WASHINGTON - SUICIDES among US soldiers shot up again last year and is at a nearly three-decade high, senior defense officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.
PARIS - THIEVES broke into the Paris home of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wife Cecilia Attias and made off with half a million euros (S$985,190) in jewels and valuables, officials said on Thursday.
The robbery took place early this month at a luxury apartment in the plush suburb of Neuilly owned by the former French first lady and her new husband, the events organisers Richard Attias.
PARIS - MORE than a million French public sector workers staged a massive strike on Thursday, as anger at President Nicolas Sarkozy's handling of the economic crisis erupted in a day of protest.
Billed as a 'Black Thursday', the day of action failed to halt the Paris transport network, but support for the strike was significant, with 23 per cent of France's five million public sector workers downing tools.
SYDNEY - A HEATWAVE scorching southern Australia, causing transport chaos by buckling rail lines and leaving more than 140,000 homes without power, is a sign of climate change, the government said on Thursday.
The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a total of six days of 40-plus Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) temperatures for southern Australia, which would equal the worst heatwave in 100 years.
