German Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold talks on the Eurozone crisis here next week with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

Merkel will receive Monti, who took office in November, with military honors at the chancellor's office on January 11, Georg Streiter told a regular news conference.

Kuwait lodged an official protest with Iran on Tuesday over statements that Tehran plans to unilaterally develop a disputed gas field, the official KUNA news agency said.

Foreign ministry Undersecretary Khaled al-Jarallah summoned Iranian Charge d'Affaires Sayed Tahabi and handed him a protest letter over the statements made a few days ago by a top Iranian oil executive, KUNA said.

Iran's currency, the rial, rebounded strongly on Tuesday, recovering completely from a dramatic 12-percent drop the day before, according to money changers and media.

The rial was trading at 15,900 to the U.S. dollar in the afternoon after it reached 17,000 against the greenback on Monday -- a record low for the Iranian currency.

A French court was to rule Tuesday on a worker cooperative's bid to rescue the ailing cross-Channel ferry business SeaFrance after President Nicolas Sarkozy made a surprise U-turn to back the takeover.

With unemployment threatening to rise above 10 percent of the workforce four months ahead of a presidential election, the unpopular Sarkozy has made preserving jobs a priority of his as-yet unannounced bid for another mandate.

French oil group Total said Tuesday it was taking a 25 percent stake in shale gas fields in the U.S. state of Ohio for a total investment of $2.3 billion (1.8 billion euros).

Total said its U.S. subsidiary was entering into a joint venture with a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy Corporation and its partner EnerVest that hold rights to 619,000 acres (250,500 hectare).

World stock markets rose Tuesday, as market confidence grew after the release of manufacturing data that showed improvement in Europe.

Benchmark oil rose above $100 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.

World oil prices rallied on Tuesday, underpinned by positive Chinese economic data and tensions in the Middle East over a key oil transit point, analysts said.

New York's main contract light sweet crude for February delivery, known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), advanced $1.90 to $100.73 per barrel.

India will allow individual foreign nationals to invest directly in its stock market in a bid to attract more funds and reduce market volatility.

The announcement late Sunday follows a year of large losses on the Sensex, India's benchmark index. The new regulations will come into effect January 15.

Turkey's exports increased by a record 18.2 percent in 2011, reaching $134.6 billion, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan said on Monday.

"This is a record in the history of the republic," the minister was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

New York police arrested 68 Occupy Wall Street protesters overnight after activists poured back into the Manhattan square where their movement started last year, police said Sunday.

The arrests included one man held after allegedly stabbing a police officer in the hand with scissors.