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The world witnesses many developments in '17

Trump Jerusalem decision prompts protests worldwide
Trump Jerusalem decision prompts protests worldwide

KUWAIT, Dec 29 (KUNA) - The world witnessed many developments during 2017, leaving a mark in memory of people around the globe.
Here are the major events that took place in different parts of the world: January 3: China lunches first transit direct train to London.
January 12: Iran announces arrival of first Airbus plan to Tehran airport, part of a 100-plane deal.
January 21: around 20 people killed, dozens injured in bomb explosion at popular area northwest of Pakistan.
February 2: Iran carried out ballistic missile test.
February 4: UN removes sanctions imposed on Afghanistan Islamic leader Qalub Eddin Hekmatyar, in preparation for his return to political life in Kabul.
February 4: Washington imposes new economic sanctions on Tehran due the ballistic missile test.
February 5: Dozens of civilians killed in a heavy snowstorm in the northern part of Afghan capital Kabul, including northern part of Pakistan.
February 13: More than 13 people killed in a suicide attack targeting protesters in Pakistani city of Lahore.
February 17: A suicide attack on a funeral in Sofia region, east of Pakistan, killed 72 people and injured dozens others.
February 21: A report published by the UN warns of a catastrophic famine to more than 1.5 million children in Somalia, Nigeria, Yemen, and South Sudan.
March 1: Iranian and Turkish leaders agree to improve relations during an economic cooperation summit meeting in Pakistan.
March 2: Snap Inc. (known previously as Snapchat) goes public with an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, selling 200 million stocks, at USD 17 per share.
March 3: More than 900 refugees were rescued off the Italian coast of Sicily.
March 4: Malaysia expel North Korea Ambassador from country due to criticism he made on the ongoing investigation regarding the assassination of the brother of the North Korea leader.
March 5: China announces increase of seven percent to military spending.
March 5: China cuts target economic growth ceiling to 6.5 percent.
March 6: French car giant Peugeot buys the European operations of General Motors, a deal worth in total USD 200 million.
March 6: North Korea fires four ballistic missiles toward Japanese sea.
March 7: US Justice Department fines Chinese giant telecom ZTE USD 892 million for selling US Tech to Iran.
March 7: US starts deploying THAAD defense missile system in South Korea.
March 8: Up to 30 people killed and 50 injured in an armed attack at the biggest military hospital in Afghanistan's city of Kabul.
March 8: Turkish government shutdown offices of US aid Mercy Corps in country.
March 9: Twenty-one females were killed and injured in fire at children care center in Guatemala.
March 10: South Korea's Constitutional Court removes President Park Geun-hye from office over corruption charges.
March 12: France's Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux announced his resignation after financial prosecutors opened an investigation into a report that he hired his daughters, who were students, for summer jobs while he was a member of parliament.
March 12: Twelve children die in Romania after the spread of Measles disease in country.
March 13: Malawi withdraw from Africa Cup 2019 and African Union Cup 2018 due to lack of finances.
March 14: British parliament approved draft law allowing government to exit the European Union.
March 16: Dutch liberal party, led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte wins majority of seats in parliament.
March 16: North Korea test powerful missile engine, which will help the country in the space race, or satellite technologies.
March 16: Queen Elizabeth II of England approves draft law on Britain exit from the European Union.
March 16: Ahmad Ahmad from Madagascar wins the presidency of Confederation of African football (CAF), after winning 34 votes against former president Issa Hayato's 20 votes.
March 17: UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary for the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Rima Khalaf, resigned after pressure to withdraw a report accusing Israel of apartheid over its treatment of Palestinians.
March 19: Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) nominates former European Parliament President Martin Schulz to lead the party for September election against Angela Merkel.
March 19: The US government cut foreign aid and instead increases military defense spending to USD 54 billion.
March 19: Canadian Maggie MacDonnell won a global teaching prize worth USD one million.
March 20: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in China for a visit to boost trade relations.
March 20: FIFA banned Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey for life for what it calls match manipulation.
March 21: World Meteorological Organization figures show global temperature for 2016, the hottest ever.
March 22: UNICEF warns extreme water shortages in 2040, threatening millions of children around the world.
March 23: Five people killed, around 40 injured in terrorist attack on British parliament.
March 26: Russian authorities arrest opposition leader Alexei Navalny during a demonstration.
