From the election of "Duterte Harry" in the Philippines to the affair of the "Female Rasputin" that has gripped millions of Koreans, it's been another memorable year in Asia. A few long-running political and security soap operas also continue to play out, most notably the drama in the South China Sea. As well, there is no sign that the tragedy of the Rohingya will end anytime soon. This week, Asia Focus takes a look back at some of the events and personalities that made headlines in 2016.
LAOS
• Duterte tricks: Bad blood between Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and US President Barack Obama dominated the headlines at the Asean and East Asia summits. Otherwise not much happened. As expected, 18 world leaders gathering in Vientiane managed to say little about the South China Sea, despite mounting evidence backed by an international tribunal ruling that Beijing is in the wrong. That left reporters to watch every move by the Philippine and US leaders, after Mr Duterte delivered a profanity-laced outburst earlier in which he called Mr Obama a "son of a bitch". The tirade was prompted by the US president's dismay over Mr Duterte's drug policy, which essentially consists of killing people.
VIETNAM
• No deal: Vietnam, perhaps seeing the political writing on the wall, shelved ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the US-led trade deal that Donald Trump is almost certain to kill. The TPP had been seen as a big boon for Vietnam's exports and manufacturing economy, which is receiving record foreign investment due to its numerous trade accords, cheap labour and relative stability. Relations with Washington have warmed considerably under the Obama administration, though, and Hanoi hopes the trend will continue.
MALAYSIA
• Where's the money? Thousands of anti-government protesters marched in Kuala Lumpur in November to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Razak, as the scandal surrounding the looting of billions of dollars from the state development fund 1MDB dragged into its second year. Mr Najib branded the yellow-shirted protesters "a tool of the opposition", and the group's leaders were arrested the day before the rally. Mr Najib has managed for nearly two years to block or sideline any credible investigation by Malaysian authorities, while also shutting down media outlets that get too curious. Meanwhile, the US Justice Department continues to gather evidence linked to the disappearance of US$3.5 billion from the fund founded by Mr Najib. Some of that money allegedly flowed into the accounts of "Malaysian Official 1", whom US and Malaysian officials have identified as Mr Najib.
• How much longer? Investigators searching for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in November recommended extending the search by 25,000 square kilometres, to an area further north in the Indian Ocean, after conceding for the first time they were probably looking in the wrong place. But Australia, one of three search countries, rejected the recommendation citing a lack of "credible evidence", leaving it unclear whether Chinese and Malaysian search teams would finance a prolonged hunt. An exhaustive survey of the current 120,000 sq km search area west of Australia is due to be completed in January, with no sign of the missing jet. Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board, most of them Chinese, en route Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
ASIA
• Trumped: Barack Obama's "pivot to Asia" -- a promise to pay more attention to the world's most populous and economically buoyant continent -- is under threat following the surprise US presidential election victory of Donald Trump. The Republican billionaire has singled out China for special attention, but whether Mr Trump's tweets will translate into policy remains to be seen. Asia is most worried about trade protectionism as exports make up a quarter of the region's GDP, and a fifth of all Asian goods go to the US. The first casualty of a Trump administration is almost certain to be the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), championed by Mr Obama. US allies such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore were seen as being among the biggest winners of a more open trade regime. A more isolationist and protectionist stance will cost Washington influence in the region.
• Aceh devastation: Indonesia's Aceh province was struck by a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in early December, the worst disaster to hit the region since the 2004 tsunami. The quake and aftershocks killed at least 100 people, injured nearly 900, displaced about 85,000 people and damaged more than 11,000 buildings. Killer quakes occur regularly in the region, where many live with the terrifying memory of Dec 26, 2004, when a 9.1 quake off Sumatra triggered a devastating tsunami that killed more than 100,000 Acehnese.
• South China Sea: Another year, more posturing and more brazen Chinese construction on islands that most people agree it does not own. An international tribunal in The Hague, ruling in a case brought by the Philippines, said in July that Beijing had no legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the disputed encompassed on maps by its infamous "nine-dash line" which extends hundreds of kilometres to the south and east of its island province of Hainan. China has refused to recognise the ruling and at year-end was adding even more military facilities on various contested rocks and islets.
