Chronology Of News Events In 2011

OCTOBER

Oct. 1

— The campaign for the first elections born of the revolts that swept the Middle East begins in Tunisia, featuring 81 political parties in a country where more than 90 percent of the vote used to be awarded to just one.

Oct. 2

— Syrian dissidents formally establish a broad-based national council designed to overthrow President Bashar Assad’s regime, which they accuse of pushing the country to the brink of civil war.

Oct. 3

— Amanda Knox leaves prison, a free woman for the first time in four years, after an Italian appeals court throws out the young American’s murder conviction in the sexual assault and stabbing death of her British roommate.

Oct. 4

— Three U.S.-born scientists win the Nobel Prize in physics for discovering that the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace, a stunning revelation that suggests the cosmos could be headed for a colder, bleaker future, nearly devoid of light.

Oct. 5

— A group of military defectors known as the Free Syrian Army is emerging as the first armed challenge to President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian regime after seven months of largely nonviolent resistance.

Oct. 6

— Moammar Gadhafi calls on Libyans to take to the streets and wage a campaign of civil disobedience against the country’s new leader — the first word from the fugitive leader in just over two weeks.

Oct. 7

— The Norwegian Nobel Committee honors women for the first time in seven years, awarding the peace prize to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman, who began pushing for change in Yemen long before the Arab Spring.

Oct. 8

— More than 50,000 mourners march through the capital of Syria’s Kurdish heartland in a funeral procession for one of the country’s most prominent opposition figures a day after his assassination. Witnesses say security forces fire into the crowds, killing five people.

Oct. 9

— At least 24 people were killed and more than 200 injured in downtown Cairo where massive clashes rage, drawing Christians angry over a recent church attack, hard-line Muslims and Egyptian security forces. It was the worst sectarian outburst since the February revolution.

Oct. 10

— Slovakia’s governing coalition fails to strike a deal to prevent the collapse of a continentwide plan to rescue heavily indebted European nations.

Oct. 11

—U.S. officials accuse agents of the Iranian government of being involved in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, with help from a purported member of a Mexican drug cartel.

Oct. 12

— Europe’s biggest banks must raise billions of euros in capital to better withstand market turmoil, the European Commission proposes, as it embarks on a major push to contain the continent’s escalating debt troubles and avert a second recession.

Oct. 13

— American drone-fired missiles kill a ranking member of the militant Haqqani network on Thursday in northwestern Pakistan, striking a group that Washington claims is the top threat in Afghanistan and is supported by Pakistani security forces.

Oct. 14

— Britain’s defense minister Liam Fox quits his post after days of allegations about the influence-peddling of a close personal friend who joined key visits overseas and posed as an unofficial aide.

Oct. 15

— Iran’s Foreign Ministry dismisses U.S. accusations that Tehran was involved in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, saying the claims had no “legal logic.”

Oct. 16

— The resurgent French left, riding on popular anger at conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy and global financial markets, endorses former Socialist Party chief Francois Hollande as its candidate for next year’s presidential elections.

Oct. 17

— The Vatican proposes giving hundreds of women who live like nuns within the troubled Legion of Christ order greater autonomy after a Holy See investigation found serious problems in their regimented communities.

Oct. 18

— Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit emerges from more than five years in captivity, surrounded by Hamas militants with black face masks who hand him over to Egyptian mediators in an exchange for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Oct. 19

— Hundreds of youths smash and loot stores in central Athens and clash with riot police during a massive anti-government rally against painful new austerity measures that won initial parliamentary approval in a vote.

Oct. 20

— Moammar Gadhafi, Libya’s dictator for 42 years until he was ousted in an uprising-turned-civil war, is killed as revolutionary fighters overwhelm his hometown of Sirte and capture the last major bastion of resistance two months after his regime fell.

Oct. 21

— NATO says it plans to end its seven-month bombing campaign in Libya at the end of the month, leaving the battle-scarred country’s new authorities on their own to ensure security after the death of Moammar Gadhafi and the ouster of his regime.

Oct. 22

— Saudi Arabia’s ruling monarchy moves into a critical period of realignment after the death of the heir to the throne opened the way for a new crown prince: most likely a tough-talking interior minister.

Oct. 23

— A 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes eastern Turkey, killing more than 400 people as buildings and homes pancake and crumple into rubble.

Oct. 24

— In the first official results from Tunisia’s landmark elections, an Islamist party takes half the seats reserved for Tunisians living abroad — a strong showing expected to be replicated at home in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

Oct. 25

— An intensive round of talks between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear program ends in Geneva without a deal to resume formal negotiations, but top diplomats from both sides report progress on the steps that will be needed to finally get there.

Oct. 26

— Two policemen who beat a man to death are convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter and get a relatively light sentence in a case that helped spark Egypt’s uprising, but the verdict disappoints pro-democracy activists.

Oct. 27

— European leaders clinch a deal they hope will mark a turning point in their two-year debt crisis, agreeing after a night of tense negotiations to have banks take bigger losses on Greece’s debts and to boost the region’s weapons against market turmoil.

Oct. 28

— Saffron-robed monks and soldiers pile sandbags outside Bangkok’s most treasured temples and palaces as Thailand’s worst floods in decades send ankle-high water rushing briefly into some of the capital’s main tourist districts.

Oct. 29

— A Taliban suicide bomber rams a vehicle loaded with explosives into an armored NATO bus on a busy thoroughfare in Kabul, killing 17 people, including a dozen Americans, in the deadliest strike against the U.S.-led coalition in the Afghan capital since the war began.

Oct 30

— Cricket legend and opposition politician Imran Khan rails against the government and its alliance with the U.S. before more than 100,000 flag-waving supporters, establishing himself as a force in Pakistani politics.

Oct. 31

— Palestine wins its greatest international endorsement yet, full membership in UNESCO, but the move prompts the U.S., which provides one-fifth of its funding, to cut off any further payments to the Paris-based cultural agency.