KEY EVENTS 2018

January 23: A Taliban car bomb attack kills 95 people and wounded 158 others in Kabul.

February 09:  Kim Jong Un reaches out to South Korean President Moon-Jae to meet for talks in Pyongyang.

March 11: China's parliament changes the country's constitution to allow President Xi Jinping to rule for life. 

March 19: Russian President Putin wins reelection. 

April 13: The US and its allies fire 100 missiles at Syria in response to the chemical attack that took place a week earlier.

April 19:  Miguel Diaz-Canel becomes Cuba president.

April 20: North Korea say it would immediately suspend nuclear tests ahead of the summits with South and the US.

May 18: More than 100 people die in a plane crash in Cuba.

May 18: Prince Harry and Meghan officially tie the knot.

June 20: A ferry sink in Indonesia killing over 190 passengers.

July 13: A IS suicide bomber kills 128 people and wounds over 150 at a Pakistani election rally.

July 24: A dam collapses in Laos, stranding 3,000 people in nearby villages. At least 19 people die from the flooding.

July 25: Pakistan holds general election. Imran Khan wins it defeating Nawaz Sharif.

August 14: A bridge in Genao, Italy collapses, killing at least 39 people and injuring another 15.

September 5: India's SC throws out the ban on gay sex.

September 20: Malaysia charges former PM Najib with over 25 accounts of corruption. He lost power to Mahathir Mohammad in May 10 election.

October 21: Trump say US to pull out of the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, a decades-old agreement that prevented nuclear arms race.

October 27: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena swears in Mahinda Rajapaksa as PM after sacking incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe.

October 29: A passenger plane carrying 189 people crashes into the sea off Jakarta. All on board killed.

October 31: Pakistan's Supreme Court announces the acquittal of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2010 for blasphemy.

November 17: Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih takes the oath of office after defeating strongman Abdulla Yameen in September 23 election.

December 2: US president Trump, Chinese President Xi agree trade truce.  UN climate summit starts in Poland. 

December 10: France's President Macron promises to raise the minimum wage after weeks of violent protests by “yellow vests.”

December 12: UK PM Theresa May survives a no confidence motion moved by her own party over Braxit deal.

December 19: Trump announces that US to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan forcing his secretary of defence to resign.