Parties and #fireworks as the world ushers in #new year #2011

Parties and fireworks as the world ushers in new year

 

 

The new year has been welcomed in with glittering fireworks displays in major world cities

Firework displays, parties and other celebrations are taking place around the world to usher in the new year.

US revellers cheered the traditional ball drop in New York's Times Square to mark the start of 2011.
Earlier festivities ranged from the release of thousands of silver balloons in Tokyo, to the first countdown of a western new year in Hanoi, Vietnam.
In Sydney, crowds watched what is hailed as the world's biggest New Year's Eve fireworks display.
Dubai saw a spectacular laser and fireworks show at the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.
Crushing grapes Party-goers in Europe attended new year's events across the continent.

Revellers crowded Hong Kong's Times Square

In London, crowds gathered on the banks of the Thames to watch fireworks. Some were launched from the London Eye big wheel - which is marking its 10th anniversary.
In Spain, crowds also gathered in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square to take part in "Las Uvas" (The Grapes), a tradition in which people eat a grape for each of the 12 chimes of midnight.
As the new year arrived, Estonia became the 17th country to join the euro currency, with Prime Minister Andrus Ansip marking the event by withdrawing euros from a cash point.
Meanwhile in Greece, troubled by an economic crisis, many people spent Thursday queuing to pay road tax on time or qualify for a tax amnesty.
In the Americas, some two million people gathered on Rio de Janeiro Copacabana beach beach for a fireworks and music show, and the country's logo for the 2016 Olympics was unveiled.
In the US, meanwhile, New York's municipal authorities and warmer weather combined to clear the streets following the snowstorm which blanketed the city this week, allowing hundreds of thousands to gather for the famous Times Square ball drop at midnight.
Dragon display It was the tiny Pacific island nation of Kiribati that was the first to welcome in the new year at 1000 GMT.
Celebrations across Asia and Australasia followed, New Zealand - the first major country to see in 2011.
In Hong Kong, hundreds of thousands of people gathered along Victoria Harbour to watch fireworks explode from the roofs of the city's most prominent buildings.
At the Zojoji temple in central Tokyo, Japan, monks chanted as visitors packed in to count down until midnight. Thousands released a mass of silver balloons carrying notes with their hopes for the future.
And in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, fireworks formed the shape of a dragon spiralling up the tallest skyscraper during the country's biggest-ever display - which cost $2m (£1.3m), and marked the beginning of year 100 on the Taiwan calendar.

Sydney was packed as spectators gathered for a massive display of fireworks

In Sydney, about 1.5 million people came out with blankets and camping equipment ahead of the seven-tonne fireworks display above the Harbour Bridge.
Crowds began arriving more than 12 hours before the main display, with new visitors turned away as early as 1500 (0400 GMT).
This year marked the first time Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, officially celebrated a Western-style countdown. In previous years, the city authorities have focused on Tet, the holiday marking the lunar new year, which begins on 3 February.
In the Philippines, safety officials urged caution after firecrackers injured at least 245 people in recent days. According to tradition, many believe noisy celebrations drive away evil and misfortune.
In Burma, however, the military government has banned all fireworks and said severe action would be taken against anyone using them.
Political activist Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest in November, called for the Burmese people "to struggle together with new strengths, new force and new words in the auspicious new year".

 

Australia's Queensland faces 'biblical' flood

 

A senior official has warned of the economic impact of flooding in Queensland, Australia, describing the disaster as one of "biblical proportions".

State Treasurer Andrew Fraser said that on top of recovery costs, the state would receive less income because of damage to the mining sector.
Flood waters are continuing to encroach on Rockhampton, a city of 77,000.
The floods have affected about 200,000, thousands of whom have been evacuated.
An estimated 22 towns have been left isolated or inundated by the rising waters over an area larger than France and Germany.
'Huge cost' There are concerns that damage could cost billions of Australian dollars to repair.

QUEENSLAND

• North-eastern Australian state
• Largely tropical climate
• Area: 1.73 million sq km (668,000 sq mile)
• Coastal regions, including Great Barrier Reef, designated World Heritage Site
• Mining and cattle ranching important inland

Mr Fraser has had to delay a fiscal and economic review in order to account for the costs of the floods.

"In many ways, it is a disaster of biblical proportions," he told journalists in the flood-hit town of Bundaberg.
"The cost to the state will be huge - both in direct costs such as rebuilding roads, and other damaged infrastructure and providing relief payments to families - but also in lost income, while the mining, agriculture and tourism sectors recover," he said.
"Royalty forecasts are likely to be hit with freight lines cut and reports that many mines may not reach full production again for two to three months."
In some areas the waters have been receding, but around Rockhampton they are still rising.
Rockhampton Mayor Brad Carter said about 40% of the city could be affected when the Fitzroy River reaches its expected peak next week.
"We know we have prepared as best we can - most people who are expecting water to inundate their houses have evacuated," he said.
He said others who needed to evacuate would be advised to leave their homes, and those who refused could be forced to leave.
Among the areas already hit by the flooding are Emerald - a town of some 11,000 people - and two smaller towns, Theodore and Condamine, which have been completely evacuated.

 

Egypt car bomb kills seven at Alexandria Coptic church

 

A car bomb explosion outside a church in the north Egyptian city of Alexandria has killed seven people and injured 24, the interior ministry says.

The blast hit people as they left a new year's service at the al-Qidiseen church shortly after midnight.
Sectarian tensions have recently been on the rise in Egypt.
After the explosion, angry Christians clashed with police and local Muslims, reportedly throwing stones and targeting a nearby mosque.
Protesters went into the mosque, throwing books out onto the street, the Associated Press news agency reported.
The mayor of Alexandria, Gen Adel Labib, said on Egyptian TV that there had been recent threats of attacks on churches, though he tried to play down any possible sectarian motive for Saturday's bombing.
Sectarian violence A local priest said the death-toll from the blast would have been much higher had the explosion happened minutes later, after more people had left the service, reports the BBC's Khaled Ezzelarab in Cairo.
After the explosion, Christians were seen chanting beside a burnt-out car in front of the church: "We sacrifice our souls and blood for the Cross."
Christians from the Coptic Orthodox Church make up about 10% of Egypt's predominantly Muslim population.

The rise of political Islam and the failure of the government to address Coptic claims of discrimination have fuelled divisions, analysts say.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has also been conducting a campaign against Christians following the reported conversion to Islam by two Egyptian Christian women in order to divorce their husbands. The group says the women were being held against their will by the Coptic Church.
Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city with a population of about four million, has seen sectarian violence in the past.
In 2006, there were days of clashes between Copts and Muslims after a Copt was stabbed to death during a knife attack on three of the city's churches.