The World - News from Oct. 20, 1988

One hundred French diplomats and other civil servants staged a rare demonstration in the Foreign Ministry courtyard in Paris to show solidarity with striking colleagues at embassies and consulates worldwide. Union leaders organizing the protest said a two-day foreign staff strike had affected up to 60 French embassies and consulates in 40 countries of North and South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The strikers are calling for changes in the calculation of their foreign living allowances, which form the bulk of their pay, after the French government cut costs by adjusting certain allowances to take account of a lower U.S. dollar.