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Festivities marked the beginning of the new year.

World rings in New Year with hope

LONDON, January 1, 2015

The world welcomed 2015, hoping it would turn out to be a better year than the one they were ringing out.

Revelers converged on the beaches of Brazil, the shores of Sydney Harbour and New York's Times Square to see off a turbulent year marred by terror woes, Ebola outbreaks and a horrific series of airline disasters, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

Many could even be forgiven for saying good riddance to 2014.

Europe and the US joined the party after Australia's biggest city kicked off the global celebrations with a massive fireworks display that lit up Sydney Harbour, defying terrorist fears days after a deadly siege.

Tonnes of fireworks exploded over the harbour, watched by a crowd estimated at over one million.

Red and green fireworks lit up the sky over St Basil's Cathedral in the Russian capital after Dubai had laid on a similarly impressive show.

But in China, celebrations in the Bund area of Shanghai went awry as state media reported a 'stampede' that saw people taken to hospital.

Official news agency Xinhua said 35 people were killed.

Dubai celebrated the New Year with a light and sound extravaganza at the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower.

The 828m tower was lit up with different-coloured panels as the clock counted down to 2015.

In Hong Kong, hundreds of thousands of people crowded the city's promenades to watch the eight-minute pyrotechnic display after a year which had seen busy thoroughfares paralysed by pro-democracy protests in the final months of 2014.

'I think a more peaceful year would be good for everybody,' said Louis Ho, 65. Students on one promenade handed out free hugs.

'We are celebrating that we are a multicultural, harmonious community but we will be thinking about what happened,' Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore said in reference to the drama when an Iranian-born gunman took 17 hostages in a cafe. Two hostages and the gunman died.

Russia enters 2015 locked in its bitterest standoff with the West since the Cold War, sparked by Moscow's annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea.

President Vladimir Putin, who first came to power on New Year's Eve 1999, sent a greeting to US counterpart Barack Obama, saying the two countries share mutual responsibility to ensure world peace.

But in a separate message to Russians, he said the people of Crimea had 'firmly decided to go back home'.

In Taiwan the landmark skyscraper Taipei 101 was at the centre of celebrations, with performances by pop singers and a firework display at midnight expected to attract hundreds of thousands.

And in Japan, the Meiji Jingu shrine in Tokyo brought out stocks of lucky charms and set up large offertory boxes as it prepared to welcome a huge wave of worshippers overnight.

Hundreds of revellers gathered around a popular shopping arcade in central Delhi to greet the New Year, braving unusually chilly weather. Pubs and eateries were festooned with fairy lights and brightly coloured balloons.

But in Malaysia, a sombre mood prevailed after the crash of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 carrying 162 people in Indonesia and flooding in the country's northeast which has displaced almost 250,000 people.

Year-end countdown celebrations have been cancelled, with many companies instead launching fundraising campaigns for flood victims.

In Indonesia, Surabaya held a candlelit vigil in the hours leading up till midnight to remember the people on the plane which departed that city on Sunday.

In Afghanistan, the last French troops in the country held a ceremony in Kabul to mark the end of their deployment after Nato combat operations closed down as a new 'train and support' mission takes over.

The end of another era was remembered in Berlin with Baywatch star David Hasselhoff joining a huge open air concert in front of the Brandenburg Gate, where he famously sang for freedom after the Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago.

In Paris, the Champs-Elysees was reserved for pedestrians to let them watch a visual spectacle projected onto the Arc de Triomphe 15 minutes before the start of the new year.

The ticking of the clock past midnight was significant for Lithuania as it adopts the euro. Another Baltic state, Latvia, takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union, putting it on the front line of negotiations with neighbouring Russia over the crisis in Ukraine.

In Spain, millions of revellers descended on Madrid's Puerta del Sol while in Barcelona a massive fireworks display was held. London staged New Year's Eve fireworks along the Thames and Edinburgh held its traditional Hogmanay street party.

Marking 2015 on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, more than 2m people attended a huge fireworks show that opened celebrations marking 450 years since the founding of the city.

And in New York more than 1m revelers descended on Times Square to watch the New Year's Eve Ball Drop. – TradeArabia News Service




Tags: London | New Year | 2014 | 2015 |

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