|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tight security, celebrations greet 2003
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Nearly one million people rang in 2003 in a huge celebration in New York's Times Square, cheering and singing as the famous crystal ball dropped to count down the final seconds of 2002. It was the 99th annual New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square, and security was tight in the post-9/11 era. Plainclothes police officers were scattered throughout the crowd and manhole covers in the streets had been welded shut. Security also was beefed up in New York Harbor after authorities received a threat of a maritime attack, but officials downplayed the threat, saying it had a "very low level of credibility." "We have received some uncorroborated, unsubstantiated information of suspect credibility of a potential maritime attack," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the Office of Homeland Security. "It was for this time period, but it did not say tonight. I don't want to get any more specific than that." New York officials also downplayed the threat and expressed more enthusiasm than apprehension. "There is no credible threat to our security here," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, predicting a wonderful and safe evening in the city. The annual New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square began in 1904, when the owners of One Times Square began holding rooftop parties with fireworks to celebrate the holiday, according to a Web site detailing the annual party. The huge, glittering crystal ball that descends the flagpole on top of the One Times Square building to count down to midnight was built by Waterford Crystal and weighs about 1,070 pounds, according to an Internet fact sheet about the orb. The sphere is covered with 504 crystal triangles and 168 light bulbs and measures about six feet in diameter. There are 432 light bulbs of different colors and 96 high intensity strobe lights inside the ball, and 90 rotating pyramid mirrors on the outside of the sphere reflect light in all directions.
Actor Christopher Reeve set the countdown ball in motion this year. Rough start in parts of the worldBut extra security did not mean 2003 was arriving peacefully around the world. An illegal fireworks shop caught fire New Year's Eve in the Mexican port city of Veracruz, setting off a barrage and inferno that killed 28 people and injured 35 others, a civil defense official said. (Full story) Hours before midnight in the Philippines, a grenade tossed into a fireworks stand killed six people and injured 32 others in the city of Tacurong in Sultan Kudarat province, police said. Authorities blamed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. (Full story) Caution amid the celebrationsAs revelers partied, police were watching for five men the FBI wants for questioning. U.S. officials said Tuesday the men crossed into upstate New York from Canada with forged British passports, government sources said Tuesday. (Full story) A law enforcement source told CNN that authorities conducted raids Monday night at six locations in Brooklyn, Queens, and New Haven, Connecticut, taking a number of people in for questioning. Members of the FBI's and the NYPD's Joint Terrorism Task Force conducted the sweeps. Authorities took an undisclosed number of people in for questioning, seeking information about 19 people wanted for recently entering the United States illegally, the source said. Those questioned were from Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries, the source said. All of them were released by Tuesday. Talent show and food toss
At Camp New York in Kuwait, the sounds of gospel, rap, and acoustic rock resounded beneath the dusty tent as U.S. Army troops held a talent show, competing for four gift certificates from the camp store. Their comrades in the audience raised cans of nonalcoholic beer and wore shiny hats and headbands to celebrate. At Qatar's al-Udeid Air Base about 2,000 U.S. troops, mostly Air Force personnel, celebrated the New Year with a chapel service, a barbecue and an "MRE toss" with packages of military field rations. In Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, fireworks erupted from the 330-meter (1,076-foot) Sky Tower on the stroke of midnight while crowds cheered on the streets below. In Sydney, Australia, the word "Peace" blazed over the harbor at the climax of a 15-minute display watched by hundreds of thousands of people. Later, police closed downtown Sydney to traffic in a massive security clampdown rivaled only by the city's 2000 Olympics. Pacific Rim nations have been on heightened alert since October 12, when bombs tore through two nightclubs on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 192. The victims were mostly Western vacationers and 88 of them were Australians. (Full story) "After ... all this talk about terrorism it is so good that Australians overcame adversity," Sydney Lord Mayor Frank Sartor said after the fireworks, The Associated Press reported. "We went on and celebrated and had a great, great party."
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
