We have come almost to an end of 2017. It was volatile year globally. We had had news alerts all through the year.

We saw an attack on a concert, a church, an ice cream parlour; an assailant wielding a gun or hammer or acid. There was an earthquake in Mexico, a deadly monsoon in Indian subcontinent, a volcanic eruption in Bali, hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, reports The Economic Times.

‘Keep up as your phone vibrates with word of your favourite actor accused of misconduct. Make that anchorman. Or politician. Or radio star.’

‘The volatile year 2017 shook us so much and so often it felt like whiplash or worse, and that's without even considering Donald Trump, at the centre of so much of the turmoil.’

‘In retrospect, 2017's destiny seemed sealed in its opening moments.’

People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas after gun fire was heard. Photo: Twitter

Music concert attacks

A gunman opened fire on New Year revellers at a packed nightclub on the shores of Istanbul’s Bosphorus waterway on Sunday killing at least 39 people, including many foreigners, then fled the scene.

The incident bore echoes of an attack by militant Islamists on Paris’s Bataclan music hall in November 2015 that, along with assaults on bars and restaurants, killed 130 people.

‘In Texas, Pastor Frank Pomeroy vowed that good would persevere over evil. Pomeroy leads the rural church where a gunman killed 25 parishioners, his own 14-year-old daughter among them’, reports The Economic Times.

A 64-year-old man armed with more than 10 rifles rained down gunfire on a Las Vegas country music festival slaughtering at least 58 people in the largest mass shooting in US history before killing himself.

At least 22 people, including some children, were killed and 59 wounded when a suicide bomber struck as thousands of fans streamed out of a concert by US singer Ariana Grande in the English city of Manchester.

Injured people are assisted after the attack on Westminster Bridge. Photo: Reuters 

​Vehicle attacks

Around the world this year, vehicles were made into weapons, with trucks, cars and vans ploughing down people on the 2017 AP YEAR END PHOTOS and London bridges in Britain; in Times Square and on a Manhattan bike path; on a major shopping street in the Swedish capital of Stockholm; on the historic La Rambla in Barcelona.

Terrorism and other violence struck so regularly that many accepted it as a fact of life, reports The Economic Times.

A man breathes through an oxygen mask as another one receives treatments, after what rescue workers described as a suspected gas attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idlib, Syria April 4, 2017. Photo: Reuters

Chemical attack in Syria

Government forces have used chemical weapons more than two dozen times during Syria’s civil war, including in April’s deadly attack on Khan Sheikhoun, U.=N war crimes investigators said.

A government warplane dropped sarin on the town in Idlib province, killing more than 80 civilians, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said, in the most conclusive findings to date from investigations into that chemical weapon attack.

The panel also said US air strikes on a mosque in Al-Jina in rural Aleppo in March that killed 38 people, including children, failed to take precautions in violation of international law, but did not constitute a war crime.

Missile launches by North Korea brought angst that nuclear war was nearing. Rallies by white supremacists, wearing white hoods and clasping torches, roused uncomfortable memories of the United States’ past. All of it broke with such ferocity, it seemed impossible to focus on any one incident too long.

In Egypt, twin Palm Sunday attacks ambushed Coptic Christians and a November assault on a crowded mosque killed more than 300, reports The Economic Times.

Waves crash against the seawall as Hurricane Irma slammed across islands in the northern Caribbean. Photo: Reuters 

Storms

Three major storms — Harvey, Irma and Maria — battered Puerto Rico and much of the Caribbean, as well as Texas and Florida, as 2017 went down as one of the most active hurricane seasons in recorded history.

Fires tore through California and Portugal; earthquakes rocked Mexico, Iran and Iraq; flooding and an avalanche covered parts of Italy; mudslides levelled homes in Sierra Leone; and a deadly monsoon pummelled India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, reports The Economic Times.

Hamida and Nasir Ahmed, a Rohingya refugee couple mourn as their 40-day-old son died after a boat capsized in the shore of Shah Porir Dwip, in Teknaf, Bangladesh September 14, 2017. Photo: Reuters

Refugees

‘In hotspots around the world, people sought escape. Amnesty International estimated 73,000 refugees took to the Mediterranean in the first half of the year alone, with about 2,000 dying along the way.’

‘In Myanmar, the military has been conducting a brutal ethnic cleansing of Rohingya people, killing untold numbers and forcing more than 626,000 to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh’, reports The Economic Times.

