On January 6, North Korean authorities said they had conducted a hydrogen bomb test, but it later turned out to be a "regular" nuclear test. In February, the regime in Pyongyang carried out a long-range missile test. On September 9, the isolated nation conducted another nuclear test, its most powerful so far. The North Korean belligerence forced the UN to impose more sanctions on the country.

After half a century of military rule, Htin Kiaw (left) became the first elected civil president in Myanmar on March 30. Kiaw is a close aide of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate and leader of the National League for Democracy.

On May 5, Rodrigo Duterte won the Philippine presidential election. After taking office in June, he urged the citizens of the Southeast Asian island nation to hunt down and kill drug dealers and addicts. In the following weeks and months, Duterte proved his determination to lead the war on drugs. The country's security forces have killed several thousand people in connection with drugs.

In Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen was sworn in as the island republic's first female president. The center-left politician won the presidential vote on January 16. She opposed her predecessor's policy to seek closer ties with mainland China. Her phone conversation with US president-elect Donald Trump earlier this month enraged Beijing.

In May, Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone attack in the region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2015, Mansour had succeeded the group's founder Mullah Omar. After his death, Mansour was succeeded by Haibatullah Akhundzada.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague rejected Beijing's territorial claim on parts of the South China Sea and ruled in favor of the Philippines. China, as expected, rejected the court's decision.

On September 4, Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa a Catholic saint at the Vatican. Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, Mother Teresa was of ethnic Albanian descent. She arrived in India in 1929 as a sister of the Loreto order. By 1946, she said God had called upon her to care for the poorest of the poor. Mother Teresa's work won her a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

Thailand's "beloved" king Bhumibol Adulyadej died on October 13 in Bangkok after a protracted illness. The monarch had reigned in Thailand since 1946. Though Bhumibol was highly revered, commentators disagree regarding his legacy as well as his influence. Crown prince Maha Vajiralongkorn succeeded Bhumibol as King Rama X earlier this month.

On October 24, armed gunmen attacked a police school in the western Pakistani city of Quetta and killed 61 cadets. The so-called "Islamic State" (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack. In August, suicide bombers attacked a hospital in the same city and killed 71 people.

South Korea has been in the grip of anti-government protests for the past few months. President Park Geun-Hye has been suspended from office on corruption charges. Earlier this month, the country's parliament voted to impeach Park. In early 2017, the constitutional court will decide her political fate.