UNITED KINGDOM

The Hanson brothers will sell their own beer in 2012 - and they're not joking: MmmHop IPA, anyone?”

Prominent reformists have also received lengthy prison terms following trials that Amnesty described as grossly unfair.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Friday for rapid EU treaty change to remedy the root causes of the euro zone's debt crisis but warned that Europeans faced a long, hard marathon to restore lost credibility.

Asian stocks are set for their first weekly rise in a month buoyed by coordinated central bank actions, while the euro held on to hefty gains before European policymakers make a fresh stab to tackle its crisis at a summit next week.

Fans of the English national team have been set a new ticket limit by the organizers of the 2012 European soccer championships; they will be allocated only 5,000 seats for the quarter and semi-finals, assuming Fabio Capello's men actually reach that stage.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, under pressure from a spiraling euro zone debt crisis five months before a presidential election, told France on Thursday the euro bloc needs closer and stricter coordination of national budgets to survive.

A burst of energy that lit up the sky Christmas Day 2010 has been explained as one of two possible star collision theories, scientists revealed in the journal Nature. A 28-minute long gamma-ray burst was recorded that day by NASA's Swift observatory. Now, two papers from Nature attempt to explain the explosion using two models of star collisions, one within our galaxy and one billions of light years away.

Kate Middleton, Prince William and Harry have been named official ambassadors of the 2012 Olympics in London, and will start to meet with athletes in the lead up to the games, St James's Palace has announced.

President Nicolas Sarkozy will endeavor to warm the nation to giving Brussels more control over national budgets on Thursday as the euro zone crisis pushes France towards recession, squeezes its banks and threatens its AAA credit rating.

European equities fell in choppy trade on Thursday, as a key index failed to break an important resistance level and weak macro economic data prompted profit taking after sharp gains in the previous session.

The company notes the store will offer customers access to over 900,000 book titles in English and other languages, including 22,000 Spanish-language books.

The fallout from Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program continues, with the European Union imposing new economic sanctions against 180 Iranian officials and companies.

Two men found guilty of setting off a bomb in a Minsk subway station in April, killing 15 people and wounding hundreds, were handed down a death sentence in a Belarus court Wednesday.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) says it is betting the situation in Europe will deteriorate next year, eventually affecting the still-strong German economic engine and prompting a new wave of fears that European companies will default on their bonds.

Can't spare a few million for one of Elizabeth Taylor's world renowned rocks at the December auction of her jewelry?

Shares of Hewlett-Packard, the world’s biggest computer company, rose slightly Thursday, a day after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the company’s credit two notches.

Lady Gaga has said that she wants her next boyfriend to be both physically and mentally equipped, the latter preferably being a Harvard University degree.

BBC said it received about 4,700 complains about Clarkson.

The new head of the European Central Bank signaled on Thursday it was ready to take stronger action to fight Europe's debt crisis if political leaders agree next week on much tighter budget controls in the 17-nation euro zone.

AT&T Inc and T-Mobile USA's parent company Deutsche Telekom AG are still battling to save their $39 billion merger and are not in talks about a network-sharing alternative, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Herman Cain should do himself and the Republican Party a favor and drop out of the presidential race -- but not for the reasons you think.