Lufthansa to cancel 800 flights due to strike

FRANKFURT • German airline giant Lufthansa said it would cancel "more than 800" flights today as public-sector workers walk out on strike for more pay, hobbling major airports like Frankfurt.

"Due to this strike... Lufthansa will have to cancel 800 out of the 1,600 scheduled flights, including 58 long-haul flights," the group said in a statement yesterday.

It added that around 90,000 passengers would be affected.

Service will be back to normal tomorrow.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Saudis turn to French to help start national opera

PARIS • Saudi Arabia is to use French expertise to set up a national opera and orchestra, under an agreement signed yesterday that underlined the modernising agenda of the kingdom's Crown Prince as he began his official trip to Paris.

The deal will see the Paris Opera company help the ultra-conservative Islamic nation produce its own classical music and shows. It was a further sign of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's desire to change the image of his homeland, coming after recent moves such as a lifting of a ban on women driving.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Spike in Britons taking up citizenship in EU nations

LUXEMBOURG • The number of Britons becoming citizens of another European Union country more than doubled in 2016 and more than quadrupled in Germany, in a development Berlin put down to Brexit.

In the year Britons voted to quit the European Union, 6,555 of them acquired citizenship in another of the bloc's states, up 165 per cent from 2,478 in 2015, statistics office Eurostat said yesterday.

Of those, 2,702 became German citizens, up 355 per cent.

REUTERS