Passing Away: Key Deaths Of 2013

From a suspected Cambodian war criminal to the world's beloved elder statesman, this year has seen its fair share of notable deaths. Actors, artists, scientists and scoundrels, these are the people whose lives have helped shape the world in which we live. The stories of these lives lost can resonate with us all. "They celebrate triumph and disaster, all the hardships and victories that a person has gone through," said Harry de Quetteville, obituaries editor of Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper. Though we all have lives packed with comedy and tragedy, we are not all remembered equally after our deaths. In truth, not everyone can be a Nelson Mandela. But many people who contribute great and wonderful and terrible things to our world are often neglected, and their passing is little recognised. "Scientists get no attention," de Quetteville told Al Jazeera. "They do extraordinary work, which revolutionises our way of life." He picked British biochemist Fred Sanger as an example. "He was given the Order of Merit, and won the Nobel twice. Everything we know about the Human Genome Project derives from him - you could hardly leave a more significant body or work. Winning the Nobel Prize twice put him in the same category as Marie Curie - and everyone's heard of Marie Curie." Too often also overlooked are the casualties of war. Those people whose names get lost as they are converted to numbers. It is important to remember what the statistics actually represent each time we see a body count - that the lives lost in the fire and the smoke of battle, bombing or blockade are too numerous to pay proper tribute to each. But that each person whose death adds to these tallies had as much impact on the lives of the loved ones they leave behind as any of the rest of us do.