2007 Review: October

RIA Novosti looks back at the main events of the outgoing year; below the month-by-month review of 2007 continues, with October

October 1

* Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's party leads the parliamentary polls in Ukraine with over 86% of votes counted

October 2

* A congress of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party nominates President Vladimir Putin as the only leader on the federal party list, abandoning the "leading troika" practice

* An inquest is opened in London into the deaths of Princess Diana and her lover Dodi Al Fayed, killed in a car crash in Paris over a decade ago

October 4

* Russia marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the world's first-ever satellite, an event which changed the world forever

* Kim Jong Il and Roh Moo-hyun, the leaders of North and South Korea, sign a historic joint declaration on Thursday in Pyongyang pledging a commitment to peace talks and a range of economic ties

October 9

* French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives in Moscow on a two-day visit, during which he will hold talks focusing on economic ties and key international issues with Russia's Vladimir Putin

October 10

* Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service, says the FSB has identified over 300 foreign spies over the past four years

October 12

* A Russian Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft carrying the 16th International Space Station crew, including Malaysia's first astronaut, docks with the station

October 16

* Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the second summit of Caspian nations in Tehran and holds bilateral talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

October 18

* Russian President Vladimir Putin sets another historic record of 3 hours and 5 minutes during an annual televised question-and-answer session

October 19

* Russia repays the remaining $343.25 million of its agriculture debt to the U.S. ahead of schedule, saving $46.7 million in interest

* Up to 140 people die and hundreds are injured in two explosions in Karachi that overshadow the return of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto

October 20

* Ali Larijani resigns as Iran's top representative in negotiations on the country's controversial nuclear program to be replaced by Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Jalili

October 22

* Poland's incumbent prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, concedes that his ruling Law and Justice Party has been defeated at the October 21 early parliamentary elections by the liberal Civic Platform Party led by Donald Tusk

* Serbia presents a 14-point plan for the final status of its breakaway province of Kosovo to international mediators

October 23

* NASA launches the U.S. space shuttle Discovery from Cape Canaveral, Florida

October 25

* The U.S. imposes further sanctions against Iran, qualifying its Revolutionary Guard Corps as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and its elite arm Qods Force a supporter of terrorism

October 26

* Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the 20th Russia-EU summit in Portugal which ends with a host of announcements on energy and economic issues from both Russia and the European Union

October 29

* The Moscow City Court sentences Alexander Pichushkin, one of the most prolific serial killers in Russia's history, to life in prison for 48 murders

* Cristina Kirchner leads presidential polls in Argentina with 44% of ballots counted

October 31

* Eight people die and over 50 are injured in a suspected terrorist blast on a bus in central Togliatti, a city on Russia's Volga River