2017 News Map: An October to remember

World
Europe

As 2017 comes to an end, CGTN has put together a twelve-episode special series called "News Map 2017" to review the monthly events of the past year. From Dec. 18 to 29, review the most stirring events, relive the most touching stories, and remember the most powerful faces of 2017.

Below are some of the most important headlines from October 2017.

1 October

About 60 people were killed and more than 500 were injured after a lone gunman unleashed a barrage of bullets at the crowd of a music festival from a Las Vegas hotel high above...

A US flag at a makeshift memorial outside the Route 91 music festival site beside the Mandalay Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, October 4, 2017. /VCG Photo

Authorities said the 64-year-old gunman amassed a cache of firearms before checking into the Mandalay Bay hotel.

12 October

Owing about 550 million US dollars in back payments, the United States decided to withdraw from UNESCO. Washington is angry over UNESCO resolutions denying Jewish connections to holy sites and references to Israel as an occupying power. The UNESCO chief expressed her "profound regret."

The UNESCO. /Xinhua Photo

"In fact, if you go back into history, we will see not only that the United States is a founding member of UNESCO," said Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director General. "The whole idea that you can build peace through education, science, culture, communications, is basically an American idea."

Washington's decision rocked UNESCO's Paris headquarters, where an election to choose a new director is under way.

23 October

Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party secured a landslide victory in Japan's election. Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner, the Komeito Party won a two-thirds "super majority" in Sunday's lower house election.

Japanese Prime Minister and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Shinzo Abe poses while putting a rosette on his name at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, October 22, 2017. /Xinhua Photo

27 October

Catalonia's separatist lawmakers, led by former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, declared the region's independence after a controversial referendum.

"We have won the right to be listened to, to be respected and to be recognized," Puigdemont said.

Demonstrators took to the streets in Barcelona and Madrid; some carried the flag of Catalan in support of independence, while others waved the flag of Spain for unity. Arguing that Catalonia has a moral, cultural, economic and political right to self-determination, more than 90 percent of participants of the unlawful referendum opted for independence. Puigdemont was later sacked and replaced by Spain's deputy prime minister.