Top Stories of 2013

The top stories of 2013 – as viewed on the BBC News website

Edward Snowden’s revelations about secret NSA surveillance were by some distance this year’s most read story, but there was also much else to engage our readers’ attention, from the threat of a global wine shortage to Lostprophets front man Ian Watkins’ guilty plea to depraved child sex offences. We end on a heart-warming note from the US, where the city of San Francisco transformed itself into Gotham City to fulfil leukemia patient Miles Scott’s wish to be Batman for a day – with the help of thousands of volunteers, TV crews and even President Obama himself.