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.

Central Bank governor Riyad Salameh has warned that the cabinet’s wage boost decision could lead to a rise in inflation which already reached 4 percent in 2011.

In remarks to LBC TV on Sunday, Salameh said the inflation rate last year was at 4 percent while the debt rose to 54 billion dollars.

Iran's currency, the rial, slipped to a record low Sunday, the day after the United States imposed extra sanctions targeting the Islamic republic's central bank and financial sector.

The state news agency IRNA and an Iranian website tracking the currency said the rial's street value at money changers' slid to around 16,000 to the dollar.

World oil prices could soar to $200 per barrel if Iran's petroleum sector is hit with new Western sanctions, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi told Saturday's edition of news weekly, Aseman.

"There is no doubt that the price of oil will increase drastically and the international markets will have to pay a heavy price," Qasemi was quoted as saying.