Bangkok  - Thai shares rose 2.74 per cent Tuesday in a slight rebound that underperformed most other Asian markets.

Melbourne, Oct 28 : Aussie professional golfer Greg Norman’s ex-wife Laura Andrassy has blamed his friendship with former tennis player Chris Evert as being the cause of the break up of their marriage.

She made the revelation on TV on October 27, saying she “would love to have (her) family together”, while laying the blame for the split squarely on Evert.

Andrassy recalled a moment when she had met Evert while still married to the golfer, and how her “woman''s intuition” told her something was amiss.

“Probably the first time they came out to our ranch in Colorado, I felt there was something uncomfortable but I never felt it from Greg,” News. com. au quoted her as saying.

Beirut - Lebanese President Michel Suleiman is due to travel to Vatican City later this week for talks with Pope Benedict XVI, a presidential palace source said Tuesday.

Kabul  - US forces killed 12 militants after suspected Taliban insurgents shot down an American helicopter in central Afghanistan, the US military said Tuesday.

The incident happened Monday in the Sayed Abad district of Wardak province, 50 kilometres west of Kabul, when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the tail of the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, forcing it to the ground, the US military said in a statement.

The crew members on board returned fire and killed five militants, it said.

Seven other militants were killed and another one was detained when the US soldiers continued searching the area and were engaged by more militants, the statement said.

Paris  - French shares were little changed in early trading on Tuesday following a roller-coaster ride as the mood among investors remained nervous.

The Paris Bourse's CAC 40 index was up 0.07 per cent, at 3,069.36, at mid-morning, with advancing issues outpacing losers by nearly 2 to 1.

Bouyed by strong showings on Asian markets, the index rose more than 3 per cent shortly after the session opened, but then fell into the red after a report showing that the financial crisis was now affecting the French housing market.

According to the Ministry of the Environment, building permits for the third quarter fell by more than 23 per cent over the same period in 2007, while housing-construction starts had fallen by more than 8 per cent.

Beirut  - The Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement has condemned the US raid in Syria as a "terrorist crime" that violated Syrian sovereignty, Lebanese media reported said Tuesday.

Hezbollah, in a statement, also urged the Arab League and Arab states to "shoulder their responsibilities because they are threatened by similar attacks," according to Voice of Lebanon radio.

"US occupation and Israeli occupation pose a threat to the region's peace and stability," the statement said.

The Syrian government and Arab leaders in the region have expressed outrage over the purported US helicopter raid Sunday targeting militants in the town of Abu Kamal.