1. Canada’s Trudeau topples Harper

    Canadians voted for a sharp change in their government on October 19, returning a legendary* name for liberals*, Trudeau, to the prime minister’s office and resoundingly* ending Conservative Stephen Harper’s near-decade in office.

    Justin Trudeau, the son of late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, became Canada’s new prime minister after his Liberal Party won a majority of Parliament’s 338 seats. Trudeau’s Liberals had been favored to win the most seats, but few expected the final margin of victory.

    “Tonight Canada is becoming the country it was before,” Trudeau said. Harper, one of the longest-serving Western leaders, stepped down as the head of Conservatives, the party said as the scope of the loss became apparent.

    2. Japan lawmakers visit shrine en masse

    Scores of Japanese lawmakers visited Tokyo’s Yasukuni war shrine on October 20 in a move that could anger China and South Korea, which see it as a symbol of Tokyo’s militarist* past.

    The group of 73 politicians and 96 representatives of other lawmakers went to the leafy shrine to mark the autumn festival, ahead of trilateral talks among China, Japan and South Korea expected in two weeks’ time.

    The visit came after two Cabinet ministers paid homage* on Sunday while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a passionate supporter of the shrine, made a ritual* offering on Saturday.

    3. Assad in surprise visit to Moscow

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew to Moscow on October 20 to personally thank Russia’s Vladimir Putin for his military support in a surprise visit that underlined how Russia has become a major player in the Middle East.

    It was Assad’s first foreign trip since the outbreak* of the Syrian crisis in 2011, and came three weeks after Russia launched a campaign of airstrikes* against Islamist militants* in Syria that has also bolstered* Assad’s forces.

    The Kremlin kept the visit quiet until October 21, broadcasting a meeting between the two men in the Kremlin and releasing a transcript of an exchange they had.

    4. EU, Balkan leaders meet on migrants

    Europe’s chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker met with leaders from central and eastern Europe on Sunday to push for a coordinated response to the influx* of refugees before winter sets in.

    The mini-summit, which EU diplomats* said was sought by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is the latest in a series of top-level EU meetings that have so far failed to settle on a common approach on how to deal with the thousands of migrants streaming into the EU every day.

    5. At least 100 dead after Afghan quake

    A powerful earthquake struck a remote area of Afghanistan on Monday, shaking the capital Kabul and killing at least 24 people while 76 were killed in neighboring Pakistan, officials said.

    The death toll could climb in coming days because communications were down in much of the rugged Hindu Kush mountain range area where the quake was centered.

    Reports of deaths had poured in from different areas of both countries by nightfall. In one of the worst incidents, at least 12 girls were killed in a stampede* as they tried to get out of their school in the northeastern Afghan province of Takhar.

    6. Eurosceptics claim Poland election win

    Poland’s eurosceptic* Law and Justice party (PiS) claimed victory on Sunday in a watershed election that risks putting the state on a collision course with key European Union allies.

    Run by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of Poland’s late president Lech Kaczynski, PiS secured 37.7 percent of the vote, just enough to govern alone, said pollster IPSOS, based on 90 percent of election committees.

    If the exit poll is correct, the victory for PiS would be the biggest in terms of seats by a single party since Poland held free elections after 1989. (SD-Agencies)