Fillon scores huge win in French conservative presidential primaries

In France, Former PM Francois Fillon won the center-right presidential primaries on Sunday. Fillon, who went into Sunday's second-round run-off as firm favorite, had won over 66 percent of the vote in a head-to-head battle with another ex-prime minister, Alain Juppe. With votes from four-fifths of the over 10 thousand polling stations counted, Fillon, had won over 67 percent of the vote in a head-to-

head battle with Juppe. He now will set up a likely showdown next year with far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

All eyes now turn to the ruling Socialist party and to whether the deeply unpopular President Francois Hollande will decide to run for the left-wing ticket in his party's primaries in January.