March 26: Five people killed in terrorist attack Northeast of Bangladesh.
March 26: A US drone kills Qari Yassin, a prominent Al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan.
March 30: South Korea arrest former President Park Geun-hye over corruption charges.
March 30: World Health Organization warns of Measles epidemic spreading in Europe.
April 4: Fourteen people were killed and 49 more injured in a terrorist attack that targeted a train station in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
April 5: North Korea launched a ballistic missile from the east coast port of Sinpo towards the Sea of Japan.
April 7: US President Donald Trump received the Chinese president Xi Jinping, in the first summit between the two leaders.
April 11: The first ever rail freight service from the UK to China has arrived after 17 days, 7,500-mile journey.
April 11: The US, Canada and Mexico launched a joint bid to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
April 14: Tens of the so-called Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in Afghanistan after the US military dropped the Mother of All Bombs, which weigh 9,800 Kilograms.
April 16: Turkish people voted by 51.3 percent for a referendum for constitutional amendments giving Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan more powers.
April 19: The British House of Commons voted in favor of snap elections in June, with overwhelming majority of 522 votes to 13.
April 22: At least 130 persons were killed in a Taliban attack on a military base in North of Afghanistan.
April 29: Violence has erupted in Rio de Janeiro, at the end of Brazil's first general strike.

May 4: The leader of Afghanistan Islamic Party, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has returned to Kabul after signing a peace deal with the Afghani government.
May 8: The Afghani government announced the death of the leader of IS in Afghanistan, Abdul Haseeb, in a US airstrike. May 8: Emmanuel Macron won the French presidency elections after securing 66.06 percent of the votes.
May 9: Moon Jae-in has won South Korea's presidency elections after securing 41.4 percent of the votes.
May 10: US President Donald Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey.
May 12: Major companies and government offices in many countries across the globe have been hit by the ransomware virus, called "WannaCry," that seize control of computers until the victims pay a ransom.
May 13: North Korea conduct a new ballistic missile experiment North West from Pyongyang.
May 15: French President Emmanuel Macron appointed Edouard Philippe as prime minister.
May 15: China invested USD 124 billion in Silk Belt and Road global trade project as part of an ambitious economic plan to rebuild ports, roads and rail networks to link the country with various continents in the world.
May 16: United Nations Security Council (UNSC) condemned North Korea's recent rocket launches, threatening to add new sanctions.
May 16: Picasso's famous portrait, "Seated Woman in Blue Dress," was sold at an auction in New York City for USD 45 million.
May 18: The US administration extended Iran's nuclear sanctions relief.
May 18: European Union antitrust regulators fined Facebook more than USD 120 million for giving misleading information during its deal to acquire messaging service WhatsApp.
May 20: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was re-elected to a second term after securing 57 percent of the votes.
May 31: Over 80 people killed and hundreds more injured in a car bombing in the diplomatic area of Kabul, Afghanistan.
June 3: The UNSC add new sanctions on North Korea for recent rocket launches conducted by Pyongyang this year.
June 7: Twelve people killed and 42 others injured in two terrorist attacks, claimed by IS, which targeted the Iranian Parliament building and the Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini.
June 13: Iran defeated Uzbekistan 2-0 to advance to successive FIFA World Cups for the first time in their history.
June 16: More than 30 were killed and tens others injured when fire engulfed Grenfell Tower, a west London residential block.
June 19: French President Emmanuel Macron's "En Marche party" clinched an absolute majority in parliament, securing over 300 out of the total 577 seats.
June 19: One man was killed and eight more injured after being hit by a van in front the Finsbury Park Mosque in London.
June 25: Six persons injured after a car drove into a crowd of Muslims Immediately after the Eid prayers in Newcastle, Northeast of England.
June 27: Google has been hit with a record-breaking USD 2.7 billion fine by the European Union regulators for breaking antitrust law.
July 3: Iran's oil company, NIOC and France's Total ink USD-4.8-billion deal to develop 11th phase of South Pars gas field.
July 15: Spain's Garbine Muguruza champions her way to first Wimbledon title with a victory over legendary Venus Williams.
July 16: Switzerland's Roger Federer wins his eighth Wimbledon title 14 years after his first.
July 22: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigns from his post.
July 28: North Korea fires what appeared to be a ballistic missile into the sea.