BRUNEI
• Stashed away: Coutts, the taxpayer-owned British bank that provides accounts to the Queen, ran secretive tax-haven services for a Brunei prince accused of stealing US$15 billion from his own people, according to a report in The Guardian citing the Panama Papers, a treasure trove of documents showing how the wealthy hide their money. The Sultan of Brunei's brother, Prince Jefri Bolkiah, was among the clients of the blue-blood bank. Coutts reportedly provided the spendthrift prince with banking services throughout the 1980s and 1990s as he lavished himself with hundreds of luxury properties, artworks, more than 2,000 cars and several aircraft. In 2000 he was charged with embezzling $14.8 billion from the sultanate's sovereign wealth fund, which he chaired from 1986-98. A UK court in 2007 ordered Jefri to pay back the full amount that had disappeared. Coutts provided nominee directors and shareholders for two companies the Prince set up in the British Virgin Islands. While this is not illegal, it allowed Jefri to conceal his identity.
MYANMAR
• Rohingya suffering: Amnesty International said the actions of Myanmar's military against the Rohingya Muslim minority may constitute "crimes against humanity", as international concern grew about conditions in Rakhine State. The Amnesty report accused Myanmar forces of murdering civilians, rape and torture. The military has denied accounts of atrocities and says it is conducting anti-terrorist raids in Rakhine. At a December meeting of regional leaders in Yangon, the government said it needed "time and space" to resolve the issue. Malaysia said this was now a "regional concern", and called for Asean to coordinate humanitarian aid and investigate the allegations.
THE PHILIPPINES
• War on drugs: President Rodrigo Duterte has been unrelenting and unapologetic about his war on drugs ever since voters propelled him to power in May because of his promises to do something about crime. About 6,000 Filipinos have died since June, with about 2,000 of those deaths at the hands of police and the rest at the hands of vigilantes or rival drug gangs, reports say. The carnage has drawn heavy condemnation abroad, to which the president has responded with coarse outbursts. Recently he boasted that years ago he'd killed a few people himself, just to encourage police in his hometown of Davao. In September, he said he wanted to extend the drug war another six months because he "cannot kill them all".
• Hail to the thief: Long-dead former dictator Ferdinand Marcos was buried in November at the Heroes' Cemetery in a secrecy-shrouded ceremony, a move approved by President Duterte that infuriated supporters of the "people power" revolt that ousted Marcos three decades ago. Pro-democracy activists were enraged by the treatment accorded a man who oversaw the deaths of thousands and looted his country of about US$15 billion. President Duterte said he respected their right to protest but suggested it was time to finally put the Marcos debate to rest.
JAPAN
• Abdication hint: A panel in Japan began discussions on the possible abdication of Emperor Akihito in mid-October following the 82-year-old emperor's remark in July that his age was making it hard for him to fulfil his duties. Abdication is not mentioned under existing laws, so they will need to be changed to allow him to stand down. The panel aims to submit legislation as early as May next year. Akihito, who has had heart surgery and was treated for prostate cancer, has been on the throne since the death of his father, Hirohito, in 1989. If he does abdicate, it would be the first time a Japanese emperor has done so since 1817.
• Historic visits: Barack Obama in May became the first serving US president to visit Hiroshima since the World War II nuclear attack. Mr Obama said the memory of Aug 6, 1945 must never fade, but did not explicitly apologise for the US attack -- the world's first nuclear bombing -- that ended the war. Mr Obama also spoke to two survivors and in an address called on nations to pursue a world without nuclear weapons. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, meanwhile, was scheduled to make a landmark visit at year-end to Pearl Harbor, the US naval base in Hawaii, where a Japanese attack brought America into World War II.
INDONESIA
• Jakarta attacks: The Indonesian capital was rocked on Jan 14 by suicide bombers and gunmen in the first assault claimed by Islamic State in the world's most populous Muslim nation and in Southeast Asia. Seven people were killed, including five attackers, and the brazenness of the assault suggested a new brand of militancy in Indonesia. It took security forces about three hours to end the assault near Sarinah, Jakarta's oldest department store, after militants traded gunfire with police and blew themselves up.
• Blasphemy trial: Muslim hardliners stepped up the pressure on Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja "Ahok" Purnama, who was accused of insulting the Koran. Mr Purnama, a Chinese Christian, was accused in September of misrepresenting a Koranic verse which suggests Muslims should not be ruled by non-Muslims, in an effort to boost support ahead of the governorship election in February 2017. Mr Purnama, better known as Ahok, appeared in court on Dec 14 and tearfully denied all allegations that he insulted Islam. If convicted, he could face a five-year jail sentence.
