December 11, 2012. Copyright 2013, Graphic News. All rights reserved Review of the Year 2013 By Julie Mullins LONDON, December 11, Graphic News: Captions accompany graphic GN31265 January: 9. London Underground, the first railway of its kind in the world, celebrates its 150th anniversary 11. French troops head to Mali at the request of the government to halt an advance by Islamist rebels 20. U.S. President Barack Obama is sworn in for his second term in office, facing major challenges both at home and abroad ----------------------------------------------------- February: 11. Pope Benedict XVI becomes the first pontiff to retire since 1415 14. South African runner Oscar Pistorius is arrested after shooting dead his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, claiming he mistook her for an intruder 15. A meteor explodes over Chelyabinsk, in Siberia, injuring more than 1,000 people ----------------------------------------------------- March: 13. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina becomes the first pope from Latin America, taking the name Francis 14. Xi Jingping formally becomes President of China, completing the transition of power in the country ----------------------------------------------------- April: 14. Nicolas Maduro is elected President of Venezuela after the death of Hugo Chavez 15. Two bombs explode at the Boston Marathon, killing three spectators 24. An eight-story garment factory building collapses in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing over 1,100 people 30. Crown Prince Willem-Alexander becomes King of the Netherlands following the abdication of Queen Beatrix ----------------------------------------------------- May: 6. Three women abducted a decade earlier are found alive at a house in Cleveland, Ohio 16. Football superstar David Beckham announces his retirement 20. A three-kilometre-wide Category 5 tornado tears through Moore, Oklahoma, killing 25 people including nine children 26. The civil war in Syria spills into Lebanon as multiple rockets strike Beirut 31. Anti-government protests spread to dozens of cities throughout Turkey, sparked by a crackdown on demonstrators in Istanbul --------------------------------------------------- June: 9. Ex-CIA contractor Edward Snowden admits revealing details of top-secret U.S. and UK spy programmes to the press 14. Hassan Rouhani is elected President of Iran, pledging to improve relations with the west ------------------- July: 4. Egypt’s army deposes President Mohammed Morsi from power 6. A runaway train carrying crude oil derails and explodes in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, killing 47 people 7. Andy Murray becomes the first British player in 77 years to win the Wimbledon men’s singles title 22. Prince George of Cambridge, third in line to the British throne, is born 24. An intercity express train derails near Santiago de Compostela, Spain, killing 79 ------------------- August: 18. Violence escalates in Egypt with more than 1,000 people killed in clashes after the ousting of President Morsi 21. Many hundreds of people die when Syrian troops target opposition-controlled suburbs of Damascus with sarin gas 21. U.S. Private Bradley Manning is jailed for 35 years for leaking over 700,000 U.S. government military files to WikiLeaks ------------------- September: 14. The U.S. and Russia announce an agreement to enable the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile by mid-2014 21. A four-day assault by al-Shabaab militants on the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, leaves 72 people dead 22. Angela Merkel wins a historic third term as Chancellor of Germany 25. Oracle Team USA seals one of sport’s greatest comebacks to win the America’s Cup, overhauling an 8-1 deficit to beat Team New Zealand 9-8 in the deciding race in San Francisco Bay ------------------- October: 1. A standoff in Congress results in a 16-day U.S. government shutdown after lawmakers fail to agree on a budget to increase the debt limit 3. Over 360 African migrants die when an overcrowded fishing boat catches fire and sinks off the Italian island of Lampedusa 24. A tunnel linking the continents of Europe and Asia finally opens beneath the Bosphorus in Istanbul ------------------- November: 8. Typhoon Haiyan smashes into the central Philippines, killing at least 6,000 people 8. The Italian Senate votes to expel ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from parliament over his conviction for tax fraud 24. Iran signs an interim agreement with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, limiting its nuclear programme in exchange for reduced sanctions ------------------- December: 1. China launches its first unmanned probe due to land on the moon 5. Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, dies at age 95 /ENDS