Europeans are tightening their belts and spending less on Christmas gifts this year as they struggle with incomes hit by austerity measures or fear the economy could worsen in 2012.

Mother Nature is helping retailers in many countries this year as there have been no snow storms keeping consumers home and playing havoc with deliveries.

Saab cars filed for bankruptcy on Monday, a Swedish district court told Agence France Presse, bringing to an end two years of efforts to rescue the iconic brand.

The final desperate efforts to organize help in China were obstructed by General Motors over licenses.

Alitalia has held high-level talks on a possible merger with Air France-KLM, which already holds a 25 percent stake in the Italian airline, the daily Il Messaggero reported Saturday.

"Alitalia's mission to Paris for a wedding with Air France," read the headline on a report that said Alitalia managers had a meeting in Paris on Friday with Air France chief executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday lifted sanctions on Libya's central bank and a key investment bank freeing tens of billions of dollars to ease a post-Gadhafi cash crunch.

The United States immediately announced it would unblock more than $30 billion dollars of assets of the Central Bank of Libya and its subsidiary, the Libyan Foreign Bank (LFB). Britain said it would release more than $10 billion.

France is giving Britain a "good kicking", deputy premier Nick Clegg said in an interview out Saturday, as the spat over each other's economies rumbled on.

Clegg warned against lurches into xenophobia and chauvinism, the day after telling French Prime Minister Francois Fillon to "calm the rhetoric" as Britain hit back at French criticism of its finances.

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will speak at an economic forum in Beijing Monday, organizers said Saturday, in his first public professional speech since the New York scandal in May.

Strauss-Kahn was forced to resign as IMF chief after he was arrested over accusations of sexually assaulting a hotel maid, but all charges were later dropped.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Europe must abide by the new rules it has agreed on to stabilize the euro, and also turn its attention to generating economic growth.

Most European Union leaders agreed a week ago to participate in a new budget-stability treaty — designed to deter runaway deficits and supposed to become law by March.

Russia secured the final approval Friday to join the World Trade Organization after a record 18 years of trying.

The WTO's 153-members gave their second and final approval for Russia's membership bid, ushering in the last major economy outside the trade club.

An overwhelming majority of Greeks say their country is likely to go bankrupt, a poll found Friday, as support for a new coalition government eroded just over a month after it took office.

Over 65 percent of 2,000 people polled nationwide said Greece would ultimately be unable to break free of a national debt crisis despite a tough recovery plan followed under the supervision of the EU and the IMF for nearly two years.

Ratings firm Fitch downgraded six major global banks Thursday, citing increased challenges in their business and the prospect of financial turmoil ahead.

Fitch lowered the long-term ratings on Bank of America and Goldman Sachs in the United States, British bank Barclays, French bank BNP Paribas, German bank Deutsche Bank and Swiss bank Credit Suisse.