It was a year when death came abruptly to what otherwise were days of communal celebrations; when Britain lost a queen and Japan, its former premier; when inept leaders – corrupted by hubris – fell; and when nature again refused to be ignored. It was a year of another devastating war in Europe.

A stampede at a football stadium in Indonesia has killed at least 125 people and injured more than 320 after police sought to quell violence on the field, authorities said yesterday, in one of the world’s worst stadium disasters.