Major events that left their mark on 2018 (10)

ANKARA (AA) - Here are the main developments of the year day by day, and month by month:

- OCTOBER -

Oct. 1

- Russia has lost 112 servicemen during its three-year operation in Syria, a senior lawmaker said.

- French singer and songwriter Charles Aznavour dies at the age of 94 after a career lasting more than 80 years, his spokesman confirms.

- The U.S. will deliver two more F-35 fighter jets to Turkey in 2019, the military head of the F-35 program says.

- The Nobel Prize for medicine has been awarded to two researchers from the U.S. and Japan for their pioneering work on using the body’s own immune system to fight off cancer.

Oct. 2

- Americans’ confidence in Pope Francis' handling of Catholic sex abuse scandals has declined, according to a survey released by the Pew Research Center.

- A 2016 military aid package between the U.S. and Israel has gone into force, the U.S. State Department says. The deal, signed under the Obama administration, will provide Israel $38 billion in U.S. military financing from 2019 to 2028.

- The Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to three researchers from the U.S. and Canada for their "groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics".

- Iraq's parliament elects Barham Salih as the new president following a second-round of voting.

- Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, goes missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

Oct. 3

- A volcano erupts on the northern part of Indonesia's Sulawesi Island.

- The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018 is awarded to three scientists, two of them from the U.S. and one from the U.K., for their works on evolutionary biology, announces the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Oct. 4

- The U.K. accuses Russian military intelligence agency GRU of staging “indiscriminate and reckless” cyberattacks on the Western countries.

- The Turkish Foreign Ministry summons Saudi Arabia’s envoy to Ankara after the disappearance of a Saudi journalist.

Oct. 5

- The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Denis Mukwege and Nadia.

- Indian and Russia leaders sign a deal for five Russian S-400 Triumf missile shield systems, according to media reports.

Oct. 6

- The Senate votes largely along party lines to narrowly confirm U.S. President Donald Trump's pick to America's top court, cementing a conservative majority on the bench for the foreseeable future.

Oct. 7

- The death toll from the 7.4-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami that followed in Indonesia's Sulawesi Island late September has risen to 1,944, according to military and disaster agency officials.

- Interpol President Meng Hongwei, who was first reported missing and later remanded in China over unspecified suspected violations of the law, resigns as president of the international police organization.

Oct. 8

- Turkey conveys its expectation of "full cooperation" from Saudi Arabia in search of the missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

- The Syrian opposition is set to complete the withdrawal of all its heavy weapons from Idlib frontlines in northwestern Syria.

Oct. 9

- U.S. President Donald Trump accepts the resignation of his ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley.

Oct. 10

- Fifty people, including several children, die in an accident in western Kenya when a 67-seater bus veered off the road in an accident-prone area and rolled down a steep slope.

- A total of 8,050 civilian casualties are reported in Afghanistan in the first nine months of this year, according to a UN report.

- At least three people are dead after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia.

Oct. 11

- Turkey's current account balance showed a surplus in August, for the first time over the past three years, the Turkish Central Bank announces.

- Thirty-one percent of girls in war-battered Yemen lack access to basic education, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

- A joint Turkish-Saudi team will investigate the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi upon the Kingdom's request, a Turkish presidential aide says.

Oct. 12

- A Turkish court sentences U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson to three years and one-and-half months in prison. The court credits his time spent in detention, and ended his house arrest and travel ban.

Oct. 13

- Nearly two weeks after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the city of Palu and its surrounding areas in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, the death toll tops 2,000.

- At least 50 people have been killed in a gas explosion in southeastern Nigeria, an official says, raising the possibility that the death toll might rise.

- At least 15 people are killed in floods and landslide after Cyclone Titli hit the eastern Indian state of Orrisa.

Oct. 14

- Cyclist Michal Paluta from team CCC Sprandi Polkowice rides against rain and wind in the final stage of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey between Bursa and Istanbul.

