Austria rejects UN migration pact

VIENNA, Oct 31(Agencies): Austria said on Wednesday it will not sign a United Nations migration pact that is set to be adopted in December, in order to "defend its national sovereignty."
The United States and Hungary have already rejected the Global Compact for Migration, which aims to boost cooperation to address the world's growing number of migrants.
"The government has agreed… not to sign the United Nations pact and thus not to bind Austria," said a statement from the ruling coalition led by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of the centre-right OeVP.
Kurz's coalition partner, the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), has been pushing for Vienna to reject the pact.
The coalition, which took office last year, won votes on an anti-immigration platform following the 2015 surge in arrivals of asylum seekers.
Meanwhile, another migrant caravan like the one that has infuriated US President Donald Trump and fueled his anti-immigrant message ahead of next week's election is on the move in southern Mexico.
This second, smaller US-bound group of around 2,000 poor people managed to cross the Suchiate River separating Mexico from Guatemala to the south on Monday.
At one point they clashed with Mexican security forces on a bridge and one member of the caravan was reported killed.
On Tuesday they covered about 25 kilometers (16 miles) and settled down for the night in the town of Tapachula in the state of Chiapas, an AFP reporter said.
Like the larger caravan, this one is made up mostly of Hondurans and includes women and children.