Natural disasters and crowd-related tragedies claimed hundreds of lives in Asia and overshadowed the COVID-19 pandemic, with most countries easing or completely lifting the tough restrictions of the previous two years. Even China, the last major country to try to control virus transmission through a “zero-COVID” strategy, relaxed the rigorous rules that triggered rare public protests. (Image: AP)

Political turmoil hit debt-laden Sri Lanka, where protesters broke into President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's residence and forced him into resigning after fleeing abroad. He later returned to the country headed by a new leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who negotiated a bailout package with international lenders contingent on sweeping economic reforms. (Image: AP)

Japan was shocked by the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a campaign rally on July 8. The suspect cited Abe's links to the ultra-conservative Unification Church, whose ties to the ruling party caused major headaches for the new prime minister, Fumio Kishida. (Image: AP)

In Seoul, 156 young revelers were crushed to death when more than 100,000 people flocked to the city's popular nightlife district for Halloween celebrations, the first since the country’s strict COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. (Image: AP)

Earlier in October, police at a soccer match in Indonesia fired tear gas after some fans spilled onto the field, sending people rushing toward the exits, some of which were locked, and causing a crush that left 135 dead. (Image: AP)

Still that same month, the collapse of a newly repaired suspension bridge in India’s Gujarat state killed 134 people as hundreds were celebrating the Hindu festival season. (Image: AP)

In November, a shallow 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's main Java island, killing 334 people and injuring nearly 600. (Image: AP)

And in Thailand, the deadliest mass killing in the country left 36 dead when a fired police officer stormed a rural day care center and massacred mostly preschoolers. (Image: AP)

China entered the year as host of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, with participants and guests sequestered in a “bubble” as part of strict COVID-19 rules. (Image: AP)

But the country's pandemic approach — which seeks to isolate every single infection at a huge cost to the economy and freedom of movement — unraveled when thousands took to the streets in major cities to protest the restrictions and call for leader Xi Jinping and the Communist Party to step down. The party responded with a massive show of force and an unknown number of people were arrested. (Image: AP)

The government under Xi, who granted himself new powers as China’s potential leader for life, relaxed measures and indicated it will tolerate more cases without quarantines or shutting down travel or businesses as it winds down its “zero-COVID” strategy, even as cases rise and threaten to overwhelm health resources. (Image: AP)

U.S. President Joe Biden, right, gestures with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment meeting at the G20 summit, November 15, in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. (Image: AP)

Rows of crosses sit at the mass grave site at the Holy Cross Memorial Garden for victims of super Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban, central Philippines on October 23. About 40 percent of the population of Tacloban was relocated to safer areas after super Typhoon Haiyan wiped out most of the villages, killing thousands when it hit central Philippines in 2013. (Image: AP)

Residents give away onions and other foods along a flooded road due to Typhoon Noru in San Miguel town, Bulacan province, Philippines, September 26. (Image: AP)

The Sydney Opera House was illuminated in the honor of Queen Elizabeth II in Sydney, Australia, September 9. Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and a rock of stability in a turbulent era for her country and the world, died on September 8 after 70 years on the throne. (Image: AP)

An idol of elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha is taken for immersion on the final day of the ten-day long Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India, September 9. (Image: AP)

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, center, in a yellow ceremonial hat, watches a welcome dance performed by Tibetan artists, as he arrives at the Tsuglakhang temple in Dharmsala, India, September 7. (Image: AP)

Policemen detain activists from right wing Hindu parties protesting against the Tuesday killing of Kanhaiya Lal, a Hindu man in a suspected religious attack in western Udaipur city in New Delhi, India, June 29. (Image: AP)

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, left, U.S. President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are greeted by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, during his arrival to the Quad leaders summit at the prime minister's official residence, May 24, in Tokyo. (Image: AP)

A person picks through trash for reusable items as a fire rages at the Bhalswa landfill in New Delhi, April 27. Landfills are releasing far more planet-warming methane into the atmosphere from the decomposition of waste than previously thought, a study suggests. (Image: AP)

Gulfam Raza sits sideways on his fast moving Royal Enfield motorcycle in an enclosure known as Maut ka Kuan, or the well of death, at a local fair in Dharmsala, India, April 9. (Image: AP)

U.S. Marines take their positions during an annual U.S.-Philippines joint military exercise titled Balikatan, Tagalog for "shoulder-to-shoulder", on the beaches of Claveria, Cagayan province, northern Philippines, March 31. (Image: AP)

A Sri Lankan man shouts anti-government slogans during a protest outside Sri Lankan president's private residence on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 31. Political turmoil hit debt-laden Sri Lanka, where protesters broke into President Gotabaya Rajapaska's residence and forced him into resigning after fleeing abroad. (Image: AP)

Fireworks ignite during the closing ceremony at the 2022 Winter Paralympics, March 13, in Beijing. (Image: AP)

Participants take part in the closing ceremony at the 2022 Winter Paralympics, March 13, in Beijing. (Image: AP)

In Pics | Relaxed COVID rules, Sri Lanka turmoil, Gujarat bridge collapse and natural disasters mark the year in Asia

Natural disasters and crowd-related tragedies claimed hundreds of lives in Asia and overshadowed the COVID-19 pandemic, with most countries easing or completely lifting the tough restrictions of the previous two years.