PARIS - AS WALLETS grew thinner around the world, fans of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne cut back heavily on their purchases of French wine in 2008, according to French government statistics released Tuesday.

French households drank almost 10 per cent less wine last year than in 2007, and exports by French vintners sank 15 per cent by volume and almost 30 per cent by value in the first quarter of 2009, the agriculture ministry reported.

BERLIN - A RARE German stamp depicting Audrey Hepburn with a cigarette holder, an image from the 1961 movie 'Breakfast at Tiffany's", has been sold for 53,500 euros (S$108,000) by a Berlin auction house.

Germany had planned to issue 14 million copies of the stamp in 2001.

MUMBAI - THE makers of 'Slumdog Millionaire' met the film's two impoverished child stars on Wednesday and reassured them they will soon have new homes.

Rubina Ali, 9, and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, both lost their homes this month after city authorities demolished parts of their slum in Mumbai.