Main PageSydney spectacular leads global New Year celebrations
Sydney - A dazzling display of fireworks lit up Sydney
Harbour on Thursday as Australia's biggest city
welcomed the New Year in spectacular style, defying
terrorist fears days after a deadly siege.
From Hong Kong to London and New York to Rio,
millions around the world will celebrate when the
clock ticks past midnight, ringing in 2015 with
massive fireworks displays, concerts and light
shows.
In Sydney, rocked by deadly drama just before
Christmas when an Iranian-born gunman with a
history of violence and extremism took 17 hostages
in the city's financial hub, tonnes of fireworks
exploded over the harbour watched by a crowd
estimated at more than one million.
"We are celebrating that we are a multicultural,
harmonious community but we will be thinking
about what happened," Lord Mayor Clover Moore
said in reference to the incident in which two
hostages and the gunman died.
In the aftermath of the siege, Prime Minister Tony
Abbott said security agencies had picked up a
heightened level of "terrorist chatter" and warned
that "the terror threat remains high and... at this
level, an attack is likely".
But the fireworks display went ahead without
incident.
Brilliant bursts of colour lit up the harbour in
spectacular fashion in the midnight showpiece, with
fireworks cascading off the Harbour Bridge,
shooting off the Opera House and streaming across
the sky in one of the world's first major celebrations
to ring in 2015.
- Remembrance for lost AirAsia flight -
Across Asia, millions will be partying, with Hong
Kong's dazzling skyline along Victoria Harbour set to
light up during an eight-minute pyrotechnic display.
In China, Beijing's bid to stage the 2022 Winter
Olympics was to be the theme of celebrations.
Concert pianist Lang Lang will be the star performer
at an extravaganza at Olympic Park.
The Chinese capital has held New Year countdowns
at the historic Temple of Heaven since 2011, but has
moved the event to the site of the 2008 summer
games to raise the profile of its winter Olympics bid.
In Taiwan the landmark skyscraper Taipei 101 will be
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. The huge shrine
expects three million visitors in the first three days
of the new year.
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 was holding a candlelight
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 will be 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.
Dubai has promised to dazzle again with a
pyrotechnic and lights show at Burj Khalifa, the
world's tallest tower.
In Paris, the Champs-Elysees will be 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 will be
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 will descend on
Madrid's Puerta del Sol while in Barcelona a massive
fireworks display will be held.
London stages New Year's Eve fireworks along the
Thames and Edinburgh will be holding its traditional
Hogmanay street party.
Marking 2015 on Copacabana beach in Rio de
Janeiro, more than two million people are expected
to attend a huge fireworks show that will open
celebrations marking 450 years since the founding of
the city.
And in New York about one million revellers are
expected to descend on Times Square to watch the
New Year's Eve Ball Drop.
Harbour on Thursday as Australia's biggest city
welcomed the New Year in spectacular style, defying
terrorist fears days after a deadly siege.
From Hong Kong to London and New York to Rio,
millions around the world will celebrate when the
clock ticks past midnight, ringing in 2015 with
massive fireworks displays, concerts and light
shows.
In Sydney, rocked by deadly drama just before
Christmas when an Iranian-born gunman with a
history of violence and extremism took 17 hostages
in the city's financial hub, tonnes of fireworks
exploded over the harbour watched by a crowd
estimated at more than one million.
"We are celebrating that we are a multicultural,
harmonious community but we will be thinking
about what happened," Lord Mayor Clover Moore
said in reference to the incident in which two
hostages and the gunman died.
In the aftermath of the siege, Prime Minister Tony
Abbott said security agencies had picked up a
heightened level of "terrorist chatter" and warned
that "the terror threat remains high and... at this
level, an attack is likely".
But the fireworks display went ahead without
incident.
Brilliant bursts of colour lit up the harbour in
spectacular fashion in the midnight showpiece, with
fireworks cascading off the Harbour Bridge,
shooting off the Opera House and streaming across
the sky in one of the world's first major celebrations
to ring in 2015.
- Remembrance for lost AirAsia flight -
Across Asia, millions will be partying, with Hong
Kong's dazzling skyline along Victoria Harbour set to
light up during an eight-minute pyrotechnic display.
In China, Beijing's bid to stage the 2022 Winter
Olympics was to be the theme of celebrations.
Concert pianist Lang Lang will be the star performer
at an extravaganza at Olympic Park.
The Chinese capital has held New Year countdowns
at the historic Temple of Heaven since 2011, but has
moved the event to the site of the 2008 summer
games to raise the profile of its winter Olympics bid.
In Taiwan the landmark skyscraper Taipei 101 will be
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. The huge shrine
expects three million visitors in the first three days
of the new year.
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 was holding a candlelight
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 will be 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.
Dubai has promised to dazzle again with a
pyrotechnic and lights show at Burj Khalifa, the
world's tallest tower.
In Paris, the Champs-Elysees will be 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 will be
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 will descend on
Madrid's Puerta del Sol while in Barcelona a massive
fireworks display will be held.
London stages New Year's Eve fireworks along the
Thames and Edinburgh will be holding its traditional
Hogmanay street party.
Marking 2015 on Copacabana beach in Rio de
Janeiro, more than two million people are expected
to attend a huge fireworks show that will open
celebrations marking 450 years since the founding of
the city.
And in New York about one million revellers are
expected to descend on Times Square to watch the
New Year's Eve Ball Drop.
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