Crowds and erupting fireworks ring in 2014
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Exploding fireworks sprayed from the sails of the Sydney Opera House and the Australian city’s harbor bridge at midnight today as the world ushered in a new year.
More than 1 million people crammed the Sydney Harbor foreshore on a warm summer night to watch the pyrotechnics show that appeared to live up to its billing as the most extravagant of Sydney’s already renowned annual display. Dubai was set to try to create the world’s largest fireworks show to ring in 2014. Revelers heading to New York City’s Times Square could expect the annual ball drop, the hefty police presence but no mayor this year. The new year will instead be rung in by US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Closer to the edge of the International Dateline, New Zealand said farewell to 2013 with fireworks erupting from Auckland’s Sky Tower as cheering revelers danced in the streets of the South Pacific island nation’s largest city.
Dubai is known for glitz, glamor and over-the-top achievements like the world’s tallest tower, and this year it was set to break another record by creating the largest fireworks show ever.
Organizers planned to light up the city’s coastline with a flying falcon made out of fireworks that moves across a massive man-made palm-shaped island alongside a countdown in fireworks. They planned to also create a burst of light out of fireworks to imitate a sunrise and dazzle spectators with a United Arab Emirates flag that could also break records for being the largest ever made out of fireworks.
The six-minute extravaganza included 500,000 fireworks from 400 firing locations, all synchronized by 100 computers from stations across the city, said Barrett Wissman, co-chairman of IMG Artists that is managing the event. Guinness World Record officials will be on hand to measure the scale of the event.
In Australia, fireworks launched from four sails of the Sydney Opera House for the first time in more than a decade. The Sydney Harbor Bridge was also illuminated by fireworks shooting skyward and raining from its decks to the water below.
Organizers had expected 1.6 million people would line the harbor shores to watch 7 metric tons of pyrotechnics explode in 12 seconds. The estimate appeared accurate.
In Tokyo, five priests at the Zozoji temple used ropes to swing a wooden pole against a large bell, sounding the first of 108 gongs to mark the new year. Simultaneously, “2014” lit up in white lights on the modern Tokyo Tower in the background.
Both Japanese and tourists jammed the temple grounds for the traditional ceremony. In Hong Kong, tens of thousands watched the fireworks display over its Victoria Harbor.
In the Philippines, over 260 people had been injured by firecracker blasts and celebratory gunfire ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations.
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