People search under the rubble of a house destroyed by a Saudi-led air strike in Sanaa, Yemen August 25, 2017. Photo: Reuters 

Civil war

‘Amid the barrage, other big stories struggled for a spotlight’, reports The Economic Times.

Yemen, ravaged by war, hunger and disease, is seeing a spike in diphtheria cases that will inevitably erupt into a larger, deadly outbreak because so few people have been immunized, aid officials said.

At highest risk are children, who account for many of the more than 280 suspected diphtheria cases and 33 associated deaths reported as of Tuesday, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Civil war in the Middle Eastern country, which lies at the tip of the Arabian peninsula south of Saudi Arabia, has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than two million others.

‘In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe was ousted from control after a 37-year reign. In Spain, a push for Catalonian independence degenerated at times into ugly scenes of mayhem’, reports The Economic Times.

When he came to power, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe was feted as an African liberation hero in a nation that had endured nearly a century of white colonial rule.

Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters 

Trump's presidency

‘In the US, Trump opened his presidency with a dark inaugural address beseeching an end to "American carnage" but saw much of his agenda rejected, with members of his own party providing key votes against him.’

‘Divides deepened, with agreement elusive even on core national values. Americans were sadder, a "happiness" report found. Sales of the dystopic novel "1984" surged and a chilling stage adaptation came to Broadway’, reports The Economic Times.

Protesters gather for the Women's March in Oslo, Norway. Photo: Reuters

Mass protests

‘Mass protests formed around the country, including droves of women who proudly deemed themselves "nasty," a label placed on Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race’, reports The Economic Times.

Hundreds of people marched in the heart of Hollywood on Sunday to support victims of sexual assault and harassment, inspired by a social media campaign that has portrayed such abuse as a pervasive feature of American life. Photo: Reuters 

Women say #MeToo

Hundreds of people marched in the heart of Hollywood to support victims of sexual assault and harassment, inspired by a social media campaign that has portrayed such abuse as a pervasive feature of American life.

The #MeToo march and rally followed a relentless series of accusations by men and women who said they were victimized by high-powered figures in the entertainment industry. But marchers said they also represented men and women who had been sexually abused as children and in other situations.

The marchers started at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, walking along the noted “Walk of Fame” until they reached the Los Angeles headquarters of news network CNN at Sunset and Cahuenga Boulevards.

Along the way, participants noted the stars of actors and producers accused of sexual harassment.

The allegations have inspired an online campaign, tagged #MeToo, that has encouraged men and women in all walks of life to reveal their own experiences with sexual harassment and assault, often years after they occurred.

Among the most recent allegations, five women detailed sexual misconduct accusations against Emmy-winning comedian Louis C.K. in The New York Times on Thursday. He admitted to the misconduct alleged against him in a statement on Friday and apologized for his actions.

More than 50 women have said that Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them over the past three decades. Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone. Reuters has been unable to independently confirm any of the allegations.

Earlier this month, actor Kevin Spacey apologized to actor Anthony Rapp, who had accused him of trying to seduce him in 1986 when Rapp was 14. Spacey’s representatives said later he was seeking treatment.

Eight current and former employees of the Netflix TV show “House of Cards,” who were not identified, also have accused Spacey, the star of the show, of sexual misconduct, CNN has reported.

A total eclipse with the diamond ring effect is seen from South Mike Sedar Park on August 21, 2017 in Casper, Wyoming. Photo: Twitter

There are good news

‘There were, in this arguably awful year, moments to hail, too, stories of heroism and bravery that restore faith and give the heart a little hope’, reports The Economic Times.

‘More than 80 schoolgirls, abducted by Boko Haram extremists more than three years ago in Nigeria, were released.’

‘In South Sudan, a boy abducted and forced into the army - mourned in a funeral two years ago after word of his gunshot death reached his mother - was alive after all, and returned home.’

‘The Islamic State lost power as it was driven from Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria. In the US, a total solar eclipse gave a break from the unending cacophony, with droves of sky-gazers standing shoulder to shoulder across a swath of the country.’

‘A new calendar page brings with it the chance to start fresh. Jordi Casares, a 71-year-old retired bank employee in Barcelona, lamented the terrorism and radicalism that marred 2017 but said he, for one, is optimistic for a better 2018.’