Over half the refugees are from Syria. “The number of migrants and refugees entering Europe by sea last month was roughly the same as that for the whole of 2014, United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Monday. The monthly record of 218,394 also outstripped September’s 172,843, UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said. ‘That makes it the highest total for any month to date and roughly the same as the entire total for 2014,’ he said. The UNHCR puts 2014 arrivals by sea at about 219,000. At the peak, 10,006 arrived in Greece’s shores on a single day, Oct. 20. The vast majority of refugees and migrants to Europe have traveled via Turkey to Greece, a switch from the previously more popular African route via Libya to Italy.” (Reuters http://reut.rs/1MtDaFR )
China and France Sign Climate Pact…”Four weeks before representatives from hundreds of countries are set to convene in Paris in the hopes of hammering out an international climate deal, France and China have publicly agreed that any successful deal must include five year check-ins to assess the progress made towards achieving long-term goals. French president François Hollande called the agreement a “historic” moment for climate action, despite falling short of the automatic strengthening of climate commitments that France had hoped to get China to agree to.” (Think Progress http://bit.ly/1Ojde6l)
CAR Crisis…Armed men in the capital of Central African Republic slit a person’s throat and set fire to scores of homes, in a cycle of violence that could further delay elections and prevent a visit this month by Pope Francis. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1KUxu6H)
Aid workers kidnapped in Congo...Fourteen humanitarian workers have been kidnapped in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the latest in a spate of hostage-takings in the region, the United Nations and local activists said on Monday..he employees of a Congolese non-governmental organization were abducted on Sunday in the Rutshuru region in North Kivu province, the U.N. mission in Congo’s humanitarian coordinator, Mamadou Diallo, said in a statement. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1KUvbk0)
Africa
Thirteen United Nations workers in South Sudan kidnapped by rebels have been safely freed a week after their abduction, the UN said Monday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1KUreMa)
Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza gave gunmen a five-day deadline Monday to lay down arms after a string of battles with security forces, with eight fighters killed in the latest attacks. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1P6rPC7)
Nigerian troops have driven Boko Haram extremists out of an abandoned northeastern primary school in a shootout that killed four militants, the army said Monday. (AP http://yhoo.it/1KUrhYd)
The president of Central African Republic Catherine Samba-Panza said on Monday U.N. peacekeepers had failed to halt a cycle of violence in the capital in which at least 90 people have been killed since late September. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1KUvrj0)
South African police officers who killed a suspected robber by shooting him in the head as he lay on the ground handed themselves in on Monday after a surveillance video of the act was broadcast, the police said. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1P6rO1d)
Congo’s government cleared the way Monday for dozens of children to join their adoptive families abroad after more than two years of waiting, though a further 1,000 others will have to remain in orphanages for now. (AP http://yhoo.it/1P6qIST)
Thousands of anti-government protesters marched in Niger’s capital to denounce what they say are irregularities in voter lists ahead of presidential elections in early 2016. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1RpWqs0)
The main opposition leader in Tanzania’s semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago will meet the country’s army chief to discuss the political situation in the islands, amid unrest after a disputed election. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1KUxAew)
South African prices for yellow maize, used mostly for animal feed, scaled their highest peaks in 2015 on Monday as drought concerns mounted, fueling food price pressures in Africa’s most advanced economy. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1P6sx2d)
MENA
Three Palestinians attacked Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank and civilians in the Tel Aviv suburbs with knives on Monday and one of them was shot dead, Israeli authorities said. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1KUraMq)
The U.S.-led coalition conducted 10 air strikes against Islamic State in Syria on Sunday and 17 in Iraq, the U.S. military said, stepping up its air assault in Syria as fighting on the ground escalated. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1KUrjzz)
UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura on Monday urged new ceasefires in Syria to build on diplomatic efforts to end the country’s four-year war. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1KUvnQ4)
US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Monday he knew of no “direct evidence” that terrorism was to blame for the weekend crash of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1RpRTFY)
The United Nations on Monday urged Libya’s warring factions to agree on a unity government after they were offered proposals to ease concerns over regional distribution in a U.N.-backed power-sharing deal. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Nml5hZ)
Asia
An Indian national was killed Monday when Nepal police fired into a crowd of protesters who were trying to block a border checkpoint, a spokesman said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1P6qETk)
A UN body has determined that former Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been jailed in violation of international law and called for his immediate release, according to a copy of the opinion released Monday by his family. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1P6qHhQ)
China will prosecute the former editor-in-chief of the official Communist Party publication in the violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang on charges of corruption after he queried ethnic and security policies, the paper said on Monday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1P6qE5G)
Thai soldiers warned the daughter of an assassinated dissident commander on Monday not to do anything to disturb the country after she staged a symbolic protest in support of ousted former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1P6qHyr)
Angry publishers burnt books and closed their businesses in Bangladesh Monday, in the third day of protests over the latest gruesome attacks on secular writers and publishers by suspected hardline Islamists. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1KUrfj2)
The Americas
Nine of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped deep underground in 2010 are filing a lawsuit against their lawyers accusing them of fraud. (AP http://yhoo.it/1NmmQMb)
…and the rest
Throughout Europe’s migrant crisis, Sweden has laid out the welcome mat for tens of thousands of asylum seekers. But in towns like Munkedal and other small communities, someone has replaced it with death threats and arson. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1KUrgDJ)
Snowy white winters are likely to become a thing of the past for most Swedes. The national weather service on Monday released a new analysis of how climate change will affect the Nordic country — and it’s bad news for skiing enthusiasts. (AP http://yhoo.it/1KUrfQb)
The European Union’s struggle to staunch the flow of hundreds of thousands of people across its borders represents the continent’s biggest refugee emergency in over half a century. (AP http://yhoo.it/1P6qHi3)
Amnesty International on Monday criticised Europe’s failure to stop migrant deaths in the Aegean Sea as the death toll from ramshackle boats sinking off Greece rises daily. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1P6rPlF)
Opinion/Blogs
IR Scholar Robert Jervis answers the Baby Hitler question and discusses the implications of time travel to international relations theory. (Global Dispatches Podcast http://bit.ly/RJervis )
These cheap, clean stoves were supposed to save millions of lives. What happened? (WaPo http://wapo.st/1P6sQtS)
Indonesia is burning. So why is the world looking away? (Guardian http://bit.ly/1Nm72Jt)
How Islamic State Got a Foothold in Eastern Afghanistan (VOA http://bit.ly/1RpOpU1)
Why are people so opposed to immigration? #142538 (Roving Bandit http://bit.ly/1KUvTxI)
IITA’s Solution Puts Smallholders’ Food, Nutrition and Income in a Bag (IPS http://bit.ly/1Nm6RO1)
Real justice could finally be delivered by Uganda’s key maternal health ruling (Guardian http://bit.ly/1KUxlQx)
How to raise the world’s IQ, taken with a grain of salt (Devex http://bit.ly/1P6sK5B)
Enough with western voices: ‘experts’ are fueling dangerous development myths (Guardian http://bit.ly/1P6sVhd)
Silicon Valley’s New Philanthropy (NY Times http://nyti.ms/1P6sXpn)
What a viral picture tells us about child poverty in Africa (BBC News http://bbc.in/1NNfTSA)
Why aid shouldn’t be outsourced. (Aid Leap http://bit.ly/1NNfTlM)
Dear journalists: Please stop writing about “scientific research” with an absurdly small number of subjects (Chris Blattman http://bit.ly/1NNfY90)