Oct. 15

- Microsoft Corporation co-founder Paul Allen dies at age 65.

- Anwar Ibrahim, 71, leader of Malaysia's People's Justice Party, is sworn in after winning a by-election just six months after the king’s pardon freed him from jail.

Oct. 16

- The U.S. military carried out an airstrike last week against the al-Shabaab terrorist group in Somalia, killing at least 60 militants, the U.S. Africa Command announces.

Oct. 17

- Legendary Turkish photographer Ara Guler dies on Wednesday in Istanbul at the age of 90.

- U.S. secretary of state arrives in Turkey to discuss the case of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Washington Post journalist who has been missing since entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

- At least 18 people are killed in an explosion at a college in Crimea's city of Kerch.

Oct. 18

- Amid the ongoing investigation into a missing Saudi journalist, a French minister announces to cancel his plans to attend an economic conference in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

- A Turkish restaurant is set on fire in an arson attack in the eastern German city of Chemnitz.

- U.S. President Donald Trump says it "certainly looks" like missing Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi is dead amid speculation he was killed by Saudi Arabia.

Oct. 19

- Twitter has removed a network of suspected pro-Saudi Arabian bots that sought to spread the Kingdom's narrative regarding the disappearance of missing Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

- At least 59 people are killed and 72 others injured when a train ran over people in the Indian state of Punjab.

Oct. 20

- Hundreds of thousands of people gather in central London to stage the biggest pro-EU rally to urge the government for a second referendum on the final Brexit deal.

- Voting for the long-due Afghan parliamentary elections concludes in most of the polling stations, amid a spate of deadly attacks that claimed more than 30 lives.

- Africa’s youngest billionaire Mohammed Dewji who was kidnapped a week earlier by unknown gunmen in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam, has returned home, his family confirms.

Oct. 21

- Germany announces that it would stop arms exports to Saudi Arabia amid doubts over Riyadh’s explanation on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

- At least 18 people are killed and 187 injured when a train derailed in Taiwan, local media report.

Oct. 22

- A caravan of more than 7,000 migrants is slowly making its way through Mexico, two days after most of it illegally crossed the country’s southern border with Guatemala as America’s president pressured Central American countries to halt it.

- The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami that struck Indonesia last month has climbed to 2,256, according to the country’s national disaster agency.

- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ranks the first place in the 2019 edition of the World's 500 Most Influential Muslims.

Oct. 23

- The U.S. is revoking the visas of some Saudi officials who have been implicated in the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says.

Oct. 25

- Facebook is subjected to a fine of $645,000 by a British watchdog for failing to protect the privacy of their users.

- Irish singer Sinead O'Connor reveals she has renounced Catholicism and converted to Islam, taking the new name Shuhada' Davitt.

Oct. 27

- Leaders of Turkey, Russia, Germany, and France express their determination to end the bloodshed in war-torn Syria at the earliest in a summit in Istanbul.

- At least 11 people are killed after a gunman opened fire during a ceremony at a synagogue in the state of Pennsylvania.

- Michael D Higgins wins the presidential election, extending his term in the office, in Ireland. The 77-year-old president receives 822,566 votes to serve his second term.

Oct. 29

- Istanbul Airport, the “world's new hub,” officially opens on the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic.

- An Indonesian passenger plane with 188 people aboard loses contact with air traffic controllers and crashes into the sea off the country’s West Java province.

- The U.S. military is planning to deploy 5,200 troops to the southwestern border by the end of the week as a migrant caravan makes its way north, officials say.

Oct. 30

- NATO chief says deployment of missiles by Russia in Europe is putting the nuclear arms treaty with the U.S. in jeopardy and calls on Moscow to be in full compliance with it.

- Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem generally boycotts Israel’s municipal elections, with turnout only around 2-5 percent.

Oct. 31

- German Chancellor Angela Merkel is likely to step down next year to clear the way for a new coalition government, former Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel claims.