Israeli diplomat corps strikes for more pay

Israel's diplomatic corps staged its first ever pay strike Monday as talks to avert a walkout by the country's 400,000 civil servants broke down.

Foreign Ministry sources said the envoys' strike applied to Israeli representatives in embassies and consulates around the world as well as Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem. The civil servants are demanding wage increases of between 25 and 35 percent to compensate for inflation in the last three months. Israel's inflation rate is now about 135 percent, one of the highest in the world.