- PARIS (AFP) - A blue Eiffel
Tower, snow in New York, war and peace in Africa, killings in the West
Bank and crowds in Asia. The world saw in the New Year with a mixture of
joy and fear.
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- There was no ceasefire in the Middle East Sunday where
a Jewish extremist and his wife were gunned down by Palestinians in the
West Bank. Binyamin Zeev Kahane and his wife Talia were shot dead in their
car and their five daughters injured.
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- Just hours later, an official in Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat's Fatah movement was shot dead by the Israeli army.
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- At the Vatican Pope Jean Paul II hoped that the new millennium
would bring "peace, justice, brotherhood and prosperity to all nations,"
extending a particular appeal to the young, whom he called the hope of
the future.
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- The Pontiff appealed to the faithful on the threshold
of the third millennium to "reflect on the dramas and hopes,the joys
and sufferings, the victories and defeats of the past century and the past
millennium".
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- However elsewhere there was more violence. Seven people
were injured when a homemade bomb exploded in central Istanbul's Taksim
place where thousands were assembled to greet the new year, the Anatolie
news agency reported.
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- Police bomb disposal experts defused a car bomb in the
southern Spanish city of Sevilla early Sunday, the region's police chief
told journalists, attributing the would-be attack to Basque separatists.
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- Two people were killed and 10 others injured, one seriously,
overnight near Naples, southern Italy, in an explosion probably caused
by fireworks, a police source there said.
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- The weather was also a threat to revellers. Freezing
temperatures, snow storms and strong winds lashed parts of Europe Sunday,
killing at least 10 people and disrupting New Year's Eve celebrations,
with Britain and Portugal bracing for more snow and rain.
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- Six died and several others were injured in Spain, with
at least three more fatalities in Britain.
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- The problems did not prevent tens of thousands from gathering
to usher in the new year in cities throughout the world.
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- In New York, with the famed Times Square cleared of several
inches of snow, hundreds of thousands of revelers, locals and visitors
alike, prepared to welcome the New Year despite sub-zero temperatures.
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- Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was to push the crystal button
that lowers the famous ball, decorated with Waterford Crystal triangles,
as the final seconds of the year 2000 ticked away.
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- Meanwhile thousands of Russians thronged Moscow's Red
Square to ring in the New Year to the stirring tones of the new national
anthem, played for the first time on the stroke of midnight.
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- The crowd warmly welcomed the new anthem, a revised version
of the old Soviet-era anthem, but with new post-Communist lyrics.
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- In Berlin, around a million people, according to police,
saw in the new year at the famous Brandenburg Gate, with organisers putting
the figure at 1.5 million.
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- "Welcome 2001," as this year's Berlin festivities
have been designated, began at 6:00 pm (1800 GMT) and were scheduled to
last the night, along the length of the old Berlin Wall, the symbol of
the old east-west European divide.
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- Two thousand police and 500 firemen and first aid staff
were on duty for the festivities. Some 700 dustmen were standing by to
collect an expected 600 tonnes of rubbish.
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- In Paris the Eiffel Tower turned blue, hundreds of thousands
turned out at the Champs-Elysees and 1,000 drummers converged on the Pompidou
Centre.
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- Half a million locals and tourists braved freezing rain
as the famous tower was illuminated by flashing blue lights.
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- In London, up to 80,000 people crowded into Trafalgar
Square to listen to the chimes of Big Ben, the huge clock overlooking parliament,
ring in the new year, police said.
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- But there were no fireworks or official festivities --
instead, as usual, the crowds gathered, waited in the cold and rain, and
began dispersing almost as soon as the last chime had sounded.
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- In Belgrade, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica looked
forward to a "year of clearing up and healing," in his new year
message on state television.
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- He stressed the need to "establish democratic institutions
and preserve and define our state through the constitution," in a
reference to a push for independence by the tiny Yugoslav republic of Montenegro,
which has sought to separate from Belgrade.
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- Revellers also flocked onto the streets across Asia early
Monday to usher in the new year.
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- Beijing's celebrations "reached their climax",
according to the official Xinhua news agency, when 2,001 students scaled
the Great Wall, which was built to defend the nation from intruders in
ancient dynasties.
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- But early Monday, Chinese police violently put down a
demonstration by the banned Falungong spiritual movement, arresting at
least 300 practitioners.
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- Parts of the South Pacific that had witnessed special
celebrations at the dawn of 2000 -- considering that to be the start of
the new century and millennium -- were less exuberant this time round.
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- The event also coincided with Australia's 100th anniversary
-- described by Prime Minister John Howard as the greatest historical celebration
in the nation's short history.
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- In Addis Ababa, Organisation of African Unity Secretary
General Salim Ahmed Salim has expressed confidence the new year will usher
in a fresh beginning for the African continent.
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- "I am looking forward to that new beginning in which
good governance, respect for human rights and a consolidation of the democratization
process will prevail in Africa," he said.
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