Two bottles of the world's oldest champagne are expected to fetch record-breaking bids at an auction in Finland's autonomous island province of Aaland Friday, wine experts said.

Samantha Compono, spokeswoman for the specialty wine auctioneer Acker Merrall & Condit told Agence France Presse that the bids should exceed the previous record set in 2008, when a bottle of 1959 Dom Perignon sold for $40,000 (27,600 Euros).

Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte and the World Series of Poker announced plans Thursday for a special 2012 tournament that would require a record $1 million entry fee.

Eleven percent of the fee for the contest, which he described as a "very interesting game of millionaires," would be donated to Laliberte's anti-poverty nonprofit foundation One Drop.

Canadian country pop diva Shania Twain was honored with a star on Hollywood's storied Walk of Fame on Thursday, and voiced surprise that she had come so far.

"I mean, why is a girl from Timmins, Ontario, standing here, getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?" the Grammy-winner asked. "I really don't know... it's a small miracle, to be honest, that I am here today."

A black-clad goblin lets out a piercing roar and two lines of fighters pour into a shallow ravine, thrusting spears and waving axes.

It looks violent but take a closer look and the axe-blades are made of carpet and the spears and arrows have soft tips.

Wellington Airport on Wednesday said it had put plans for a giant "Wellywood" sign on hold amid a public backlash against the idea in the New Zealand capital.

The eight-meter-high (26-foot-high) sign across a hillside owned by the airport was designed as a Hollywood-style tribute to Wellington's film industry, which has created blockbusters such as "The Lord of the Rings".

Oscar-winning composer Ennio Morricone, author of the film scores for "Spaghetti Westerns" starring Clint Eastwood in the 1960s, will head up the jury for the Rome film festival, organizers said on Wednesday.

Morricone, 82, who started out as a jazz trumpeter, has also worked with celebrated directors Brian De Palma and Giuseppe Tornatore and has received two Grammy Awards and two Golden Globes in a career spanning half a century.

Some of the world's top luxury brands are set to list on the Hong Kong bourse to tap China's deep capital markets -- and draw more customers -- as demand for premium goods soars in Asia, analysts say.

The city's profile as a luxury magnet was boosted in January when Prada said it would list its shares in Hong Kong, after French cosmetics chain L'Occitane raised more than $700 million in the financial hub last year.

U.S. film giant Warner Bros has revealed the titles of the two long-delayed upcoming "The Hobbit" movies, prequels to the Tolkien epic "Lord of the Rings" by Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson.

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" is due to be released in December 2012, while "The Hobbit: There and Back Again" is slated for release 12 months later, the studio said on the project's Facebook page.

The website of a U.S. public television news program said Monday its website had been targeted by hackers who planted a false story about rapper Tupac Shakur.

The website of the NewsHour program was briefly shut down, but the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) told visitors that "no personal information or email addresses were compromised in any way during the incident."

Like dancing and looking for new club music? Move over London and Ibiza, it's time to check out .... Romania.

Artists from this eastern European state have inched their way onto the international scene to beat out Lady Gaga for a big U.S. dance song award, score millions of views on YouTube and sell hundreds of thousands of singles.