Paris / Bloomberg Air France, hobbled by a strike involving more than a quarter of its pilots, said about 80 percent of its flights would operate on Saturday and Sunday. Air France-KLM Group’s French arm will maintain more than 80 percent of scheduled long-haul flights and about 70 percent of European services on Sunday, it said in a statement, …

  New York / Tribune News Service Anne Hatfield, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, didn’t immediately respond to a Globe phone call and email messages. The Express stores that were closed were much smaller than what Wal-Mart calls a supercenter. The Express stores were 12,000-15,000 square feet compared with 180,000 square feet sported by the big stores. Noel Mayor John Lafley …

  New York / AFP The Swiss pilot readying to cross the Atlantic in a solar-powered plane on the next leg of a record-breaking, round-the-world mission says he is making science fiction reality. Bertrand Piccard, a psychiatrist and balloonist, will next command Solar Impulse 2 when meteorologists determine the best five-to-six day window for the ocean crossing from New York …