The Economist -- Credit-rating agencies came under more fire, this time in Italy, where prosecutors from the town of Trani asked a judge to order seven employees from Standard & Poor's and Fitch to stand trial for allegedly violating market rules when they announced downgrades on Italian sovereign debt. The two-year investigation was sparked by complaints from consumer groups and involved a police raid on the companies' offices in Milan. The employees haven't been charged. S&P dismissed the allegation as "baseless".