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By Felix Onuah and Ahmed Kingimi | ABUJA/MAIDUGURI, Nigeria ABUJA/MAIDUGURI, Nigeria Boko Haram militants have released 82 schoolgirls out of a group of more than 200 whom they kidnapped from the northeastern town of Chibok three years ago in exchange for prisoners, the presidency said on Saturday. Around 270 girls were kidnapped in April 2014 by the Islamist militant group, which has killed 15,000 people and displaced […]

BAGHDAD Iraqi forces faced stiff resistance from Islamic State in northwest Mosul on Sunday after opening a new front against the militants there in a push to rout them from the city after seven months of fighting. Trapped in a steadily shrinking area of the city, the militants are fighting back with a barrage of suicide car bombs and snipers concealed amongst hundreds of thousands of civilians […]

Sign up to receive FirstFT by email here Emmanuel Macron, an independent centrist, won an emphatic victory in France’s presidential run-off against Marine Le Pen, the far-right Front National leader, on Sunday, taking 65.1 per cent of the vote, according to estimates. Mr Macron’s victory is a phenomenal achievement for the 39-year-old former Rothschild banker, who has never before held elected office and whose political movement En Marche! was […]

LONDON The euro topped $1.10 for the first time since the U.S. elections on Sunday and climbed to a one-year high against the safe-haven yen on relief that Emmanuel Macron had beaten the far-right Marine Le Pen to clinch the French presidency. Early projections showed the market-friendly, pro-EU candidate Macron had been voted in with about 65 percent of the vote, comfortably defeating Le Pen, a nationalist […]

Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, mocked the Amazon Echo and Google Home devices before hinting that the rumored Siri-powered smart speaker will come with a display. With the shots fired and the hinted feature, Apple’s pending entry into the smart speaker market has suddenly become even more interesting. Schiller Fires Shots at Amazon Echo, Google Home In an interview with India’s Gadgets 360, Schiller […]

DUBAI Iran’s supreme leader on Sunday criticised the government of President Hassan Rouhani for promoting a “Western-influenced” United Nations education plan which his hardline allies have said contradicts Islamic principles. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s remarks came ahead of May 19 polls, in which the president is seeking re-election. “In this country, the basis is Islam and the Koran. This is not a place where the faulty, corrupt and […]

Two Emiratis who went to treat the suffering in conflict zones are fine examples of the spirit needed to win the Abu Dhabi Award. ABU DHABI // Dr Ayesha Al Memari and Dr Aysha Al Dhaheri imagined a life walking the wards of a modern hospital when they embarked on their careers. But when the call came, they left their duties to go on missions they now […]

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“Firstly, you have permission to parent. You had a child – no one else needs to give you any more qualifications.” When it comes to fostering healthier habits, parenting coach, author and speaker Andalene Salvesen, aka “Super Granny”, does not mince her words, making it clear that parents need to show their children who is boss. “One of the biggest issues I see is that parents don’t […]

By Noah Barkin and Leigh Thomas | BERLIN/PARIS BERLIN/PARIS After a decade of slow growth, rising unemployment and dwindling competitiveness, France elected a president on Sunday who says he has a plan to pull the country out of its economic malaise.     Emmanuel Macron, a former investment banker who quit the government of Francois Hollande twice out of frustration with the slow pace of reforms, is promising […]

A MEMBER of the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA) on Sunday prodded Senate President Aquilino Pimentel 3rd to investigate President Rodrigo Duterte’s claim that the panel rejected the appointment of Regina Lopez as Environment Secretary because of “lobby money.” Rep. Josephine Ramirez-Sato of Occidental Mindoro said Pimentel, the chairman of the CA, should probe the bribery allegations against members of the appointments body and mete out appropriate […]

PARIS France’s far-right National Front must be relaunched, Marine Le Pen said on Sunday after conceding defeat to centrist Emmanuel Macron in France’s presidential election . “The National Front … must deeply renew itself in order to rise to the historic opportunity and meet the French people’s expectations,” Le Pen said in a brief address to supporters shortly after initial projections were released. “I will propose to […]

