Tens of thousands of passengers are set to be affected by a French air traffic control strike on Friday. Ryanair has cancelled 420 flights, most of which were scheduled to fly over France, affecting 80,000 passengers. EasyJet has cut 76 flights, British Airways has cancelled 22, while Air France said it would only run 45% of its short-haul flights. Separately, on Monday 15% of Heathrow Airport’s schedule will be altered during Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral. To ensure the skies over London fall quiet during the events, there will be flight cancellations, including 100 British Airways flights and four Virgin Atlantic flights.(BBC)…[+]

At least 10 people have died after flash floods hit the Italian region of Marche overnight, authorities said. Torrential rain falling late on Thursday caused rivers and streams to overflow and inundate coastal towns around the regional capital of Ancona. Around 400mm (16 inches) of rain – half a year’s worth – were recorded in just a few hours. Rescuers are still searching for four others, including a child who was separated when a river burst its banks. “It was like an earthquake.” said local mayor Ludovico Caverni to RAI state radio. According to one local report, a mother who managed to escape her car with her child in her arms became separated from him after being overwhelmed by water when the River Misa burst its banks. Emergency workers managed to rescue the woman overnight but her six-year-old child is one of several still missing, local outlets report.(BBC)…[+]

Days after two sisters were found hanging from a tree in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, a post-mortem has reportedly confirmed that the girls were raped and murdered. The BBC’s Geeta Pandey reports from the girls’ village in Lakhimpur district where their families are trying to come to terms with their colossal loss. Torrential rains have lashed the region since Wednesday night, muddying the narrow path to their home in Tamoli Purva village, just over 200km (124 miles) from the state capital Lucknow.

The gloom inside the two-room home perfectly mirrors the grey skies outside. Here sits the Dalit (formerly known as untouchables) family of two sisters – 17 and 15 – whose lives were brutally cut short, when they were raped and strangled to death in a sugarcane field, not far away from their home. Their mother, the only witness to her daughters’ kidnappings by three men who came on a motorbike on Wednesday afternoon, sits on a rope bed, surrounded by female relatives. She is inconsolable.(BBC)…[+]