World leaders

World leaders

George Habash, 82; founder of Arab nationalism and architect of infamous airline hijackings in the 1960s and 1970s (Jan. 26)

Suharto, 86; former dictator of Indonesia who ruled ruthlessly for 32 years (Jan. 27)

Dan Shomron, 70; former Israeli military chief who commanded the famed 1976 hostage rescue at Entebbe airport in Uganda (Feb. 26)

Francis Pym, 86; antagonist of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who served as her foreign secretary during the Falklands War (March 7)

Sheik Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, 78; ruler of Kuwait for nine days in 2006 (May 13)

Vo Van Kiet, 85; former Vietnamese prime minister and economic reformer who led the communist nation away from poverty and isolation and backed the normalization of ties with the United States (June 11)

Levy Mwanawasa, 59; Zambian president who denounced the rule of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe (Aug. 19)

Hua Guofeng, 87; Mao Tse-tung’s successor as China’s leader who put the country on the path to progress by removing the Gang of Four (Aug. 20)

Abdel-Halim Abu Ghazala, 78; former defense minister of Egypt and veteran of the Arab-Israeli wars (Sept. 6)

Li Ximing, 82; Communist Party boss in Beijing during the 1989 crackdown on student protests (Nov. 8)

Ibrahim Nasir, 82; first president of an independent Maldives (Nov. 22)

V.P. Singh, 77; former prime minister of India who worked to help the country’s disadvantaged castes by giving them government jobs (Nov. 27)

Leon Febres Cordero, 77; former president of Ecuador (Dec. 15)