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Three hundred and forty-four boys were released Thursday after being abducted last week by Boko Haram from their school in northern Nigeria. According to the governor of Katsina state, some of the boys remain missing. He said that they have recovered most of the boys but not all of them, in an interview with state channel NTA. The governor noted that the boys who were released were found in a forest in the neighboring Zamfara state. Nigerian spokesman Abdul Labaran said in a statement the boys were being taken to Katsina City and would be reunited with their families. The news comes shortly after a video was released Thursday purportedly showing some of the hundreds of kidnapped Nigerian school boys with the Boko Haram militant group.

Wearing a white medical mask, French President Emmanuel Macron went ahead with a planned speech by video conference Thursday hours after testing positive for COVID-19 following a week in which he met with numerous European leaders. We get more from Reuters Maha Albadrawi. In a statement made on Thursday, the president's office said the diagnosis was, quote, "made following a PCR test performed at the onset of the first symptoms." The 42-year-old will self-isolate for the next seven days but his Elysee office added he will continue to work and carry out duties remotely. In addition, in the last two weeks, Macron has met with numerous world leaders, including the prime ministers of Portugal and Spain, Egypt's president and attended a summit that included the heads of state of Germany, Italy, Belgium, and the EU chief, among others. Prime Minister Jean Castex will also self-isolate after coming into contact with Macron over the last few days. That's Reuters Maha Albadrawi.

U.S. authorities are expressing increased alarm over a hack of government computer systems worldwide. AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports. Officials suspect Russia was behind the sophisticated hack of government agencies, including the Treasury and Commerce Departments. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency says the intrusion poses a, quote, "grave risk to federal, state, local, tribal and territorial governments, plus critical infrastructure entities and the private sector." The agency warns it'll be hard to remove the malware inserted through network software. Sagar Meghani, Washington.

On Wall Street, stocks closed at record highs even as congressional negotiators haggled over a COVID-19 relief bill. The Dow Jones Industrials gained point four nine percent, the S&P 500 was up point five eight percent while the NASDAQ gained point eight four percent. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd, VOA news.