Dubai: The year 2014 witnessed many events that caught the world’s collective attention, from the mysterious disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines jetliner in March to the recent massacre of 150 students and teachers in a Peshawar school.

Gulf News asked UAE residents which news stories of 2014 were still fresh in their memory.

“The Peshawar killings on December 16 were the most shocking for me. It was a catastrophe,” said Vasanti Sundaran, who is from India. “It was a completely unforgivable act by the Taliban. The attack marks a tipping point for the world.”

Sundaran said the attack prompted her to question the efficacy of world powers. “When events lead up to an attack targeting schoolchildren, you start questioning where all the dialogue between the powers-to-be is going. The attacks mark the failure of the government machine. These ‘decision-makers’ must be held accountable. Perhaps it is time for people to take matters into their own hands.”

Lebanese-national Rawan Salam, an associate at a Dubai-based PR firm, said the most tragic news of 2014 was of the 19-month-old baby who suffocated after being left unattended in a parked car in Abu Dhabi on July 10. “It was horrible to imagine that baby suffering from the heat to the point of suffocation,” she said.

“I don’t know how any parent could neglect their child like that. It is only common sense not to let your child alone in a parked car under the sun. It was a tragic event.”

The recent squabble between North Korea and Sony Pictures Entertainment over the movie The Interview was an object of amusement for Syrian engineer Abdul Messih Ineni. “It was absurd how North Korea hacked the computer networks of Sony,” he said.

“It seemed like a child throwing a tantrum. I suppose Sony had no choice but to pull the movie’s release from theatres as North Korea had threatened to take action. However, I read that cinemas played the Team America in its stead.”

Team America: World Police is a 2004 satirical comedy film by the creators of Southpark, which features North Korea’s former supreme leader, Kim Jong-il, as its antagonist. The movie The Interview, starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, satirises Kim Jong-il’s son and current supreme leader, Kin Jong-un.

Lory B, a management major from Armenia at the American University of Sharjah, said the murder of American kindergarten teacher, Ibolya Ryan, at Al Reem Island shopping mall in Abu Dhabi was the most terrifying piece of news this year.

“We are always under the impression that malls are safe,” she said. “The attack was senselessly cruel and sordid. In November 2014, there were more than 5,000 victims to terrorist attacks around the world. These attacks don’t send out any message but of hate. Terrorism has neither religion nor homeland, even if it is perpetuated under their pretexts.”

Mohammad Mazen, a Syrian accountant for a Dubai-based bank, said the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines’ flight 370 on March 8 has still got him perplexed.

“A multitude of theories surfaced after the flight’s disappearance, but to me, none are satisfying,” he said. “I find it strange that a 200-tonne plane carrying 240 people can simply vanish. What’s stranger is that all those investigations and searches proved fruitless. There’s something fishy about all of it.”