Gendarmes and other authorities are combing the Burgundy region south-east of Paris for the gang, after the latest in a string of big jewel heists in France in recent years. A police official says 15 armed assailants attacked two vans on a French highway carrying millions of... (Associated Press) 
 
 Burnt out vans stand near the Avallon motorway exit, central France, Wednesday, March 11, 2015. No one was injured in the attack on the A6 highway connecting Paris and Lyon, and the drivers of the two vans were left at the scene unharmed, a police official said. The jewels remain missing and it's unclear where the attackers were heading. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be publicly named. Last month, eight people were convicted in connection with a spectacular 2008 jewel theft at a Harry Winston boutique in Paris, when three cross-dressing gunmen stole about $92 million in goods.
– Finesse can help in a jewel heist, but brute force is handy, too. Police in France say about two dozen "heavily armed and battled-hardened" robbers attacked two armored cars at a highway toll booth, securing a payday of $9.5 million in jewels, reports the Guardian. Not a single shot was fired in the midnight heist near Auxerre. The robbers let the drivers go and drove off with the vans, whose burnt-out shells were found nearby. The AP says the caper bears the hallmarks of the Pink Panther gang, which has made off with hundreds of millions in thefts over the last 15 years.