Washington, Dec 5 (IANS)

Time magazine has listed "India's Rape Epidemic", about the nationwide uproar over a number of rape incidents, especially following a shocking gang rape in Delhi, as the ninth top world news story of 2013.

Mass protests at the time over the shocking gang rape of a woman in a bus in Delhi at the end of 2012, the influential US news magazine noted "demanded greater protection for women and swift justice.

"The trial and sentencing of the culprits-four were given the death penalty-of the six suspects lasted through September," it recalled.

"Subsequent incidents, including the rape of another 23-year-old girl in Mumbai, also drew widespread attention nationally and abroad, and the uproar has shone a necessary spotlight on India's notoriously patriarchal society."

"It has also placed renewed scrutiny on the state of women's rights in the developing world where more than 2 million girls give birth before the age of 14," Time said.

"Bangladesh's Factory Disaster" - "the worst industrial disaster in recent memory, killing over 1,100 workers" - about the April 24 collapse of the Rana Plaza building in the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, is listed as the seventh top world news story.

The top three slots are taken by "Syria's Civil War - and the War That Didn't Happen"; "Iran's New Chapter" and "The End of Egypt's Revolution?"