July 28: Prime Minister of Pakistan Mohammad Nawaz Sharif steps down from post after court rule over corruption charges.
July 29: US Marine Corps General John Kelly sworn in as the new White House chief of staff.
July 30: Russian President Vladimir Putin confirms that 755 staff and workers at US diplomatic missions and institutions must leave Russia.
August 6: UN Security Council unanimously passes a resolution imposing new sanctions against North Korea in response to its intercontinental missile test firing.
August 8: A 7.0-magnitude earthquake jolts southwest China's Sichuan Province, killing 19 and wounding tens others.
August 9: At least six French soldiers injured in a vehicle run over incident in Paris.
August 14: Terrorist attack hits a Turkish restaurant in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, kills 18 and injures several people.
August 17: A man driving a van mows down 14 people in the heart of Barcelona, Spain.

August 29: North Korea fires a ballistic missile from its west coast over Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean.
September 3: North Korea says it successfully conducted a test of a hydrogen bomb that can be loaded into its intercontinental ballistic missiles.
September 9: Hurricane Irma costs more than USD 10 billion in damages to parts of the Us and the Caribbean.
September 14: US designates 11 entities and individuals for engaging in support of designated Iranian actors or malicious acts in support of Tehran's nuclear program.
September 14: Paris and Los Angeles officially awarded the organization of 2024, 2028 Olympic Games respectively.
September 15: North Korea fires a ballistic missile from its west coast over Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean.
September 15: London Metro station attack results in 22 deaths.
September 20: A powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes Central Mexico.
October 2: The US scientists Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine 2017 for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm.
October 3: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 jointly awarded to the US scientists Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne.
October 5: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2017 awarded to British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro.
October 6: The Nobel Peace Prize 2017 awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons.
October 10: The Prize in Economic Sciences 2017 awarded to Richard H. Thaler for his contributions to behavioral economics.
October 11: The IMF projects, in its World Economic Outlook, the global growth at 3.6 percent and 3.7 percent in 2017 and 2018 respectively, or 0.1 percentage point higher in both years than previous forecasts.
October 13: France's former minister of culture Audrey Azoulay elected Director-General of the UNESCO.
October 13: US President Donald J. Trump unveiled a new strategy on Iran, which "focuses on neutralizing Iran's destabilizing influence," and denying Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon.
October 14: The major European powers - France, Britain and Germany, reaffirmed commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached with Iran on July 14, 2015. October 14: The Best Film award of the 61st BFI London Film Festival went to the Russian Andrey Zvyagintsev's "Loveless" - an eloquent movie about a divorcing Russian couple whose son disappears.
October 15: Nearly 250 wildfires across Northern California killed 44 people and wounded scores of others.
October 18: George Saunders - an American novelist - won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for his novel "Lincoln in the Bardo." October 20: The Spanish government dissolved Catalonia's parliament and calls fresh elections in the region in January 2018.
October 20: Suicide bombers attacked two mosques in Afghanistan, killing at least 72 people, including children.
October 22: The results of Czech legislative elections showed that the ANO 2011 party, led by the business tycoon Andrej Babis, won 29.6 percent of the vote or 78 seats of the 200-member Chamber of Deputies.
October 24: The US withdrew military assistance from Myanmar military units and officers involved in violence against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state.
October 27: The Catalan parliament votes, by 70 to 10, for independence from Spain.
October 29: The Spanish Senate votes for activating Article 155 of the constitution that allows Madrid to take back control of Catalonia region.
October 29: The UN World Food Program appealed for urgent funding to avert a humanitarian disaster facing 3.2 million people in Kasai Region in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
October 30: The US federal investigators charge three associates of President Donald Trump, including his former campaign chief Paul Manafort, with crimes including money laundering, lying to the FBI and conspiracy.

November 4: US President Donald Trump started 11-day trip to five Asia countries - Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
November 5: Catalonia's ex-leader Carles Puigdemont handed himself in to Belgian police in Brussels.
November 5: Typhoon Damrey killed 27 people in Vietnam.
November 5: Nayyar Iqbal Rana, Pakistan's deputy consul general in Jalalabad was shot dead by two assailants in the Afghan city.
November 6: At least 26 people were killed and 20 others wounded after a gunman opened fire at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs town, Wilson County, Texas.