SINGAPORE
• Zika alert: Singapore reported its first imported case of Zika in May and the virus has been spreading ever since. The first carrier of the virus, which has caused particular devastation in South America, was a 48-year-old Singaporean man returning from Sao Paulo, Brazil. He was admitted to hospital and isolated but that did not stop the outbreak. The number of locally transmitted Zika virus cases reached 242 in September, with most linked to an existing cluster in the city-state's east. However, the swift and successful response of the Singaporean government and grassroots organisations earned the country praise from the World Health Organization, which called Singapore a "role model" for its handling of Zika.
• Train deal: Singapore and Malaysia signed an agreement in July will bring a high-speed rail link to Kuala Lumpur by 2026. Tenders for the project will be called next year. The rail line, carrying trains at more than 300 kilometres per hour, will cut the land journey between the two cities to 90 minutes, from about five hours now.
SOUTH KOREA
• Blue House blues: South Korean President Park Geun-hye was impeached by parliament over a corruption scandal and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn is now serving as interim president. The scandal, which generated huge protests, centred on Ms Park's relationship with a friend named Choi Soon-sil and included allegations of cult activities, influence-peddling and leaks of classified information. Ms Choi, dubbed the "Female Rasputin", is now on trial, accused of using her presidential connections to pressure companies for millions of dollars in donations to two non-profit foundations she controlled. The constitutional court, meanwhile, has 180 days to rule on the validity of the impeachment vote. If the judges rule against Ms Park, new elections must then be held within 60 days.
• Catching fire: The South Korean tech giant Samsung permanently ceased production of its high-end Galaxy Note 7 smartphones after reports of devices it had deemed safe catching fire. In September, Samsung recalled around 2.5 million phones after complaints of exploding batteries. But the company later insisted that all replaced devices were safe. However, that was followed by reports that those phones were catching fire too. A Kentucky man said he woke up to a bedroom full of smoke from a replaced Note 7, days after a domestic flight in the US was evacuated after a new device started emitting smoke in the cabin.
INDIA
• Cashless society: The effort to eradicate "black money" by Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a dramatic twist on Nov 8 when the government outlawed 500- and 1,000-rupee banknotes, which accounted for 86% of the currency in a country where 78% of financial transactions are made in cash. The change was meant to combat corruption and tax evasion but in the short term it plunged the country into chaos instead. The inconvenience led to protests against Modi but the government has stood by its demonetisation decision and is confident that conditions will return to normal soon.
• Kashmir unrest: Unrest in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley flared anew in 2016 with the killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, a militant commander of the Kashmir-based Hizbul Mujahideen. He was a new-age poster boy for militancy and his death during an encounter with Indian security forces on July 8 sparked protests and violence that led to nine deaths. Jammu and Kashmir Police and Indian paramilitary used force to suppress the violence which later resulted in the deaths of more than 100 civilians in unrest that persisted into November.
CHINA
• Hey big lender: Chinese President Xi Jinping in January launched a new international development bank, seen as a rival to the US-led World Bank and an attempt to change the unwritten rules of global development finance. Despite opposition from Washington, US allies including Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Philippines and South Korea have agreed to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in recognition of China's growing economic clout. The AIIB is expected to lend between US$10 billion and $15 billion a year for the first five or six years.
• Quantum leap: China launched the world's first quantum satellite in August, in an effort to harness the power of particle physics to build an "unhackable" system of encrypted communications. The launch took place in the southwestern Gobi Desert, and came as the US, Japan and others also seek to develop applications for the burgeoning technology. Beijing has poured enormous resources into the race, one of several cutting-edge projects that include everything from asteroid mining to gene manipulation. The satellite -- nicknamed Micius after a 5th century BC Chinese philosopher and scientist -- will be used in experiments intended to prove the viability of quantum technology to communicate over long distances.
CAMBODIA
• Political gamesmanship: Veteran strongman Hun Sen kept critics guessing about how much opposition he is willing to tolerate as the country heads into local elections in 2017 and a general election in 2018. Headlines focused on the legal tribulations of deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha, who spent three months holed up in his party's headquarters after being convicted on what he called bogus charges. Hun Sen, a frequent user of the courts to bully opposition figures, finally sought a royal pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni for Kem Sokha. Suddenly the two rivals were all smiles, pledging to work together for the national interest. The opposition party's top leader, Sam Rainsy, is still in self-exile abroad. He faces imprisonment for a defamation conviction if he returns home. Then again, he received a royal pardon once before, so another one is not out of the question.
