NEW YORK, LONDON – Around the world have welcomed the first day of the new year with parades, celebrations and sports events held amid tight security for fear of terrorist attacks.
Traditional New Year’s Day parades and college football playoff games took place across the United States without incident. At the colorful Tournament of Roses parade in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, crowds also cheered a fly-over by U.S. military stealth bombers.
On the east coast, rain was the culprit forcing the postponement, until Saturday, of Philadelphia’s famous Mummers Parade.
Earlier, nearly one million people rang in the new year in a huge celebration in New York’s Times Square. Police welded manholes shut, removed mailboxes and stationed sharpshooters on roofs. The U.S. Coast Guard closed New York harbor to pleasure boats after authorities received a threat of possible terror attacks.
In Britain, London’s annual parade went on despite rain, as more than 10,000 performers walked the route from Parliament to Piccadilly, with thousands more watching. Scotland Yard said two-thousand police officers patrolled the city. At the Vatican, Pope John Paul appealed for world peace in his first message of 2003. Speaking on the Roman Catholic Church’s World Peace Day at Saint Peter’s Basilica, the pope said conflicts, such as that in the Middle East, must be solved through peaceful means.
In the southern Philippines, a grenade attack killed at least 10 people late Tuesday on the island of Mindanao.
Tragedy also struck in Mexico’s port city of Veracruz, when an explosion and fire in a street market packed with fireworks killed dozens of people. (voa)