(Image: file photo via CBS News/CBS Interactive) The FBI spent $900,000 on a hack that allowed federal agents into the San Bernardino terrorist’s encrypted iPhone, according to a Democratic senator. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) confirmed the figure this week during an open hearing. FBI director James Comey was testifying in regarding the agency’s work, the events in the run-up to the 2016 elections, and the upcoming reauthorization […]

JERUSALEM Israeli paramilitary police officers shot and killed a knife-wielding Palestinian teenage girl who tried to attack them at an entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday, a police spokeswoman said. The incident was the latest in a 19-month-long period of sporadic street attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, and the bustling Damascus Gate entrance to Jerusalem’s walled Old City where it occurred has seen many attacks. Police […]

In a week that started with big oil and US shale producers trumpeting their ability to thrive in a world of $50 a barrel crude, the market had a very quick response: let’s see if you can do it at $45. A brutal sell-off across commodity markets this week has quickly taken the shine off strong first-quarter results that would otherwise have been viewed as a triumph […]

Live Feed from France 24: After an extraordinary election campaign full of twists and turns, Emmanuel Macron won dramatic victory over Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election, taking 65% of the vote, with Le Pen collecting roughly 35%, according to early estimate from four separate French pollsters. Macron, 39, will become the youngest president of France’s Fifth Republic. As BBG notes, the firms sampled real […]

By David Lawder | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Saturday that threats of retaliatory trade actions from Canadian officials “are inappropriate” and will not influence final U.S. import duty determinations on Canadian softwood lumber. “We continue to believe that a negotiated settlement is in the best interests of all parties and we are prepared to work toward that end,” Ross said in a […]

By Irene Klotz | CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The U.S. military’s experimental X-37B space plane landed on Sunday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, completing a classified mission that lasted nearly two years, the Air Force said. The unmanned X-37B, which resembles a miniature space shuttle, touched down at 7:47 a.m. EDT (1147 GMT) on a runway formerly used for landings of the now-mothballed […]

Paraguay President, Horacio Cartes, has announced plans to open the country’s first commercial representative office in the UAE later this year, which will aim to boost trade and investment flows between the two countries. The announcement came during a recent meeting with a Dubai Chamber delegation in Asuncion, where he expressed his intention to build bridges between business communities on both sides. The meeting was held on […]

The Federal Reserve risks political interference and losing its independence if it maintains a large balance sheet in the longer term, former Fed officials have claimed, as debate over the central bank’s strategy for unwinding its interventions in financial markets intensifies. Kevin Warsh, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and former Fed governor, said permanently holding vast quantities of assets like treasuries was […]

BERLIN Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives thumped their Social Democrat rivals in a vote in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday, in a boost to her prospects of winning a national election in September. Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) fetched 33 percent of the vote in Schleswig-Holstein, up from 30.8 percent in the last election there in 2012, an exit poll for broadcaster ARD showed. The Social Democrats […]

When you purchase a Samsung smartphone and login to your Samsung account on the device you are sent a 30 percent coupon code to purchase an accessory priced at $59.99 or less. I used mine to buy the Galaxy S8 Plus keyboard cover, priced at $59.99 ($42 with 30 percent coupon). After I purchased my Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, see my full review, I was thinking I […]

BRUSSELS More than 60 percent of voters have cast or were planning to cast their ballots in French presidential elections for Emmanuel Macron according to surveys carried out on Sunday, Belgian media said. “According to three different institutes, Emmanuel Macron would be first in the presidential election with a result above 60 percent,” Le Soir newspaper said. Belgian public broadcaster RTBF said polls put Macron’s share of […]

Results exceed analyst expectations; backed by strong Air Arabia passenger demand and ongoing cost control measures Sharjah, UAE; May 07, 2017 Air Arabia PJSC today reported strong financial results for the first quarter of 2017 exceeding analyst expectations, as the Middle East’s first and largest low cost carrier continued to deliver solid commercial and operational results.   Air Arabia reported a net profit of AED103 million for […]

While 42.1 per cent believe that the Prime Minister is implicated in the Panama Papers scandal, half of respondents in the latest edition of The Malta Independent’s iSurvey still believe that he should not resign. Respondents were asked two distinct questions: Do you believe the Prime Minister is implicated in the Panama Papers? Should the Prime Minister resign over the allegations of his wife’s […]

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