- Man Utd, Spurs eye respite from domestic woes in Europa League
- Guatemala picks Supreme Court judges with focus on anti-graft fight
- Jill Biden announces $500 million for women's health research
- Injured All Blacks centre Jordie Barrett out of Australia Test
- 'Lead the future': youth challenge world leaders at UN
- Goosebumps and stars as Paris Fashion Week kicks off
- Boeing boosts pay offer in effort to end strike
- Global markets inch higher on hopes of further rate cuts
- Amazon forest loses area the size of Germany and France, fueling fires
- 'Curious' Dupont eyes position change after claiming Top 14 award
- Man Utd stadium regeneration could add £7.3bn to British economy
- At COP16, Colombia seeks to lead by example on biodiversity
- Dupont caps off Olympic gold season with Top 14 player award
- Leeds to expand Elland Road to 53,000 capacity
- Mysterious 18th century diamond necklace set for auction
- World's oceans near critical acidification level: report
- California sues oil giant Exxon over plastic recycling 'myth'
- As wars rage, UN's critics say global body is failing its mission
- Amazon forest has lost an area the size of Germany and France
- Nadal, Alcaraz and Sinner in Davis Cup finals teams
- Telegram's Durov announces new crackdown on illegal content
- African players in Europe: Ice-cool Jackson strikes twice
- Man City's Rodri 'out for season' after ACL injury: reports
- Venezuelan court issues arrest warrant for Argentina's Milei
- Arsenal not yet a match for Man City-Liverpool rivalry, says Silva
- Iran's new president calls Israel warmonger as he seeks talks with West
- Berlin warns UniCredit against Commerzbank takeover attempt
- Black Eyed Peas star harnesses AI for novel radio product
- England cricket captain Knight reprimanded over 'blackface' photo
- Barca goalkeeper Ter Stegen set to miss season after knee operation
- 'I lived a lie', tearful witness tells French mass rape trial
- 274 dead in Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon
- Gunman revealed Trump plot months before golf course arrest: DOJ
- Trial opens in Italy student murder case that opened eyes to femicide
- Iran president accuses Israel of seeking conflict, says opposes war
- Swedish battery maker Northvolt to slash 1,600 jobs, quarter of staff
- Joshua says boxing career 'far from over' after Dubois defeat
- Stock markets inch higher on rate hopes
- 182 dead in Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon
- Friedkin Group reach deal to buy Everton
- UniCredit ups stake in Commerzbank to 21 percent
- Big rate cut was 'appropriate' first step: Fed official
- Stock markets diverge as eurozone economy struggles
- Lebanon says 100 dead in Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds
- Man City's Akanji sends defiant title message after Arsenal battle
- Madrid's 'many styles' key to unbeaten streak: Ancelotti
- UK's Labour pledges economic rebuild amid free gifts row
- Barca goalkeeper Ter Stegen to undergo knee operation
- French mass rape trial moves on to new defendants
- Israel warns Lebanese as intense strikes target Hezbollah
Voting starts as Macron seeks new term in tight French election
France voted on Sunday in the first round of a presidential election projected to produce a run-off rematch between incumbent Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen that will be far tighter than their duel five years ago.
Polls opened in mainland France at 0600 GMT after an unusual campaign overshadowed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine that analysts warned could lead to unpredictable outcomes with turnout a major factor.
French overseas territories already voted Saturday to take account of the time difference, starting with the tiny island of Saint Pierre and Miquelon off the coast of Canada and then territories in the Caribbean followed by French Pacific islands.
Polls predict that Macron will lead Le Pen by a handful of percentage points in round one, with the top two going through to a second round vote on April 24.
Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon is snapping at their heels in third place and still fancies his chances of reaching the second round at the expense of Le Pen or even -- in what would be an extraordinary upset -- President Macron himself.
Although her opponents accuse her of being an extremist bent on dividing society, Le Pen has with some success during the campaign sought to show a more moderate image and concern with voters' daily worries such as rising prices.
Macron by contrast has campaigned relatively little, by his own admission entering the election campaign later than he would have wished due to the war in Ukraine.
French television channels will broadcast projections of the final results, which are generally highly accurate, as soon as polls close at 1800 GMT Sunday.
- 'Uncertainty' -
If Macron and Le Pen as forecast reach the second round, analysts predict that their clash will be far tighter than in 2017 when the current president thrashed his rival with 66 percent of the vote.
"There is an uncertainty," said French political scientist Pascal Perrineau, pointing to unprecedentedly high numbers of voters who were still undecided or who changed their minds during the campaign as well as absentee voters.
Analysts fear that the 2002 record of the number of French voters boycotting a first round of 28.4 percent risks being beaten, with the 2017 absentee rate of 22.2 percent almost sure to be exceeded.
Some 48.7 million voters are registered across France to vote in this election.
The stakes of the election are high for Macron, who came to power aged 39 as France's youngest president with a pledge to shake up the country.
He would be the first French president since Jacques Chirac in 2002 to win a second term and thus cement a place in the country's history.
If he wins he would have a five-year mandate to impose his vision of reform which would include a crack at reducing the pension age in defiance of union anger.
He would also seek to consolidate his position as the undisputed number one in Europe after the departure of German chancellor Angela Merkel.
A Le Pen victory would however be seen as a triumph for right-wing populism and send shockwaves across Europe and markets.
For his European supporters, Macron is a centrist bulwark against populism, especially after election victories last weekend by the right-wingers Hungarian premier Viktor Orban and Serbian leader Aleksandar Vucic, who both have cordial ties with Putin.
- Republican front? -
The candidates of France's traditional parties, the right-wing Republicans and the Socialists on the left, are facing a debacle on election night, continuing a shake-up of French politics that began when Macron took power.
Greens candidate Yannick Jadot, the Republicans' Valerie Pecresse and the flagging Socialist nominee Anne Hidalgo appear certain to be ejected in the first round.
Far-right former TV pundit Eric Zemmour made a stunning entry into the campaign last year but has since lost ground, and analysts say he has actually aided Le Pen by making her appear more moderate.
Much attention is already turning to the second round and the question of who will win the backing of the defeated first-round hopefuls.
Analysts question whether Macron would enjoy the same support from a broad anti-far right "Republican front" coalition that helped him win in 2017, and that had already allowed Jacques Chirac to demolish Marine Le Pen's father Jean-Marie in 2002.
"The Republican front hasn't been what it used to be for a while," the director of the Jean-Jaures Foundation, Gilles Finchelstein, told AFP.
S.Keller--BTB