NYT/AP: World Fetes 2007 With Parties, Fireworks

[DeepModem Mom]

World Fetes 2007 With Parties, Fireworks
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 1, 2007


(David Gray/Reuters)
Sydney was one of the world's first major cities to greet 2007. Fireworks showered over the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.

LONDON (AP) -- Revelers rang in the New Year around the globe with fireworks, cheers and kisses, but violence canceled celebrations in Thailand, where a series of nine bomb exploded in Bangkok, killing three people.

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, some 1 million people gathered on the city's famed Copacabana beach to watch 24 tons of fireworks set off, according to local reports. About 21,000 police officers fanned out across the city, which has seen a surge in gang violence since Thursday that has killed 19 people.

In London, Big Ben's chimes were relayed by sound systems along the banks of the River Thames.

Crowds flocked to the banks near the Houses of Parliament to watch a light show countdown projected onto the 443-foot London Eye Ferris wheel, followed by a 10-minute fireworks display ''big enough and loud enough to be seen ... all over the capital,'' Mayor Ken Livingstone said.

New Year's Eve in Iraq was another day marked by death. The U.S. military announced the death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq Sunday, raising to 3,000 the American death toll in the country since the war began....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-New-Year-World.html

[ixion]

1. I had no holiday 'spirit' this year at all...

in fact, I was pretty depressed. It's hard for me to celebrate our continual decline into the banana-republic police state of Jesusland. :-(

[KoKo]

2. Maybe the celebrations are sign that "life goes on" and there's hope

in normalcy...but it's hard for some of us not to feel a little depressed and down given what's going on in Iraq and here with this gang of criminals in charge.

Thought we would be upbeat this year in our house because we finally won back the House and Senate...but until we see change it almost seems things are getting worse with the "Gang" and "MSCorporate Media" not seeming to understand that there's been a change.

Every holiday since stolen election has been hard....but this was the worst in trying to feel good when so much misery and even environmental change is
going on.

But, we have to hope that this is the darkest before the light. That we can still have hope and faith that the worst may be behind us.