KINGLAKE, Australia - RESIDENTS of towns scorched off the map by the worst wildfires in Australia's history returned home for the first time on Wednesday to find twisted metal and blackened debris where their homes once stood.
SAO PAULO - A FORMER top executive in Brazil for French supermarket giant Carrefour has won 80 million reais (S$53 million) in indemnities linked to his sacking in 1988, the legal firm representing him said on Wednesday.
BAGHDAD - THE DEATH toll in twin car bomb attacks at a bus terminal in southwestern Baghdad on Wednesday jumped to 16 people killed and 45 people wounded, Iraqi police said.
TEHRAN - IRAN said on Wednesday that a fatwa ordering the death of British writer Salman Rushdie was still valid 20 years after it was issued by the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