November 8: The European Union imposed an arms embargo and other sanctions on Venezuela in response to the political crisis in the South American country.
November 9: The Spanish authorities arrested speaker of Catalonia's sacked parliament Carme Forcadell over the region's controversial bid for independence.
November 9: Chinese and US companies struck a slew of deals amounting in value to USD 253 billion during US President Donald Trump's visit to Beijing. November 9: Iran announced that it produced 94 billion cubic meters of natural gas from South Pars - a joint gas field with Qatar - between March 21 and October 22 at a daily rate of 435 million cubic meters.
November 13: Iran reported 325 deaths and thousands of injuries from a magnitude 7.3 earthquake that struck near Halabjah on the Iraqi side of the borders and the Iranian province of Kermanshah.
November 13: Borut Pahor was reelected as Slovenia President by 53 percent of votes.
November 15: The world's most beautiful diamond - a 163.41 carat D-colour emerald-cut diamond designed by de Grisogono, was sold at a Christie's auction in New York for USD 450 million.
November 17: A team of researchers, using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), discovered "exoplanet" - one of the closest Earth-like planets ever orbiting the red dwarf star Ross 128.
November 21: FIFA's ethics panel banned three former soccer officials from Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guam for life over charges of corruption.
November 23: Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a deal to work with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who had fled violence in Rakhine state, west Myanmar.
November 24: Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, was sworn in as president of Zimbabwe after Robert Mugabe was forced to step down.
November 24: The Pakistani authorities, acting on a court order, freed Hafiz Saeed, the co-founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, for a lack of evidence amid US accusation of having a role Mumbai terror attacks in 2006 and 2008.
November 26: The Argentinian superstar Lionel Messi extended his contract with Barcelona untill the end of the 2010-21 season for EUR 700 million.
November 27: Meredith Corporation announced a USD 2.8 billion-worth deal to take over the US Time Inc.
December 1: Michael Flynn, former Director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, admitted giving false information to the FBI about his meetings with the Russian Ambassador in Washington before President Donald Trump became president.
December 2: Bosnian-Croat war criminal Slobodan Praljak died after drinking cyanide in the Hague courtroom.
December 2: The US Senate approved a bill that would slash taxes.
December 2: Toys"R"Us retail closed 25 stores in Britain in a drive to reschedule debts.
December 4: Inflation in Turkey reached 14-year record high, registering 13 percent.
December 5: UN Undersecretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman paid a visit to North Korea.
December 5: Turkish courts held hearings for 150 academics on charges of promoting terrorism.
December 5: The Peace Diamond sold in New York auction with USD 6.5 million.
December 5: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned Russia from the winter games in South Korea.
December 7: UNESCO decided to add the Pizza of Naples in the world heritage list.
December 8: British Prime Minister Theresa May reached an agreement with the European Union that confirmed Brexit was on track.
December 8: Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo won the 2017 Ballon d'Or for the fifth time in his career.
December 9: Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was arrested in Kiev, Ukraine, on charges of trying to topple the ruling regime.
December 9: The EU and Japan reached a free trade agreement, aimed at establishing the world's largest open economic zone. December 21: Swiss Reinsurance Company (Swiss RE) says cost of global disasters in 2017 reached USD 306 billion.
December 22: UNSC approves new sanctions on North Korean in reaction to Pyongyang's ballistic missile test.
December 22: Parties, in favor of Catalonia's independence, win election and maintain parliamentary majority.
December 22: Separatists Catalan President Carles Puigdemon calls Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy for unconditional talks outside of Spain to resolve Catalan issue. Rajoy refuses to hold such talks.
December 23: Typhoon Tembin kills over 180 people and causes havoc in the southern Philippines.
December 24: China runs successful test of the AVIC AG600, the largest amphibious aircraft in the world.
December 25: Suicide attack against Afghan intelligence headquarters in Kabul leaves around 10 people dead.
December 25: Guatemala takes decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
December 25: Moscow bans opposition politician Alexei Navalny from running in the 2018 Presidential election.
December 26: Peruvian presidency pardons former leader Alberto Fujimori from a 25-year sentence for human rights crimes and illicit activities.
December 26: Canada kicks out Venezuelan diplomats in retaliation to a similar act carried out by the government in Caracas.
December 26: Vitaly Mutko resigns from his Presidency of the Russian Football Union (RFS) due to steroids scandal. (end) eng