Happy new years from patpong to Iraq

[WorldFun]

"From New York to Sydney to Bucharest, fireworks welcome New Year

 

NEW YORK (AP) - More than 1 million revelers in Times Square greeted 2007 with cheers, kisses and a whopping 3.5 tons of confetti at the city's massive New Year's Eve party.

 

It was a scene repeated, with some variations, around the globe as millions of others cheered impressive fireworks celebrations while others saw 2006 capped with bombings and death.

 

The famously flashy New Year's Eve ball dropped down a flagpole to a countdown chorus led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.S. servicemen and women. Longtime host Dick Clark ticked off the final 10 seconds from a television studio.

 

Partygoers from all over the world poured into the area hours before the clock struck 12 to hold prime viewing spots.

 

Police, providing security for the huge crowd, said everything went according to plan. Spectators passed through police checkpoints, no big bags or backpacks were permitted and bomb-sniffing dogs roamed the crowd.

 

Jurie Smith and his family traveled from Johannesburg, South Africa, for the event. They waited nearly 12 hours to see the ball drop.

 

"This is the best place in the world to ring in the new year,'' he said. "The spirit of the place is amazing. I feel so alive being here.''

 

"This is the center of the universe,'' said Raffael Dalvise, who lives outside Venice, Italy. "There is no other place to be.''

 

Across the globe, the countdown to the New Year was marked, in parts, with a combination of joy, tears, prayers and hopes.

 

In Rio de Janeiro, nearly 21,000 police officers fanned out across the Brazilian city, many patrolling impoverished slums ruled by gangs, to guarantee the safety of tourists and revelers at a huge New Year's Eve bash on the famed Copacabana beach. The show of force comes after gang attacks left 19 dead last week in Rio.

 

In Sydney, fireworks exploded over Harbor Bridge as a million onlookers celebrated the New Year. The display was to celebrate the iconic bridge's 75th anniversary.

 

Hundreds of thousands of others cheered in London as Big Ben rang in 2007. The chimes were relayed by sound systems along the River Thames and the onlookers lined its banks near the Houses of Parliament to watch a light show countdown projected onto the 443-foot (135 meter) London Eye Ferris wheel. The countdown was followed by a 10-minute fireworks display, "big enough and loud enough to be seen ... all over the capital,'' Mayor Ken Livingstone said.

 

In India, police arrested two suspected Islamic militants about 1 kilometer (half a mile) from the site of New Delhi's main public New Year's Eve celebrations, a report cited police as saying.

 

Pope Benedict XVI prayed at a New Year's Eve service at the Vatican City in Rome that 2007 would bring the world "peace, comfort, justice.''

 

In Thailand, city officials canceled Bangkok's main New Year's Eve celebration Sunday after a series of bombs killed two people and wounded more than 30. Thousands of revelers who had gathered at the Central World Plaza shopping mall complex for the event were sent home, officials said. But the celebration continued for hundreds of other people in Bangkok's Patpong Road red light district.

 

In Romania and Bulgaria, midnight marked a historic milestone, with the two countries becoming the newest members of the European Union. Fireworks thundered through the sky in the Romanian and Bulgarian capitals, which were decorated with the EU's blue-and-gold flags.

 

"Welcome to the EU,'' EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told a crowd of tens of thousands at a celebration in Bucharest, where he was joined on stage by Romania's president and European foreign ministers from Germany, Denmark, Austria and Hungary. Officials were flying later Monday to Sofia for celebrations there.

 

Bad weather dampened celebrations in other parts of Europe.

 

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, an outdoor concert that was to feature soul singer Beverley Knight and rock band The Thrills was called off due to the threat of gale-force winds.

 

Glasgow officials said high winds and rain had forced them to cancel traditional Hogmanay New Year's celebrations in the Scottish city.

 

No official celebrations were planned in Paris, but thousands were expected to congregate around the city's most famous avenue, the Champs-Elysees, to welcome 2007.

 

In the Philippines _ where many believe noisy New Year celebrations drive away evil and misfortune _ police threatened to arrest anyone setting off oversized firecrackers.

 

Despite the warning, 284 people were injured by firecrackers and celebratory gunfire in the two weeks before New Year's Day, a 75 percent rise from last year, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said. "I have campaigned every day against firecrackers,'' Duque said. "But this has become a deeply rooted part of our culture.''

 

In Japan, thousands climbed mountains, some scaling famed Mount Fuji, to greet the first dawn of the year. Police expected crowds at the summits to reach 15,000.

 

Many Japanese _ ranging from families with children to elderly couples _ usually start climbing at night so they can reach the top in time for sunrise.

 

Police anticipated 95 million visitors to the country's major Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines over the first three days of the new year, as people offer prayers for peace, health and prosperity in one of the few religious rites in which most Japanese regularly take part.

 

In Iraq, New Year's eve was another day marked by death.

 

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was buried early Sunday, a day after he was hanged. Hundreds of his clansmen and supporters visited his burial place, which will likely become a shrine to the fallen leader. And, as predictions of another wave of violence in the war-ravaged country continued, the U.S. military announced the death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq, raising to 3,000 the American death toll in the country since the war began.

 

In his New Year's greeting, U.S. President George W. Bush noted the continuing violence in Iraq.

 

"Last year, America continued its mission to fight and win the war on terror and promote liberty as an alternative to tyranny and despair,'' Bush said in the statement wishing Americans a happy new year.

 

"In the New Year, we will remain on the offensive against the enemies of freedom, advance the security of our country, and work toward a free and unified Iraq.'' - AP"

[Neo]

Kind of amazes me what happened in Thailand is a mere footnote buried 15 paragraphs down in the story.

 

[WorldFun]

If you feel what happened in bkk matters that much to the general global community you're fooling yourself

Don't forget saddam got hanged & buried & all the other worthy global events!