Year of Variants: Stubborn virus marks momentous 2021 (September)

ANKARA (AA) - The Taliban's completely taking control of Afghanistan, Elon Musk's SpaceX venture launching the first all-civilian crew into space and Egyptian and Syrian foreign ministers meeting for the first time in the last 10 years marked the top news stories globally in September.

SEPTEMBER

Sept. 1

- Top Kashmiri pro-freedom leader Syed Ali Geelani dies at age of 91.

Sept. 2

- Ireland's data privacy watchdog fines popular messaging platform WhatsApp for breaching EU data protection rules for a record €225 million ($267 million).

Sept. 3

- Russian security forces arrest the deputy head of the Crimean Tatar National Assembly.

Sept. 5

- Guinean forces detain President Alpha Conde and dissolve Guinea's parliament.

- Professional race and stunt pilot Dario Costa breaks the world record for longest tunnel flight by plane, going through two tunnels on the Northern Marmara Highway in Istanbul's Catalca district.

- A son of Libya's ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi was released from prison in the capital Tripoli.

- Hundreds of people throng to a currency exchange market in the Afghan capital that reopened over the weekend after being shut since the Taliban seized control of Kabul on Aug. 15.

Sept. 6

- Famous French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo passes away at 88. Belmondo jumped into fame in 1959 with his starring role in director Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless.

- The Taliban claims complete control of Afghanistan after saying they took over Panjshir Valley, the only province the group had not seized during its sweep last month.

- Six Palestinian prisoners escape from Israel's northern Gilboa Prison.

Sept. 7

- The Taliban announces an “interim government” in Afghanistan to be led by Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund.

- El Salvador becomes the first country to adopt Bitcoin as the legal tender.

Sept. 9

- The number of COVID-19 vaccine jabs given in Turkey tops 100 million since it launched an immunization campaign in January.

Sept. 10

- After months of political deadlock, Lebanon's president and prime minister-designate sign a decree to form a new government in the country.

Sept. 13

- Tanzania's president appoints the country's first-ever woman defense minister, a move local analysts said could boost the region's counter-terrorism efforts.

Sept. 15

- Australia announces plans to acquire a nuclear submarine fleet following the formation of a trilateral defense pact with the US and UK as China becomes increasingly assertive in the Indo-Pacific.

- Elon Musk's SpaceX venture launches the first all-civilian crew into space at night for an historic step forward in space tourism.

Sept. 17

- A newly discovered sketch of famous artist Vincent Van Gogh is unveiled in the Dutch capital Amsterdam.

Sept. 20

- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan officially inaugurates the Turkevi Center, or Turkish House, in New York City, calling the landmark skyscraper a "masterpiece."

- US pharmaceutical Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announce positive results from trials of their COVID-19 vaccine in children age 5-11.

Sept. 21

- Turkey's biggest aerospace and technology festival TEKNOFEST kicks off in Istanbul.

- The Sudanese army foils a coup attempt in the country.

- Two Turkish-German scientists win the most prestigious medicine award in Germany for their achievements in the use of mRNA technology for preventive and therapeutic purposes.

Sept. 23

- Carles Puigdemont, the former president of Catalonia who fled Spain after leading a botched independence attempt, is arrested on the Italian island of Sardinia.

Sept. 25

- Egyptian and Syrian foreign ministers meet for the first time in the last 10 years in a meeting as part of the 76th UN General Assembly in New York.

Sept. 28

- A riot at a prison in Ecuador’s coastal city of Guayaquil left 116 inmates dead and 48 injured.