NOTABLE DEATHS

January 23: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz aged around 90 after suffering from pneumonia.

March 22: Singapore's first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, aged 91 in hospital after suffering from pneumonia.

March 26: Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer, who won the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature, aged 83.

April 13: Germany's Nobel-winning author, Gunter Grass aged 87, in hospital in the northern city of Luebeck.

May 14: BB King, the face of American blues worldwide, aged 89 in Las Vegas.

May 23: US mathematician and Nobel Laureate,  John Nash aged 86. Oscar winning  film ‘A Beautiful Mind’ was based on his life.

July 10: Egyptian-born "Doctor Zhivago" film legend Omar Sharif, of a heart attack in a Cairo hospital aged 83.

July 27: India's 'people's president' and a career scientist "A P J." Abdul Kalam, of a heart attack in Shillong, India.