drop in world crude demand next year.

Fashion retailer H&M posted November sales figures that indicate it, too, is being hurt by the global slowdown in the key holiday season.

ArcelorMittal said it will reduce its stake in German steel-plate producer Dillinger Hütte, pocketing about $1 billion in the process.

Middelhoff, who will leave Arcandor at the end of February, said he put the European retail travel group on the right track, even as it reported a loss and a sales decline.

Most European stocks were modestly higher on fresh hopes the White House will throw a lifeline to U.S. car makers, but weakness in the financial sector curbed gains.

OPEC ministers meeting in Algeria this week could cut as much as two million barrels a day from oil production.