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Democracy in Burma, corruption in China, civil war in Syria, a massacre in the US, a show trial in Russia - who were the faces behind the news this year?

From Aung San Suu Kyi getting a seat in the Burmese parliament to the obscure Asian pop star notching up one billion hits on YouTube, and from one man's crude propaganda film sparking riots throughout the Muslim world to Britain's best-loved royal, a dozen of the most important people of the year have been pulled together by reporter Umberto Bacchi and IBTimes UK.

Here are the 12 men and women who set the news agenda for 2012 out of the hundreds of names and faces who hit the headlines:

Follow the links below to read the IBTimes UK picks of the year, in:-

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