Decade in Review: crime and disasters

2000

-    Mark Moran is shot outside his home in Aberfeldie in Melbourne. In 2003, his brother Jason is shot dead in front of his children, leading police to fear reprisal attacks. The following year Jason's father, and the patriarch of the Moran family, Lewis, is shot dead. In 2009, Desmond 'Tuppence' Moran is killed. His sister-in-law Judy, the matriarch of the Moran family, is charged in relation to his murder, thus ending the crime dynasty

2001

-    Around 25,000 people die and a million more are left homeless after an earthquake measuring at least 6.9 hits the Indian state of Gujarat. Amid tales of desperation and loss, remarkable stories of survival emerge, including that of a 102 year-old woman who is rescued after being trapped for four days, or a 12-year girl who survives with only minor injures after being trapped in rubble for five days

2002

-    French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and her aide Clara Rojas are kidnapped by FARC rebels in southern Colombia while Betancourt is campaigning for President. Rojas is released in January 2008, with Betancourt finally rescued by authorities in July 2008, six years after being captured

-    Residents of the US capital and neighbouring Virginia and Maryland are gripped with fear as the Washington Sniper, later identified as John Allen Muhammad, shoots people at random. With the help of 17-year-old accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, Muhammad kills ten people. He is put to death in 2009; Malvo is given life without parole for his role in the murders

2003

-    A heatwave in Europe kills up to 35,000 people. France bears the brunt of casualties, with nearly 15,000 deaths. The UK records a temperature of over 38 degrees Celsius for the first time since records were kept

-    Eighteen-year old Natasha Ryan is found alive and well and hiding in her boyfriend's wardrobe, four years after disappearing. The murder trial of the Queensland teenager was underway when the surprising discovery was made

-    All seven astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia die when the shuttle breaks up over Texas, just minutes before it was due to land at the Kennedy Space Centre

-    Just over 300 people, including 284 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, die in a plane crash just 30 kilometres away from their destination. Bad weather is later identified as the cause of the crash

2004

-    More than 240 people are killed in a stampede at al-Jamarat in Saudi Arabia, during a ritual of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. In 2006, another crush at the exact same site kills 345 people

-    In the early hours of Boxing Day, an earthquake measuring at least 9.0 strikes off the western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. The massive quake could be felt as far away as Africa, and triggered a powerful tsunami. The tsunami created waves of up to 30 metres, and hit 11 countries. The final death toll is still disputed, due to the long-term effects of the devastation caused, but stands at between 230,000 and 280,000

2005

-    An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hits the Kashmir region causing damage to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. As many as 20 powerful aftershocks can be felt in the region. Collapsing buildings and landslides triggered by the quake cause a large proportion of the up to 75,000 deaths

-    Levees are breached after Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 storm, hits the New Orleans and the southern coast of the United States. Up to 1,500 people die in the storm, and the Bush Administration is heavily criticised for its poor relief and recovery efforts in the aftermath of the disaster

-    Rumours of a suicide bomber provoke a stampede on a bridge in northern Baghdad during a Shia pilgrimage. The stampede kills nearly 1000, becoming one of the bloodiest 24-hours in Iraq since the US-led troops invaded the country

-    Water supplies to the northern Chinese city of Harbin are cut after a massive spill of the dangerous and carcinogenic chemical benzene seeps into the Songhua River. The toxic disaster came about after a blast at a chemical plant in a neighbouring town. The company responsible, Jilin Petrochemical, is given the maximum fine under Chinese environmental law, but many say the $125,000 fine is too lenient

2006

-    Egyptian boat Al-Salam sinks in the middle of the Red Sea, killing more than 1,000 and becoming Egypt's worst maritime disaster ever. In 2008, five of the key players, some of whom have political ties, are acquitted on charges relating to the disaster, sparking outrage from the victims' families

-    A rock fall at the Beaconsfield Gold Mine in Tasmania traps 17 miners underground on Anzac Day. Fourteen miners escape, but Larry Knight is killed, and two of his colleagues, Brant Webb and Todd Russell, remained trapped. They are both rescued two weeks after the accident

-    Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalist who reported extensively on Chenchnya, is shot dead in her apartment's lift. Three men are acquitted of her murder in 2009

-    Austrian woman Natasha Kampusch escapes from Wolfgang Prikopil, the man who kidnapped her and held her in a cellar under his house for eight years. She was ten when abducted, and after her escape, Prikopil kills himself before police can find him

-    Ex-Russian spy, and critic of the Kremlin, Alexander Litvinenko dies from radiation poisoning. The Russian government denies involvement, after allegations Litvinenko held information on a senior Kremlin figure

2007

-    Thirty-three people are shot dead by a lone gunman on the campus of Virginia Tech, making the tragedy the deadliest shooting rampage in US history. A report released in 2009 slams officials for the lack of notification given to students on the campus during the shooting

-    British toddler Madeleine McCann goes missing while on holiday with her family in Portugal. Her parents deny harming the girl, and have launched a global manhunt to locate her

-    John Darwin walks into a police station in London claiming to be suffering from amnesia. Police are suspicious, and later discover the Briton and his wife had faked the man's canoeing accident 'death' in order to receive a large insurance pay-out five years earlier. The couple is sentenced to jail for fraud in 2008

2008

-    A massive earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale hits the Sichuan province in western China. Over 70,000 people die in the disaster, and hundreds of thousands of others are left homeless. The collapse of schools, hospitals and owned-buildings raises questions on how rigorously the structures are checked by officials

-    The world is shocked by news an Austrian man, Josef Fritzl, kept his daughter imprisoned in an underground dungeon for 24 years and used her as a sex slave. Elisabeth had seven children by her father, one of whom died shortly after birth. In 2009, Fritzl is sentenced to life for rape, false imprisonment, enslavement, assault and the murder of the baby who died

-    Cyclone Nargis hits Burma's Irrawaddy Delta. At its height, Nargis was a Category 4 cyclone with winds of up to 210 km/h. Burma's ruling military junta estimates 78,000 people die in the cyclone. The junta is heavily criticised for not letting relief groups into the country in the aftermath of the disaster, and for not working quick enough to distribute international aid and rescue survivors

-    Six babies die, and 300,000 other children in China and Hong Kong become sick after drinking melamine-tainted milk and dairy products. During the scandal it is revealed that the chemical melamine is routinely added to milk in order to boost protein levels. In 2009 two men are executed for their involvement in the scandal

2009

-    The pilot who managed to safely land a plane on board on New York's Hudson River is hailed a hero for saving the lives of all 155 people on board the aircraft

-    Australia endures its worst bushfire disaster during Black Saturday in Victoria. Dry weather conditions, arson and falling powerlines cause a series of fires that rage on for weeks. By the end of the crisis, 173 people had died and thousands of others lost their homes and properties

-    A devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake hits the central Italian city of L'Aquila. More than 300 people die in the quake, and thousands others are made homeless

-    Air France Flight 447 disappears over the Atlantic Ocean. It is later confirmed that the plane, flying from Brazil to Paris, has crashed into the sea. All 228 people on board are killed, and the black box is never recovered

-    Jaycee Lee Dugard walks into a police station and identifies herself as the girl who was abducted 18 years prior. During her 18 years in captivity, Dugard was kept as a sex slave and bore two children by her captor, Philip Garrido