Paris / AFP Winds gusting to hurricane force left nearly 70,000 homes in western and northwestern France without power Sunday, the national electricity grid Enedis said. The national weather agency Meteo France said winds powering to 160 kilometres (100 miles) per hour battered the Breton peninsula and Normandy coast overnight, and two other regions remained under a storm alert. …

  London / AFP Britain’s first post-Brexit budget will focus on infrastructure and could spell an end to the previous government’s rigid fiscal targets, according to a treasury statement released on Sunday. The budget will be new finance minister Philip Hammond’s first set-piece since replacing George Osborne who resigned following the June vote. Under previous prime minister David Cameron, Osborne …

  LIMA / AFP President Barack Obama planned separate talks with the leaders of Australia and Canada before wrapping up the final foreign trip of his presidency. Both countries helped negotiate a multinational trade agreement with the US and nine other Pacific Rim countries. But Congress is unlikely to ratify the deal, dealing a blow to Obama’s once high hopes …