UNITED KINGDOM

European stocks were higher early Tuesday afternoon, hitting a two-month high on sharp gains in cyclical mining shares, while simmering concerns over the Eurozone crisis sent French and Spanish markets lower.

French champagne sales managed to weather the economic crisis in 2011, expecting to show 3.5 percent growth thanks to exports to the United States and emerging countries, but a slowdown is in sight, the champagne trade association said on Monday.

Food prices may ease in 2012 due to a slowing global economy, though no drastic drop from high levels is expected, the new director-general of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Tuesday.

He had a year plagued by scandal at News Corp. in 2011, and he was accused of working too hard to avoid public comment. But Rupert Murdoch is starting 2012 off in a different way -- he's opened a Twitter account and apparently isn't afraid to tweet.

ICE February Brent crude futures rose $2.97 to $110.35 a barrel in trading, while U.S. crude futures were up $2.70 to $101.53 a barrel. U.S. crude futures were up as much as $101.68 in the trading day.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has rung in the New Year with a new Twitter account that includes praise for Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum and opinions on President Barack Obama's policies and the Steve Jobs biography.

Luxury cosmetics brand, Lancôme has released the images for their latest campaign featuring Harry Potter starlet Emma Watson looking every bit elegant and stylish.

American shareholders are suing Britain's Lloyds Banking Group and the bank's former executives, saying they were misled over its rescue of fellow lender HBOS in the depths of the financial crisis in 2008.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday he would clamp down on excess pay in London's financial sector as part of what he said should be bold measures to boost the country's fortunes.

The media mogul's Twitter handle is rupertmurdoch. And in the first day of tweets he had almost 50,000 followers. He didn't let them down, either, delivering tweets with perspective on the New Year and more. A spokesperson for News International confirmed that the user rupertmurdoch wasn't a fake -- it is really Murdoch.

European stocks ended higher in their first trading session of the year on Monday, led by defensive utilities such as E.ON and GDF Suez , while volumes were anaemic as UK and U.S. markets remained closed for the New Year holiday.

With no prenuptial agreement, Katy Perry's divorce could mean Russell Brand gets $20 million from the split.

British police have found evidence that private investigators working for newspapers hacked into the email account of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown while he was finance minister, The Independent newspaper reported on Monday.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, in a surprise move, has opened an account on micro-blogging Web site Twitter. The 80-year-old, however, received mixed reactions and some sharp criticism, from his now fellow micro-bloggers.

British police have found evidence that private investigators working for newspapers hacked into the email account of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown while he was finance minister, The Independent newspaper reported on Monday.

European shares inched higher on Monday with trading light due to British markets being shut and gains expected to be limited as worries about the euro zone debt crisis remained.

Micro-blogging site Twitter went out of order for more than an hour after it was overloaded with New Year greetings yesterday. The site crashed at midnight in Britain after recording a stream of over 16,000 tweets per second.

Policymakers marked the 10th anniversary Sunday of the introduction of euro notes and coins by urging governments in the currency bloc to save and consolidate to overcome their debt crisis.

The United States will remain the top choice of most global commercial real estate investors in 2012, but the country has lost ground to Brazil which ranked No. 2 this year, according to a survey released Sunday.

Iran has successfully produced and tested fuel rods for use in its nuclear power plants, state television reported on Sunday, in a snub to international demands that it halt sensitive nuclear work.

Dysfunctional politics threatens to deliver a protracted period of slow global growth, possibly lasting well beyond 2012, which will only deepen the political and economic problems for the West.