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At least 19 people, including one Briton, have been found dead following flash floods on the French Riviera.

The death toll rose after two bodies were discovered on Monday. One person remains missing but another was found alive, according to reports.
Violent storms and heavy rain on Saturday evening sent torrents of water and mud through several towns. As well as the Briton, an Italian woman and a Portuguese man were also among those killed, AFP news agency said.

French President Francois Hollande has announced a state of “natural disaster” in the affected region. Forecasters have faced criticism over the effectiveness of weather alerts.

Apocalyptic

The area is estimated to have received more than 10% of its average yearly rainfall in two days alone. Rivers burst their banks, sending water coursing into nearby towns and cities. Divers found one body in the worst-hit town of Mandelieu-la-Napoule on Monday.

Eight are now confirmed killed there after being trapped in garages when they tried to remove their cars, officials say.

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The opposing sides in eastern Ukraine – government troops and pro-Russian separatists – are both withdrawing tanks and other weapons from the front line, Ukraine’s military command says. The pullback is part of the ceasefire accord signed in Minsk in February. A spokesman for international monitors in the area, Michael Bociurkiw of the OSCE, said there was “encouraging” movement of heavy weapons, but storage sites would still have to be verified.

The move is happening first in Luhansk. Later the forces in Donetsk region are also scheduled to withdraw weapons from the front line.
In both regions the process is supposed to be completed within 41 days. On either side of the line the weapons – measuring up to 100mm (4in) calibre – are to be pulled back a distance of 15km (nine miles).

A statement from the rebels in Luhansk said Ukrainian government weapons were being withdrawn on Monday. The rebels said their own withdrawal had also begun.
Since February the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has reported numerous violations of the Minsk ceasefire, including skirmishes with heavy armour and artillery. But for more than a week there have been no major violations.

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A Mexican judge has ruled there is insufficient evidence to try four of seven soldiers charged with killing 22 suspects after they surrendered.

But the officer and three soldiers will still face lesser charges.

The army had said the suspects were members of a drug gang and died in a gun battle near the village of San Pedro Limon in Mexico state in 2014.

The judge ruled there was evidence to continue the trials of three soldiers who allegedly carried out the killings. The four soldiers against whom the main charges were dropped will also face military charges connected to violating the rules of engagement and so will remain in prison for the time being. The government human rights commission said that the bodies of 15 of the 22 people who died in the confrontation with the army had shown signs that they were apparently shot after they surrendered.

Several of the victims had defensive wounds, suggesting they were shot while unarmed.

Witnesses in the case said they had been threatened and tortured to try to get them to change their versions and seven state police officers were accused by the authorities of torturing three witnesses.

The lost cargo ship El Faro sank in Bahamian waters after sailing into the path of Hurricane Joaquin, according to the US Coast Guard.

The 224m (735ft) vessel and its crew of 33 have been missing since issuing a distress call on Thursday. The coast guard says an “unidentifiable body” has been found but a search remains underway.

On Sunday, search planes found debris including life jackets, containers and oil in the water. It was this find that led rescuers to the conclusion that the ship had sunk.

Along with the body, an empty, heavily damaged life boat has also been found. “We are still looking for survivors or any signs of life,” US Coast Guard Capt Mark Fedor said, but adding the crew faced “challenging conditions to survive”. The coast guard says it has searched 70,000 sq nautical miles attempting to find the crew of 28 Americans and five Poles.

The ship, which was travelling from Florida to Puerto Rico, was taking on water before it sank according to the distress call. Its owners, Tote Maritime, say the ship lost power after its engines broke down. Tote Maritime, said two vessels it dispatched to the scene had found a container “which appears to be from the El Faro”.

The company has also defended its decision to allow the ship to sail so close to a hurricane. In a statement it said the crew were “equipped to handle situations such as changing weather.”
Joaquin brought heavy rains to the Bahamas, damaging a number of houses. The weakened storm has since hit Bermuda.

At least 63 people have been killed in a series of car bomb attacks in Iraq, police and medical sources say.

One of the largest bombs was in the Shia-majority town of Khalis in the eastern province of Diyala, where at least 40 people were killed.

Another attack in the town of al-Zubair, about 15km (9 miles) south-west of the oil town of Basra, is reported to have killed at least 10 people.

A third bomb in Baghdad killed at least 13 people, police said. At least 25 others were wounded in the blast in the capital’s north-eastern neighbourhood of Husseiniya, according to Associated Press.

While Islamic State (IS) militants said they carried out the blast near Basra, no group has so far claimed responsibility for the other attacks.
However IS militants have frequently bombed Shia areas and government targets as part of their campaign to destabilise the Shia-led government in Baghdad. The militants see Shias as heretics. The bombing in Basra comes as a surprise, correspondents say, because it is predominantly Shia – which makes it harder for Sunni jihadist groups to carry out attacks in the same way they do in Baghdad and other parts of the country.

The two other car bombs went off in areas north of Baghdad that are regularly targeted by jihadists, correspondents say.

The blast in a market area of Khalis, around 55km (35 miles) from the capital, took place in a religiously and ethnically divided province that IS partly captured last year. The government said that Diyala was liberated in January.

While the jihadists no longer have fixed positions in the province, correspondents say, they have continued their tactic of planting car bombs and carrying out suicide operations and hit-and-run attacks in the area.

According to UN figures, 717 Iraqis were killed and 1,216 wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in September.