Mark Memmott

The Paris offices of a French newsweekly that in its latest issue "invited" the Prophet Muhammad to be a guest editor and satirically wrote of what a "soft version" of Sharia law might be like, were burned early today.

According to The Associated Press:

After a bad day Tuesday, financial markets are faring better so far today.

The lawyer for one of two women who in the late 1990s accused Republican presidential contender Herman Cain of sexual harassment wants her side of the story to come out because she believes Cain has not been telling the truth about what happened, a lawyer who represents her said Tuesday on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360.

British judges ruled this morning that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited from the U.K. to Sweden, where authorities want to question him about allegations from two women that he sexually assaulted them in August 2010.

Bank of America just confirmed that it is dropping a plan to charge many of its debit-card customers $5 a month if they use them to make purchases.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's mother, 92-year-old Dorothy Howell Rodham, has died.

The Clinton Foundation just sent this statement to the news media:

The early reports are that everyone's OK after LOT Airlines flight 16 from Newark, N.J., to Warsaw, Poland, had to land on its belly today because of problems with the landing gear. According to CNN, Polish TV says there were 230 people on board the Boeing 767.

Local TV cameras were rolling as the plane came in.

As a million or two customers in towns and cities across much of New England begin another day without power since Saturday's "historic October snowstorm," frustration is growing, The Hartford Courant reports.

"The state's largest utility said Monday that it was stepping up its efforts to restore electricity to more than 700,000 customers still without power as of Monday evening," the Courant says.

Artist Ai Weiwei, who earlier this year was jailed by Chinese authorities for nearly three months, said today that the government there has sent him a $2.4 million tax bill.

"His supporters," the BBC says, say the bill and accusations that he owes back taxes "are part of a plot to silence Mr. Ai, who is an outspoken critic of the government."

Good morning.

Our early posts were:

-- Herman Cain Now Recalls 'Settlement' With Accuser.

-- Hundreds Of Millions Missing From MF Global, 'New York Times' Reports.