Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 152, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 1, 2015 Page: 8 of 30
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INTERNA! IONAL
8A
Thursday, January l, 2015
Denton Record-Chronicle
From beach parties to fireworks
World rings in new year despite turmoil
The Associated Press
After a turbulent year
marred by terrorism woes, Ebo-
la outbreaks and a horrific series
of airline disasters, many could
be forgiven for saying good rid-
dance to 2014 and gratefully
ringing in a new year.
Across the globe, revelers
converged on the beaches of
Brazil, the shores of Sydney har-
bor and New York’s Times
Square to welcome 2015. A look
at how the world is celebrating:
Trying to celebrate
in Baghdad
In Iraq’s war-scarred capital,
Baghdad authorities ordered a
one-off lifting of the overnight
curfew in force for more than a
decade to allow the city’s revelers
to stay out late on the streets.
Traffic was unusually heavy
starting shortly after sunset and
authorities closed commercial
streets to vehicles in the city’s
center as a precaution against
possible suicide bombings by
militants of the Islamic State
terrorist group.
First up: Down Under
Sydney takes pride in being
one of the first major cities in the
world to welcome each new
year, and it greeted 2015 in its
trademark glittery fashion —
with a tropical-style fireworks
display featuring shimmering
gold and silver palm tree pyro-
technic effects.
More than 1.5 million revel-
ers crowded along the shores of
the city’s harbor in warm sum-
mer weather to watch the vivid
eruption of light over the Har-
bour Bridge, Opera House and
other points.
At midnight, the crowd
cheered as a 12-minute firework
display was launched. A tribute
to two hostages killed in the De-
cember siege inside a downtown
cafe was displayed on the pylons
of the Harbour Bridge during
the main fireworks display.
No splashy parties for
Indian ministers
Indian Prime Minister Na-
rendra Modi and his Cabinet
worked both Wednesday and to-
day in keeping with his promise
of “good governance.” Govern-
ment ministers canceled travel
and celebration plans and were
asked to stay away from splashy
parties and celebrations.
Big Ben bongs in the new
In London, hundreds of
thousands of people were expec-
ted to line the River Thames for
a fireworks display timed to the
midnight bongs of Big Ben, Par-
liament’s famous bell.
Revelers in the Scottish cap-
ital, Edinburgh, will flood the
streets for Hogmanay, one of
Europe’s biggest year-end cele-
brations. The three-day festival
— derived from Viking celebra-
tions of the winter solstice — be-
gan Tuesday with atorch-lit pro-
cession of 35,000 people, in-
cluding marching bands and
troupes in full Viking regalia,
and a fireworks display atop Cal-
ton Hill.
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A woman prays during New Year celebrations at Jogye Bud-
dhist temple in Seoul, South Korea.
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from Guinness World Records
monitored the preparations. Last
year, Dubai won the title for the
world’s largest firework display,
according to Guinness.
Prayers in Indonesia
The loss of AirAsia Flight
8501 and a deadly landslide in
Central Java muted celebrations
in Indonesia. In the capital, the
city conducted prayers for the
victims of the tragedies, in addi-
tion to the annual Jakarta Night
Festival.
Other Indonesian cities opt-
ed to cancel or tone down their
celebrations. Surabaya’s Mayor
Tri Rismaharini banned any
kind of New Year entertainment
in Indonesia’s second-largest
city, where most of the 162 peo-
ple on the AirAsia flight that
crashed Sunday were from.
Hundreds of Surabaya resi-
dents, including young children,
lit candles and braved a drizzle
at a park to observe a minute of
silence for crash victims.
“Let us pray for the grieving
families of those on board the
plane. Let us pray this will be the
last tragedy for Surabaya,” Ris-
maharini told the crowd.
crease in petty crime and van-
dalism. In the city’s Hillbrow
district there has been a strange,
and dangerous, tradition of
throwing unwanted items, like
furniture and even stoves and
refrigerators, out of high-rise
apartments. To try to make the
holiday safer in the inner city,
the Joburg Carnival was
launched three years ago.
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Putin hails Crimea
annexation
Russian President Vladimir
Putin used his New Year’s
speech to hail his nation’s annex-
ation of Ukraine’s Crimea Pen-
insula. He said Crimea’s “return
home” will “forever remain a
landmark in the national histo-
t’
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Watching the ball —
or whatever — drop
New York dropped its Water-
ford crystal ball at midnight, in a
tradition being increasingly cop-
ied across the United States with
twists celebrating local icons.
Among the items being
dropped: a big chili in Las Cru-
ces, New Mexico; a replica
peach in Atlanta; a musical note
in Nashville, Tennessee; a large
pine cone in Flagstaff, Arizona;
an oversized spurred cowboy
boot in Prescott, Arizona; a 600-
pound walleye made of wood
and fiberglass in Port Clinton,
Ohio; an 80-pound wedge of
cheese in Plymouth, Wisconsin;
and in Escanaba, in Michigan’s
Upper Peninsula, a replica of a
pasty — a baked pastry filled
with meat and potatoes.
Police protests in U.S.
Amid the celebration, some
U.S. cities are on alert for New
Year’s Eve protests related to re-
cent police killings of unarmed
black men.
Boston’s mayor and police
commissioner urged activists to
hold off on a planned late after-
noon “die-in.”
No plans for major protests
were announced in New York,
where the police department is
still mourning two officers shot
to death in a patrol car. But secu-
rity will be tight, with more per-
sonnel than usual.
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At the Copa... Copacabana
More than 1 million people
are expected to flock to the gold-
en sands of Rio de Janeiro’s Co-
pacabana beach, where two doz-
en artists and DJs will perform
on three stages. Tourists and lo-
cals routinely party until dawn
on the beach, staying awake to
watch the tropical sun rise for
the first time in 2015.
A massive fireworks display
that’s blasted from boats on the
Atlantic Ocean will light the sky
over the crowd, which tradition-
ally dresses in all white, a Brazil-
ian tradition to bring purifica-
tion and a peaceful year. Anoth-
er tradition calls for partygoers
to enter the sea up to their knees
and jump over seven waves
shortly after the New Year be-
gins, for luck.
Breaking a bright
record in Dubai
The Gulf Arab emirate of Du-
bai was aiming to break the
world record for the largest
LED-illuminated facade.
Some 70,000 LED panels
wrapped around the world’s tall-
est building, the Buij Khalifa,
which draws throngs of thou-
sands of spectators every New
Year’s Eve for an impressive fire-
works display.
Emaar Properties said a team
it
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,
Wishing Vou a Happn
Jiealthy 2015.
With Warm Wishes from our
family to yours
Gun-happy police warned
Philippines acting National
Police Chief Leonardo Espina
warned that police who fire their
guns during normally raucous
celebrations will lose their jobs.
Thunderous fireworks and gun-
fire normally leave communities
shrouded in smog and gun
smoke every year and result in
hundreds of injuries and even
deaths. Since the New Year cele-
bration began Dec. 21 more than
160 people have been injured.
In the southern Philippines,
abomb exploded at the entrance
of a town market packed with
New Year’s Eve shoppers, killing
four people and wounding at
least 30 others. There were no
immediate suspects, but Mus-
lim rebels have been blamed for
similar attacks in the region.
Tossing refrigerators
out the window?
In South Africa’s largest city,
Johannesburg, New Year’s Eve
has historically brought an in-
ife^erry funeral directors
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2025 W. University • Denton, Texas
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 152, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 1, 2015, newspaper, January 1, 2015; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1124953/m1/8/: accessed June 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .