Sydney spectacle kicks off 2014 party
In Australia, fireworks sprayed from the sails of the Sydney Opera House and the city’s harbour bridge at midnight. Revellers in Dubai saw in the new year with what was supposed to be the world’s largest fireworks show.
In Ukraine, anti-government protesters hoped to set their own record for the most people to sing a national anthem at the same time.
Revellers heading to New York City’s Times Square could expect the annual ball drop but no mayor this year. The new year was rung in by US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor instead.
Closer to the edge of the International Dateline, New Zealand bid farewell to 2013 with fireworks erupting from Auckland’s Sky Tower as cheering crowds danced in the streets of the South Pacific island nation’s largest city.
Known for glitz, glamour, and over-the-top achievements like the world’s tallest tower, Dubai hoped to break another record by creating the largest fireworks show ever.
Organisers planned to light up the city’s coastline with a flying falcon made out of fireworks that moved across a massive man-made palm-shaped island alongside a countdown in fireworks.
In Sydney, organisers had expected to set off seven metric tonnes of pyrotechnics in 12 seconds. The estimate appeared accurate. “It filled up the whole sky,” said Mona Rucek, a 28-year-old from Munich, Germany.
In Tokyo, five priests at the Zojoji temple used ropes to swing a wooden pole against a large bell, sounding the first of 108 gongs to mark the new year.
Simultaneously, “2014” lit up in white lights on the modern Tokyo Tower in the background.
Both Japanese and tourists jammed the temple grounds for the traditional ceremony. Suburban resident Juji Muto said he was curious to hear how the bell sounded. At his age, the 75-year-old pensioner said he wished, as every year, for good health in the new year.
China planned light shows at part of the Great Wall near Beijing and at the Bund waterfront, Shanghai. The city of Wuhan in central Hubei province called off its fireworks show and banned fireworks downtown to avoid worsening its smog.
Pope Francis used his year-end prayer service of thanksgiving to urge people to ask themselves: Did they spend 2013 to further their own interests or to help others?
In his homily, the pontiff asked people to reflect if they used 2013 to make the places where they live more live-able and welcoming. Citing Rome as an example, Francis said the city is full of tourists, but also refugees.
Britain welcome 2014 with a mixture of futuristic fireworks, torch-lit tradition, and worries about immigration.
At Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, hundreds of thousands assembled for what organisers said was one of the world’s biggest outdoors New Year’s Eve parties, a traditional German gathering featuring jelly doughnuts and sparkling wine.
More than 260 people had been injured by firecracker blasts and celebratory gunfire in the Philippines ahead of the celebrations.
Department of Health spokesman Dr Eric Tayag said he expected the number of injuries to rise sharply as Filipinos commemorated the end of a year marked by tragic disasters, including a Nov 8 typhoon that left more than 6,100 dead and nearly 1,800 missing.
In Hong Kong, pyrotechnics were fired near the Kowloon peninsula and from the tops of seven skyscrapers. A British colonial-era canon was fired at midnight in a tradition dating from the end of the Second World War.
New Year’s celebrations in Indonesia were widespread except in the city of Banda Aceh where Islamic clerics prohibit Muslims from celebrating New Year’s Eve.
A group of people on board a research ship trapped in Antarctic ice for a week have been keeping their spirits up by filming themselves celebrating the New Year and posting them on the internet.
In one, the lively bunch squeeze together in a small tent to perform a humorous song about their plight, while in a second they sing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ as they stamp down the snow near the ship in preparation for the arrival of a rescue helicopter.
Three icebreakers have now failed to reach the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which has been stuck since Christmas Eve with 74 scientists, tourists and crew on board.
It was hoped the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis would be able to get through the thick ice and allow them to continue on their way but fierce winds and snow forced it to retreat to open water yesterday after it came within 12 miles of the stranded ship.
A helicopter on board a Chinese icebreaker, the Snow Dragon, will now be used to collect the passengers. The Snow Dragon, which is waiting with the Aurora at the edge of the ice pack, was also unable to crack through the ice, as was France’s L’Astrolabe.
In the video filmed in the tent, a male member of the group introduces them as the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE), adding that they are “just about to enter 2014”.
With plenty of laughing they then sing their song, which begins: “We’re the AAE who have travelled far, having fun doing science in Antarctica.
“Lots of snow and lots of ice, lots of penguins which are very, very nice.
“Really good food and company, but a bloody great shame we are still stuck here.”
The three-minute film ends with them calling out “happy New Year”.
In the second video, which they also posted on YouTube, a larger group are filmed outside flattening the snow outside and singing ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
Expedition leader Professor Chris Turney tells the camera: “It’s the 31st of December at 3pm. We’ve just learnt the Aurora can’t reach us so we’re just preparing the helipad by getting the team to stomp down on this snow and ice so the Chinese helicopter from Snow Dragon can reach us — when the weather improves.”
When conditions allow it they will be flown back to the Snow Dragon in groups of 12, and then transferred by barge to the Aurora. All 52 passengers will be evacuated, but the crew on the Akademik Shokalskiy will stay behind and wait for the ice to break up naturally, expedition spokesman Alvin Stone said.
The vessel, which left New Zealand on Nov 28, got stuck after a blizzard pushed the sea ice around the ship, freezing it in place about 1,700 miles south of Hobart in Tasmania.
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