BP agreed Thursday to pay a record $4.5 billion in U.S. fines for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and will plead guilty to obstruction and criminal negligence in the deaths of 11 workers.

The company's reputation was ravaged after an April 20, 2010 explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and unleashed the biggest marine oil spill in the industry's history.

After accusing the French of being in "denial" during the presidential election campaign in late March, the British weekly The Economist now says that France is "the time-bomb at the heart of Europe."

"The crisis could hit as early as next year," the magazine warned in a cover story to appear on Friday with the sub-title: "Why France could become the biggest danger to Europe’s single currency."

Russian gas giant Gazprom signed on Thursday a deal allowing a major new pipeline to pass through Bulgaria on its way to Western Europe, stealing a march on rival EU-backed projects aimed at reducing the bloc's energy dependence on Moscow.

"With the signing today of the final investment decision for the Bulgarian section of South Stream, we move towards the implementation of the project," Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said after inking the deal with the head of the state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) Mihail Andonov.

France's prime minister assured a German audience on Thursday that his country is committed to getting its debt under control, and said that is essential to preserving France's sovereignty.

Jean-Marc Ayrault's first visit in Germany since taking office in May comes as concerns grow that France's economy, the eurozone's second-largest, is weakening just as the government has to slash spending to reduce its deficit. France is Berlin's most important ally in fighting Europe's debt crisis.

Spain has passed a decree curbing evictions of lower income homeowners unable to pay their mortgage, a bid to ease a trend that has seen hundreds of thousands of people lose their homes because of the brutal economic crisis.

Thursday's decree stops evictions for two years of people who are unemployed or who earn less than €1,200 ($1,527) a month after tax. It also suspends evictions of the elderly or disabled residents.

Superstorm Sandy drove the number of people in the U.S. seeking unemployment benefits up to a seasonally adjusted 439,000 last week, the highest level in 18 months.

The Labor Department says applications increased by 78,000 because a large number of applications were filed in East Coast states damaged by the storm. People can claim unemployment benefits if their workplaces close and they don't get paid.

Moody's announced Wednesday that it will review Britain's Aaa rating early next year, saying the country's strengths were challenged by weak growth and the eurozone crisis.

In its yearly credit report on Britain, the agency said its review would hinge in part on the government's upcoming Autumn Statement, its mid-term economic review.

The Dexia board on Wednesday announced it had endorsed an amended plan to dismantle the ailing Franco-Belgian bank and will call an extraordinary meeting next month for shareholders to do the same.

The new plan calls for a change in the way the French and Belgian governments share state guarantees for the bank, but this remains subject to approval by European Union competition authorities.

Nuri al-Maliki may have trumpeted Iraq last week as the top destination for investment in the region, but experts warn that myriad problems keep it from being a good choice for all but the most adventurous.

Excessive red tape, rampant corruption, an unreliable judicial system and still-inadequate security, as well as a poorly trained workforce and a state-dominated economy all continue to plague Iraq, which completed its biggest trade fair in 20 years last week to much domestic acclaim.

The European Union has approved a 5.0 billion euro ($6.4 billion) financial aid package to Egypt after its economy was battered by a 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, the EU and Egypt said on Wednesday.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told a press conference in Cairo the Europeans would "provide additional loans and grants worth about 5 billion euros."