Reuters: Total has become the first major oil and gas company to strike a deal to explore for shale gas in Britain, boosting a technology which has brought cheap energy to the United States but which is bitterly opposed by environmentalists. The French group said on Monday it had bought a 40 percent interest in two licences in the so-called Gainsborough Trough area of northern England for up to $48 million. Total's involvement, which follows shale gas acquisitions by utilities Centrica and GDF Suez, puts...