World News Update, what you need to know

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has stepped up security nationwide following three successive, apparently unrelated attacks that left one man dead, in a bid to ease growing unease in the country.

ELSEWHERE

LONDON - Flags have been flown at half mast above Scottish government buildings to remember six people killed when an out-of-control refuse truck ploughed into Christmas shoppers in Glasgow.

LONDON - Rival parties in Northern Ireland have finally reached agreement over government reforms and dealing with the province's violent past, after months of talks which at times had threatened to topple the fragile unity government.

BEIRUT - US-led air strikes in Syria have killed more than 1000 jihadists in the past three months, nearly all of them from the Islamic State group, a monitoring group says.

KIEV - Ukraine has taken a historic step toward NATO in a parliamentary vote that stoked Russia's anger ahead of talks on ending the ex-Soviet state's separatist war.

MONTREAL - The notorious "Canadian psycho," Luke Magnotta, is facing life in jail after a jury rejected his plea of insanity and found him guilty of killing and butchering a Chinese student.

BEIRUT - Nearly 300 sites of incalculable value for Syria and human history have been destroyed, damaged or looted in almost four years of war, the UN says, citing "alarming" satellite evidence.

NEW DELHI - India's birth rate has declined dramatically in the last two decades due in part to rising female literacy, a new study shows, but experts are warning against complacency in the country of 1.2 billion.