Some of her hair was still there, but most had burnt away."Hong Kong, 26 August (Vincent Yu)Astoundingly, there were only two deaths when this China Airlines MD11 crashed on to the runway at Chek Lap Kok airport, Hong Kong. One survivor described the scene: "Some were very badly burnt. "Nobody died in the ring, the performers were good sportsmen, and there was no obvious malfeasance at ringside. And, yes, the sport has, at long last, an undisputed heavyweight champion."Paddington, London, 5 October (Peter Macdiarmid)Firemen douse down wreckage after the Paddington rail crash, which occurred during the morning rush hour when the 6.03 Cheltenham to London express collided with the 8.06 Paddington to Bedwyn train, killing 31 people.

The fight was a re-match, after judges had - perversely - declared their first bout together a draw. And was it worth the effort? "Inasmuch as the result provoked no congressional inquiries, you might say it was a great night for boxing," wrote Richard Hoffer in the US magazine Sports Illustrated. Members of a schoolyard gang who dubbed themselves the "Trenchcoat Mafia", Harris and Klebold had spent a year planning the massacre. They posted death threats on an Internet website and constructed pipe bombs in their bedrooms.

Then, after the destruction was over, they turned their guns on themselves in the school library.Las Vegas, 13 November(Eric Draper)Evander Holyfield, left, fights a losing battle against Lennox Lewis at the Thomas and Mack Center, Las Vegas. On the morning of Tuesday 20 April, two pupils, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, burst into their school and opened fire with semi-automatic weapons, killing 11 pupils and one teacher. One of the worst hit places was Yalova, an up-and-coming Black Sea resort, where this child was pulled from the debris by emergency workers. The quakes claimed over 12,500 lives, and hit Turkey's already sickly economy.

Relief operations were criticised: emergency camps in Yalova were flooded, forcing the homeless to spend the night on their feet.Littleton, Colorado, 20 April(George Kochaniec)Students comfort each other in the aftermath of the killing spree at Columbine High. In the first month after Nato forces entered the disputed territory, there were 200 casualties from anti-personnel mines. Explosives expert Major Andy Phillips said: "Cluster bombs are a particular problem as they are brightly coloured canisters. They look innocuous to children."Yalova, Turkey, 20 August(Pascal le Segretain)After Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan was kidnapped by Turkish security agents, his supporters vowed to exact terrible revenge.