STORM SEARCH: Rescuers searched flooded houses on the western France coast this week for eight people missing three days after a storm that killed at least 61 people in Europe. Engineers struggled to restore power for tens of thousands of homes. French civil defence teams said 51 people were dead and eight missing after the storm, dubbed Xynthia, had unleashed gale-force winds and torrential rains on Sunday, destroying roads and houses along France's Atlantic coast. At least five people died in Germany, three in Spain, one in Portugal, and one in Belgium. France’s fiercest storm since 1999 made landfall early on Sunday. Winds reached hurricane-force speeds of 150km/h. – Agence France-Presse