A spectacular fireworks display lit up the sky above Dubai, centred on the iconic Burj Khalifa tower. Some police officers were equipped with rifles or radiation detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs.
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Dubai firefighters continue to cool smoldering building
Incredibly no one was killed in the incident at The Address, which lit up the Dubai skyline three hours before midnight. Dennis Mallari had hoped to photograph Dubai’s fireworks display from a balcony of the 302m (990ft) Address skyscraper.
North Korea was expected to mark the New Year with a speech by leader Kim Jong-Un.
Clemson Tigers headed to national title game
The teams went to the locker rooms at halftime with Oklahoma leading 17-16 after Clemson struggled in the red zone. Ridley was brilliant, streaking by defenders on deep throws and outfighting them on jump balls.
Both events went ahead as planned, despite heightened global security following the Paris terror attacks in November.
‘Affluenza’ mom back from Mexico; teen son not
Ethan Couch said his parents had always “yelled at each other a lot”, and he wished that they “wouldn’t put him in the middle”. On Aug. 10, Tonya Couch sold her 3,964-square-foot house at 1719 Burleson Retta Road in Burleson, deed records show.
In Munich, police warned about an hour before New Year of a “serious, imminent threat” by the Islamic State (IS) terror group and two railway stations were evacuated. They charged him with terror offences. Authorities also asked the public to avoid large gatherings.
In Moscow, police for the first time closed off Red Square, where tens of thousands of revelers traditionally gather. Russia began bombing Syrian rebel targets on September 30 in support of its ally President Bashar al-Assad; a month later, a Russian plane was downed over Egypt, with the loss of 224 lives, in an attack claimed by Islamic State.
Jakarta, Indonesia was on high alert as police uncovered plans for a terror attack on the capital during festivities.
Belgian police were holding five people over an alleged New Year attack plot in Brussels, as well as arresting a 10th suspect over the Paris attacks. Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur said it would have been impossible to adequately screen the thousands of people viewing a fireworks show.
“I will take a life, I don’t have a problem with that”, the court papers quoted Lutchman as saying.
Police detained six people Thursday for questioning over an alleged plot to strike “emblematic sites” in Brussels during the year-end festivities. Two men were arrested earlier this week on suspicion of involvement in an attack on Brussels.
Molenbeek is home to the Paris attacks fugitive Salah Abdeslam and has served in the past decades as a haven for jihadists.
Two others were arrested earlier this week, prompting authorities to call off the city’s traditional December 31 fireworks display, which a year ago drew a crowd of around 100,000.
“This is a unique atmosphere and we like to say we invented not just Hogmanay but New Year celebrations”, said Edinburgh Hogmanay director Pete Irvine.
The 2016 appears during the 5-minute video performance displayed on the Arc de Triomphe as part of New Year’s Eve celebrations on the Champs Elysees Avenue in Paris, France, Friday, January 1, 2016.
Rio de Janeiro kicked off its Olympic year with a fiesta on Copacabana Beach for more than 2 million people.
According to a criminal complaint, Emanuel Lutchman told an apparent accomplice – who was actually working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation – that he was being told to carry out an attack at the direction of an Islamic State member in Syria. They included a text message sent from a suicide bomber to a phone in Belgium moments before three gunmen stormed a rock concert in the Bataclan theater, and Internet searches about the concert venue and the American headliner band, Eagles of Death Metal.
In Dubai, the New Year celebrations were tempered by a huge blaze in one of its tallest buildings.
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“Although the celebrations have drawn to a close, officers continue to work through the night to facilitate the clean up operation and bring the area back to normality in time for the New Year’s Day parade”.
