Top News Stories –

China: Guangzhou warns zombies to stay off metro –
Halloween revellers are being urged to avoid the underground system in one southern Chinese city, in case they cause a panic. Transport police in Guangzhou say people in ghoulish fancy dress have been making other passengers nervous in recent days, and officers want travellers to report anyone they spot wearing spooky costumes. “Passengers’ strange behaviour may make some feel uneasy, cause onlookers to panic and could easily lead to security risks,” the force says in a statement posted on its Sina Weibo microblog account. “Therefore the subway does not encourage such acts.” [BBC]

Justin Bieber sorry for storming off stage after one song in Norway –
Justin Bieber’s been living up to the name of his new song Sorry by apologising to his fans for storming off stage in Norway. He said he was “done” and “I’m not doing the show” after performing one track during a TV recording in Oslo. In fan-filmed videos, Justin Bieber can be seen getting annoyed with people at the front of the stage while trying to wipe the floor. The singer later posted an apology on his Instagram account. [BBC]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian Civil War
  • At least 65 people are killed and 250 injured in Syrian government airstrikes targeting a marketplace in the city of Douma, Syria. (WSJ) (Reuters) (Al Jazeera via Yahoo!)
  • American-led intervention in Syria
    • U.S. President Barack Obama is set to send Special Operations forces to regions in northern Syria under Kurdish control to help local forces fight the Islamic State. (New York Times) (Reuters)
• Andrew Parker, head of British security agency MI5, states that ISIS terrorists are planning attacks in Great Britain and current terror threat levels are the highest he’s witnessed in his career. (The Telegraph)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015)
  • Two assailants are shot dead by Israeli police after knife-wielding Palestinians attacked Israelis in Jerusalem and in the occupied West Bank. Another four people, including a Palestinian assailant, are injured in incidents at an Israeli checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Nablus and at a tram station in East Jerusalem. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
• Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
  • The Iranian-funded Shi’ite Al-Mukhtar Army claims responsibility for Thursday’s deadly rocket attacks near the Baghdad International Airport that killed 23 members of an exiled Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran. (Reuters)

Arts and Culture

• Happy Days actor Al Molinaro dies at 96. (Washington Post)

Business and economics

• Quebec-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International cut all ties with Philidor Rx Services. This comes in the wake of recent revelations that Valeant was looking to acquire Philidor, a relationship that raised questions from various quarters. Valeant is the subject of U.S. federal investigations. (New York Times)
  • America’s two largest pharmacy benefit managers, CVS Health Corp. and Express Scripts, drop Philidor from their networks after an audit showed the company’s “noncompliance” with its provider agreement. Bloomberg reports Philidor had written instructions to, in some cases, change codes on prescriptions so it would appear physicians required or patients desired Valeant’s brand-name drugs — not less expensive generic versions. (Reuters via Business Insider) (Bloomberg)
• Volkswagen emissions scandal
  • U.K. transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin says Volkswagen has to start financially addressing this problem by compensating motorists with, the estimated total is £600m (US$925 million). (Sky News) (Bitterwallet)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015 Bucharest nightclub explosion
  • At least 27 people are killed and more than 180 hospitalized with injuries after a fire in a nightclub in the Romanian capital Bucharest. Officials say a heavy metal band’s pyrotechnical show sparked a fire inside the Colectiv nightclub. (Sputnik News),(BBC) (Fox News)
• 2015 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
  • Cyclone Chapala intensifies in the Arabian Sea as it heads towards Yemen and Oman which rarely experience tropical cyclones. The cyclone is expected to dump two years worth of rain on the normally arid Arabian Peninsula in two days. (Sydney Morning Herald via WA Today)
• One construction worker dies and at least one more is under the rubble from the collapse of a building being demolished to make way for a Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide luxury boutique hotel in New York City. (AP via ABC News) (Reuters)
• European migrant crisis
  • Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras lashes out at European “ineptness” in handling the continent’s massive immigration crisis. The Associated Press reports 31 more people — mostly children — drowned in shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea near the islands of Kalymnos and Rhodes. Turkey’s state-run agency says four children drowned and two others are missing after two new accidents with boats headed to Greece’s Lesbos and Samos islands. The death toll in the Aegean Sea over the past three days is at least 50. The Greek coast guard says they rescued 600 people in the past 24 hours, while thousands more made it safely from Turkey to Greece’s southeastern islands. (AP via Huffington Post) (Reuters)
• Storms hit the American state of Texas causing at least two deaths with one person reported missing. Rivers overflowed as more than a foot of rain fell in some areas while tornadoes ripped through buildings outside San Antonio. (NBC News) (Reuters)
• A building collapse in Henan province in central China leaves 17 workers dead and 23 injured. (Xinhua via iCrossChina
• A Virginia (U.S.) school bus overturns after being struck by a van, sending 28 students to local hospitals with five seriously injured. (Inside Edition)

International relations

• Shaker Aamer, the last British resident held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, is released. Aamer faces no charges in Britain; Scotland Yard detectives questioned him for three days during his detention. (BBC) (AP via Seattle Times)
• Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
  • The European Union sides with the United States over Tuesday’s U.S.-Chinese patrolling incident in the South China Sea. (Reuters)
• Syria peace talks in Vienna, Syrian Civil War
  • Representatives from about 20 countries meet in Vienna, Austria, seeking a political solution to Syria’s four-year civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people, including dozens more today. For the first time Iran is at the table, where diplomats seek peace through a ceasefire plan followed by a transitional government. (USA Today) (Payvand.com)

Law and crime

• Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
  • The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague rules it has jurisdiction to hear the Philippines‘ case against China over maritime disputes in the South China Sea. (The Diplomat) (BBC News)
• U.S. Army judge Col. James Pohl denies Guantanamo detainee Walid bin Attash’s request to drop his legal counsel clearing the way for the trial’s continuation. (Military Times)
• Polish Judge Dariusz Mazur rules the law forbids film director Roman Polanski’s extradition to the U.S. where he pleaded guilty nearly four decades ago to having sex with a minor. The prosecutors can appeal the ruling. (Sky News) (BBC)

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