Your wrap of the world stories that broke overnight.
1. Former US Alaskan Governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has confessed to having a "political crush" on far-right French politician Marion Marechal-Le Pen, niece of the country's National Front leader, Marine Le Pen. "As Marion faces the political battles ahead, I wouldn't be surprised if she says a prayer to France's Patron Saint, for Marion is a reminder of her - Joan of Arc," Palin wrote on the Breitbart website. The National Front was crushed in second-round voting for regional elections on Monday.
2. Powerful Typhoon Melor is set to move across the central Philippines today. More than 700,000 people yesterday evacuated to safer areas. It crossed the Burias Island overnight. Authorities expected that thatched homes and crops would suffer damage. In Albay province, almost 600,000 people were evacuated. "The whole province is now a ghost town. We shut all establishments. No school, no work," Albay Governor Joey Salceda said on ABS-CBN television. The country has become much better at dealing with typhoons since Haiyan killed thousands in 2013. There were zero casualties from Hagupit last December.
3. A man has been found guilty over a plot to conduct a Lee Rigby-style attack on Remembrance Day in Britain. Nadir Syed, 22, planned to behead police and soldiers in a car and knives attack in November last year, the Daily Telegraph reports. Woolwich Crown Court heard Syed was obsessed with the Rigby killing and inspired by an Isis (Islamic State) directive to murder soldiers and police. The jury failed to reach verdicts on Syed's two co-accused and they face retrials. The Telegraph said the cell is the first to be convicted of plotting an attack in the UK after being prevented from travelling to Syria. Meanwhile, police say a teacher at a French school has admitted making up a story that he had been stabbed by a man yelling "Islamic State" while alone in a classroom. The preschool teacher, 45, in Aubervilliers, a suburb of Paris, wounded his side and neck with a box cutter. The BBC reports prosecutors are questioning him. The reported attack overnight set off a manhunt.
4. Los Angeles authorities have released details about the death of Nicholas Robertson, 28, who was shot by sheriff's deputies. Authorities said they received six calls from people alarmed at the sight of a man walking down a street firing a gun in the air. Video shows police continuing to shoot Robertson after he fell and began to crawl. Investigators said the two police fired 33 bullets after Robertson refused to drop the gun and walked towards a petrol station where a family was pumping gas, AP reported.
5. Isis militants have launched counter-attacks in Ramadi, the Iraqi city which government forces hope to take back from the militants' control. The BBC said that at least 35 soldiers and allied Sunni tribesmen were killed in suicide bombings. Government forces, who hold the western district of Tamim, have encircled the city and are preparing for an assault to drive Isis out. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry will use talks in Russia tomorrow to narrow the gaps with Moscow over the role of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in any Syrian political transition, Reuters reported.
6. With pollution a worrying problem in parts of China, a restaurant has tried to take advantage of it by charging customers an "air cleaning fee". The restaurant in Zhangjiagang city in Jiangsu charged diners 1 yuan each to help cover the cost of purifying the air inside with an air filtration system, the Xinhua news agency reports. After complaints from patrons, local officials stopped the practice as an illegal charge. Some social media users in China responded by saying they'd happily pay for cleaner air.
7. The Washington Post reports that one word nearly sank the climate deal reached in Paris. It describes the deal as a diplomatic high wire act and a tiny revision threatened to derail the negotiations in the final hours. The question was over the substitution of "shall" for "should" in the draft text that spelled out financial obligations. The US insisted that it had to change. US and French officials decided that the change had been a typo and could be changed as an error without reopening debate.
8. However rowdy MPs get in the Beehive, they can feel satisfied that counterparts in some other countries are worse. In Kosovo, Opposition MPs released tear gas in Parliament as they tried to pressure the Government to renounce deals with Serbia and Montenegro. The clouds of smoke from two canisters forced MPs out of the chamber. Another canister was later released in another room, and an MP arrested. It didn't stop a budget being approved.
9. Italian police have confiscated about 70,000 euros worth of 3500 fake parchments bearing blessings by Pope Francis and being sold to pilgrims in Rome. The counterfeit items, featuring elaborate lettering and pictures of the Pope, were found in the printing shop of a souvenir store near the Vatican. The Vatican's Apostolic Almonry sells authentic parchments with proceeds going to charity.
10. A Cyprus MP and member of an environment committee has posted a picture of himself on Facebook serving a dish of songbirds whose poaching is banned on the island. The picture had the caption: "Soon in our restaurants! Happy Holidays!" Evgenios Hamboullas did not mention the word "songbirds" known locally as "ambelopoulia". AFP says that trapping ambelopoulia is illegal in Cyprus but there is a lucrative black market trade in the birds.
