News Digest

World welcomes 2015 with beach parties, fireworks and prayer

After a turbulent year marred by terror woes, Ebola outbreaks and a horrific series of airline disasters, many could be forgiven for saying good riddance to 2014 and gratefully ringing in a new year. More than 1.5 million revellers crowded along the shores of Sydney’s famed harbour to watch the vivid eruption of light over the Harbour Bridge, Opera House and other points along the water. Three hours before midnight, a 9-minute firework display was launched from the bridge deck and barges. In Indonesia, where the loss of AirAsia Flight 8501 and a deadly landslide in Central Java muted celebration plans, Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said the city would conduct prayers for the victims of the tragedies as well as host the annual Jakarta Night Festival.

Let us pray for the grieving families of those on board the plane. Let us pray this will be the last tragedy for Surabaya.

Mayor Tri Rismaharini told a crowd in Surabaya, Indonesia

Beijing counted down the New Year at an event in the Olympic Park designed to highlight the capital’s bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. At midnight in Japan, temple bells struck 108 times, the number of evils, as defined by Buddhism. In London, hundreds of thousands of people were expected to line the River Thames for a fireworks display timed to the midnight bongs of Big Ben, Parliament’s famous bell. More than 1 million people were expected to flock to the sands of Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach, where two dozen artists and DJs will perform on three stages. New York will drop its traditional Waterford crystal ball at midnight, while one of the last celebrations — in Las Vegas — will be wrapping up warmly under the threat of snow. Organizers of the fireworks display say the show will go on, with or without the white stuff. And the last major Canadian city to celebrate, Vancouver, does so this year without a downtown large-scale fireworks display after a lack of funding cancelled the otherwise annual celebration in the Pacific northwest city; however, Vancouver’s traditional Polar Bear Swim is still a go for New Year’s Day afternoon, with more than 2.500 expected to take the plunge.