Year in Pictures: Asia 2013

[Papu]

Thousands of protesters marched in the streets of India’s capital, Delhi, in January as the trial of the men accused of brutally gang raping a 23-year-old medical student who later died began. The case caused outrage across the country. The five men, who pleaded not guilty, were tried in a special fast-track court. Four were eventually found guilty in September and another was charged in a juvenile court. One defendant killed himself in detention.



North Korea ended the year with the execution of Chang Song-thaek, the once-powerful uncle of current leader Kim Jong-un. Mr Chang had been seen as a key figure, and his rapid and brutal fall from grace sparked concern around the region about stability inside North Korea.



Territorial rows between China and its neighbours continued to rumble in 2013. In November Beijing established an air zone which covered the East China Sea islands at the heart of its dispute with Japan, and demanded aircraft follow certain rules within it. Japan, the US and South Korea say they do not recognise the zone and have flown military planes unannounced through it.



This picture taken by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on 2 June 2013 and released on June 4 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) being greeted by soldiers as he inspects watch posts defending Mt Osong and Korean People's Army (KPA) unit 507 in the Kangwon province of North KoreaSouth Korea's new President Park Geun-hye arrives at the official dinner at the presidential Blue House in Seoul on 25 February 2013
Park Geun-hye became South Korea's first woman president in February, days after North Korea conducted its third nuclear test. Ms Park, 61, is the daughter of former strongman Park Chung-hee, who ruled for almost two decades. Months into her presidency, she has had to contend with a shutdown of the inter-Korean Kaesong industrial zone, a domestic spy scandal and a purge inside North Korea.



In May, Malaysia went to the polls. Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition scraped into office - but it was the worst-ever result for the BN. The opposition, headed by Anwar Ibrahim, accused the coalition of electoral fraud and staged protests. Foreign and domestic observers described the election as flawed



Thick haze from Indonesia, blamed on illegal slash-and-burn fires, enveloped neighbour Singapore for days in June. The smog also caused record levels of air pollution in nearby Malaysia. The incident strained diplomatic relations between the three countries, as the Pollutant Standards Index reached levels where prolonged exposure was considered potentially "life-threatening" for vulnerable people.



A survivor walks among the debris of houses destroyed by Super Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban in the eastern Philippine island of Leyte on 11 November 2013Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo in November 2013
Typhoon Haiyan struck central parts of the Philippines in November, causing immense damage and loss of life. Roaring winds and a major tidal surge left buildings flattened and more than 6,000 people confirmed dead - and more remain missing.



In August, all eyes were on the trial of Bo Xilai, the former Chinese Communist Party chief in Chongqing. Bo was removed from office in 2012 amid a scandal which saw his wife convicted of a British businessman's murder. He was eventually found guilty of corruption, bribery and abuse of power, and sentenced to life imprisonment after an unexpectedly colourful trial.



A survivor walks among the debris of houses destroyed by Super Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban in the eastern Philippine island of Leyte on 11 November 2013This picture taken on 26 November 2013 shows the operation to move a spent fuel rod to a cask in the spent fuel pool of the unit four reactor building, as Tepco transfers the fuel rods from the crippled No. 4 reactor building to another fuel pool at Tepco's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant at Okuma town in Fukushima prefecture Problems for Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant continued in 2013, with a series of contaminated water leaks from damaged pipes and tanks. But the tricky processes of removing fuel rods from the No 4 reactor building began in November. The rods need to be moved to safer storage elsewhere.



Tensions escalated on the Korean peninsula after Pyongyang's February nuclear test. The move elicited fresh sanctions from the United Nations, a move even backed by Pyongyang's close ally China. Rhetoric out of North Korea increased - with attacks threatened on US, Japanese and South Korean targets - but then subsided somewhat.



Elections were also held in Pakistan in May which saw the rise of former cricketer Imran Khan's PTI party. He frantically campaigned despite fracturing his spine in a fall at a rally just days before the vote. The election was won convincingly by the Pakistan Muslim League of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.



Demonstrators march towards the government building in Bangkok on December 9, 2013. Thailand's premier called a snap election to try to defuse the kingdom's political crisis but protesters kept up their fight to topple her government with an estimated 100,000 demonstrators flooding the streets of Bangkok. AFP PHOTO / Philippe Lopez

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