PARIS / AP France’s presidential race this year is upending every political assumption that has governed the country for decades. And now Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old former economy minister who is running an independent, centrist campaign, has a real chance to become France’s next president in the country’s two-round April-May vote. Among the startling events: an incumbent president is ...

  BRUSSELS / AP US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday made clear that the United States was committed to NATO while also reinforcing the Trump administration’s demand that allies pay their fair share. Speaking at his first NATO defense minister’s meeting, Mattis called the alliance “a fundamental bedrock for the United States and for all the trans-Atlantic community.” That ...

  PESHAWAR / AP A Taliban suicide bombing targeted the administrative headquarters of a tribal region in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing three policemen and two passers-by, according to officials. The explosion went off at the main gate of the tribal headquarters in Ghalanai in the Mohmand tribal region, just as the workday was about to start, said Hameedullah Khan, ...

  NEW DELHI / AP India’s space agency said it successfully launched more than 100 foreign nano satellites into orbit Wednesday aboard a single rocket. The Indian Space Research Organization said the nano satellites — those weighing less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) — were sent into orbit from southern India. It said the launching of the 104 satellites was ...

  JOHANNESBURG / AP The World Health Organization has declared an end to the yellow fever outbreak that killed about 400 people in Congo and Angola, calling it “one of the largest and most challenging” in recent years. The WHO statement says 965 cases were confirmed but thousands of others had been suspected. Neither country had reported a new confirmed ...

  MOSCOW / AP Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied reports of intercepted phone calls between Russian intelligence officials and members of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The New York Times said that the Russians made contact with Paul Manafort, who briefly served as Trump’s campaign chairman. Current and former US officials interviewed by the Times declined to identify other Trump ...

  Bloomberg ABN Amro Group NV, the state-controlled Dutch lender, reported a 23 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit, helped by higher net interest income and lower provisions set aside for risky loans. Underlying net income, which strips out one-time items, rose 333 million euros ($352 million) from 272 million euros a year earlier, the Amsterdam-based company said in a statement ...

  Bloomberg India may cut the amount of capital it plans to inject into state-controlled lenders this fiscal year by as much as 78 billion rupees ($1.2 billion) because of slow loan growth, people with knowledge of the matter said. The government, which had promised to inject 250 billion rupees into the lenders in the year ending March 31, has ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) said it won’t pull its new plastic banknotes from circulation following controversy over the use of animal fat in their production. The central bank will keep the polymer five-pound ($6.22) note and will issue the new ten-pound bill as planned in September, it said in statement Wednesday. The BOE said it gave “careful ...

  Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG raised some of its senior Asia-Pacific investment bankers’ pay last year by as much as 15 percent after the firm boosted advisory revenues in the region, according to people familiar with the matter. Average total 2016 compensation, including bonuses, for high-performing managing directors at the bank was between $1 million to $1.5 million, said ...