NEWS OF THE DAY

From Around the World

1 Flights canceled:

British Airways canceled all flights from London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports Saturday as a global computer failure upended the travel plans of tens of thousands of people on a busy holiday weekend. The airline said it was suffering a “major IT systems failure” tied to a power supply problem. It said there was no evidence of a cyberattack. British Airways operates hundreds of flights from the two London airports on a typical day. Several hours after problems began cropping up Saturday morning, it suspended flights up to 6 p.m. because the two airports had become severely congested. The airline later scrapped flights from Heathrow and Gatwick for the full day. The airline said it was working to restore services beginning Sunday, although there will still be disruptions. It said it expected that London-bound long-haul flights would land on schedule Sunday.

2 Syria fighting:

Government troops and allied militia have pushed back Islamic State mil- itants and U.S-backed opposition fighters, gaining control of a large swath of territory in the country’s strategic southern desert, the government-controlled media and a war monitor said Saturday. With the advances, the government and allied troops secured an area nearly half the size of neighboring Lebanon. The strategic juncture in the Syrian desert also restores government control over mineral and oil resources. The gains aid government plans to go after Islamic State fighters in Deir el-Zour, one of the militants’ last major strongholds in Syria.

3 Border reopened:

Pakistani authorities reopened the main Chaman border crossing at Afghanistan’s request after shutting it down earlier this month when the two sides traded fire there, killing 15 people, the military said Saturday. The move came on the first day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Afghanistan. In a statement, the Pakistani military said the border was reopened Saturday on “humanitarian grounds.” Kabul welcomed the decision. The statement said Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to maintain a cease-fire in the border town of Chaman, where nine Pakistanis and six Afghans were killed on May 5.

4 Spain referendum:

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned Catalan business leaders Saturday of “terrible economic consequences” if separatists win independence for the northeastern region. Speaking in the coastal town of Sitges, Rajoy told a business group that if Catalonia breaks away from Spain it could lose up to 30 percent of its gross domestic product and would have to seek readmission to the European Union. Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona, represents a fifth of Spain’s GDP and has a population of over seven million. Rajoy repeated his pledge that his government won’t permit the referendum. The Catalan government has said it will hold the vote anyway by September.

5 Fraud settlement:

A Kuwaiti logistics company accused of inflating prices and defrauding the U.S. government for contracts to feed American troops has settled a lawsuit. The Justice Department says the company, Agility Public Warehousing, has agreed to pay $95 million and plead guilty to misdemeanor theft of government funds. Federal prosecutors say Agility provided false invoices and statements to a logistics center. Agility has been suspended from federal government contracting since its indictment in 2009. It provided food for U.S. troops in in Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan.