citizen of the United States Threatens to blow up Delta Air Aircraft with the Bomb

Boston A citizen of the United States (U.S.) on a flight from Paris to Atlanta threatened to blow up a plane he was traveling. He also claimed to have false passports and carrying explosives in his luggage. Effect of act of such passengers, the aircraft diverted to the nearest airport.As reported by NBC, Wednesday (28/04/2010), U.S. federal officials to identify passengers who was named acting Derek Stansberry (26). He is a Florida home contractor who was traveling alone. However, upon investigation, which is owned by Stanberry passport is genuine.

Shortly after the claims will bomb the aircraft, he was immediately drawn to the rear of the plane by a flight attendant for further questioning on the statement.Delta Air Lines plane carrying Stanberry is the Airbus A330 with 235 passengers and eight crew. “The plane eventually landed safely at Bangor International Airport,” said Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliott.Arriving at the Bangor Airport, a suitcase belonging Stansberry eventually admitted there were explosives searched. After review, there were no suspicious or dangerous items found.

contractor attacks in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan  The message, very often, is sent with bloodshed.There was the suicide bombing last week on a fortified Kandahar guesthouse shared by Western contracting companies, killing four Afghans and injuring several Americans. There was the Afghan engineer, shot dead in March as he helped inspect a school not far from the Pakistan border. Or the Afghan woman, an employee for a U.S.-based consulting firm, shot by motorbike-riding gunmen as she returned home from work in this southern city.

As the United States presses ahead with an Afghan counterinsurgency strategy that depends on speeding up development of one of the world’s poorest countries, the U.S. contractors, construction companies and aid organizations needed to rebuild Afghanistan have faced a surge in attacks that puts the plan in jeopardy.

Overall figures for contractor attacks remain elusive, since the employees come from dozens of nations and work for hundreds of different organizations.But the death toll has jumped precipitously in the months since President Barack Obama launched a massive troop surge last December.

Of the 289 civilians working for U.S. contractors killed between the start of the Afghanistan war in late 2001 and the end of last year, 100 died in just the last six months of 2009, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.To a degree, those killings have mirrored an increase in U.S. service member deaths, which roughly doubled in the first three months of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.

Many of the recent attacks against civilian contractors have been around Kandahar, the one-time Taliban capital where the U.S. is poised to launch a major operation in the coming weeks, but the rash of violence has spiked across Afghanistan.”The insurgents are trying to say ‘You can’t do it,'” Gen. Stanley McChrystal said in a speech last week in Paris, shortly after two bombings shook Kandahar. “I think we’ll see that for months as they make an effort to stop progress. But I don’t think that they’ll be successful.”

In some ways, though, they already have been successful.Although contractors say they are not leaving the country, the attacks have forced them to retreat even further behind blast walls and heavily armed security perimeters. The security drives up costs, makes it more difficult to interact with regular Afghans and slows reconstruction projects.

The attacks have forced many contractors, aid groups and Afghan officials to retreat even further behind blast walls and heavily armed security perimeters. The security drives up costs, makes it more difficult to interact with regular Afghans and slows reconstruction projects.

“We have become the targets of the Taliban,” said Azizullah, the owner of a construction company that builds bridges and irrigation projects in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, strongholds of the militant Muslim fighters. “If we travel, they try to kidnap us and hold us for huge ransoms. If we don’t pay, they kill us,” said Azizullah, who like many Afghans has only one name.

His workers now travel in U.S. military convoys whenever possible, he said, to give them additional protection.That doesn’t surprise Gulali, a tribal elder from Kandahar province.”Of course the Taliban are against any of these people working for the Afghan government or the Americans or other foreigners,” said the elder, who also uses only one name.

He believes many of the recent attacks are by militants simply looking for softer targets. While nearly all foreign companies in Afghanistan now work out of guarded compounds, they do not have the massive fortifications and overwhelming firepower found at nearly any American military installation.The Taliban “want to use the easiest option,” he said.But the attacks are challenging a key part of America’s aims in Afghanistan.

Washington’s counterinsurgency plans call for aggressive development to build up everything from Afghanistan’s roads to its sewer systems to its irrigation networks. Much of the actual work is paid for by USAID, the government’s main international aid agency, then contracted through corporations that often subcontract the actual the work to smaller companies. On the ground, many employees are Afghans overseen by small groups of Western administrators.

The attacks “are not about armed confrontation. They are about subversion of the government,” said Terrence K. Kelly, a senior researcher at the Washington-based RAND Corporation who has studied how rebuilding efforts work in war zones. America’s strategy counts on development work to increase the legitimacy and reach of the Karzai government. With these attacks the Taliban can “turn off the delivery of services – which makes the government look bad,” he said.USAID insists it will not scale back its work in Afghanistan because of the attacks, according to Rebecca Black, the agency’s deputy mission director for Afghanistan.

Contractors insist they are also staying.The Louis Berger Group/Black & Veatch, a joint venture building major infrastructure projects across the country, was among the companies based in the Kandahar guest house attacked last week.In a statement, the joint venture said they were “currently conducting a comprehensive review of the recent events in Kandahar to assess what changes, if any, are required to continue our work.”(AP)

17,000 flights were expected to be canceled on Friday due to the dangers posed for a second day by volcanic ash from Iceland

A huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano spread out across Europe on Friday causing air travel chaos on a scale not seen since the September 11 attacks.About 17,000 flights were expected to be canceled on Friday due to the dangers posed for a second day by volcanic ash from Iceland, aviation officials said. Airports in Britain, France, Germany, and across Europe were closed until at least Saturday.”I would think Europe was probably experiencing its greatest disruption to air travel since 9/11,” said a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority, Britain’s aviation regulator.”In terms of closure of airspace, this is worse than after 9/11. The disruption is probably larger than anything we’ve probably seen.”

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York, U.S. airspace was closed for three days and European airlines were forced to halt all transatlantic services.

Vulcanologists say the ash could cause problems to air traffic for up to 6 months if the eruption continues, but even if it is short-lived the financial impact on airlines could be significant.The fallout hit airlines’ shares on Friday with Lufthansa, British Airways, Air Berlin, Air France-KLM, Iberia and Ryanair down between 0.8 and 2.2 percent.The International Air Transport Association said only days ago that airlines were just coming out of recession.

“LIMITED COMMERCIAL SIGNIFICANCE”

The flight cancellations would cost carriers such as British Airways and Lufthansa about 10 million pounds ($16.04 million) a day, transport analyst Douglas McNeill said.

“To lose that sum of money isn’t a very pleasant experience but it’s of limited commercial significance as well,” he told BBC TV. “A couple of days like this won’t matter too much. If it goes on for weeks, that’s a different story.”The volcano began erupting on Wednesday for the second time in a month from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, hurling a plume of ash 6 to 11 km (4 to 7 miles) into the atmosphere.Officials said it was still spewing magma and although the eruption could abate in the coming days, ash would continue drifting into the skies of Europe.

Volcanic ash contains tiny particles of glass and pulverized rock that can damage engines and airframes.

In 1982 a British Airways jumbo jet lost power in all its engines when it flew into an ash cloud over Indonesia, gliding toward the ground before it was able to restart its engines.The incident prompted the aviation industry to rethink the way it prepared for ash clouds.

Of the 28,000 flights that usually travel through European airspace on an average day, European aviation control agency Eurocontrol said it expected only 11,000 to operate on Friday while only about a third of transatlantic flights were arriving.The British Meteorological Office showed the cloud drifting south and west over Europe. Eurocontrol warned problems would continue for at least another 24 hours and an aviation expert at the World Meteorological Organization said it was impossible to say when flights would resume.”We can only predict the time that flights will resume after the eruption has stopped, but for as long as the eruption is still going on and still leading to a significant eruption, we cannot say,” said Scylla Sillayo, a senior official in the WMO’s aeronautical meteorology unit.

AIRSPACE CLOSED

Britain’s air traffic control body said all English airspace would be closed until 8 p.m. EDT on Friday although certain flights from Northern Ireland and Scottish airports were being allowed to take off until 1800 GMT.”When the experts give us the all-clear we’ll get the operation back up and running,” Paul Haskins, head of safety at National Air Traffic Service, told BBC radio.

There were no flights from London’s Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, which handles some 180,000 passengers a day, while officials at Germany’s Frankfurt airport, Europe’s second busiest, said flights would be suspended from 2 a.m. EDT.Around 2,000 people slept overnight at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, a spokeswoman said, adding they did not expect airspace in the Netherlands to reopen soon.

Eurocontrol said airspace was closed over Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, the north of the Czech Republic, northern France including all Paris airports, and at airports in northern Germany, Austria and parts of Poland.

Polish officials said if the disruption continued, it might force a delay in Sunday’s funeral for President Lech Kaczynski and his wife who were killed in a plane crash last Saturday.Airlines across Asia and the Middle East have also canceled or delayed flights to most European destinations.

However, as the ash plume drifted south over Europe, Irish officials said most of the airspace over Ireland had reopened.The air problems have proved a boon for rail companies. All 58 Eurostar trains between Britain and Europe were operating full, carrying some 46,500 passengers, and a spokeswoman said they would consider adding services if problems persisted.(Reuters)

Whitney Houston was suddenly rushed to the hospital. As a result, the concert is supposed to start today in Paris

PARIS Whitney Houston was suddenly rushed to the hospital. As a result, the concert is supposed to start today in Paris, pending.46-year-old singer was treated at a hospital in the City of Paris, France, because there was interference with the nose and throat.

A popular singer in the 1980s and 1990s with the song I Will Always Love You, was scheduled to hold a concert in Paris. But canceled at the last moment.One member of the tour, as quoted by AFP on Wednesday (7/4/2010), states, or some kind rhinopharyngitis Whitney suffered from upper respiratory disorders. Primarily affects the nose and throat.From the disease, the United States pop diva was supposed to postpone the second concert took place on Thursday tomorrow at the City of Manchester, England.

Media preach women born in New Jersey, August 9, 1963 was treated at the American Hospital in Neuilly on the outskirts of Paris. These hospitals often be subscribed French celebrities.Tour titled ‘Nothing but Love’ is actually very important. This concert marks the return of Whitney to the world of entertainment. This world tour has been started since last year.

OPEC price hawks like Iran and Venezuela are happy with present prices near $80 a barrel

VIENNA With U.S. demand for oil lackluster, even traditional OPEC price hawks like Iran and Venezuela are happy with present prices near $80 a barrel as they head into Tuesday’s meeting of the 12-nation organization.These two countries traditionally are the greatest advocates of tight OPEC supply. But ahead of their meeting there is informal unanimity among OPEC oil ministers that – with the world’s economic recovery feeble at best and crude prices at preferred levels – it’s best not to rock the boat.

That means the ministers will likely agree to maintain OPEC’s formal production target, now at 26 million barrels a day – a benchmark set over one year ago.OPEC has left its members’ production quotas unchanged since December 2008, when it announced the last of a series of cuts aimed at bringing their output down by 4.2 million barrels per day. The cuts helped engineer a rebound in crude prices, which had collapsed to the low $30s from a mid-2008 high of almost $150 per barrel.

Since the oil ministers last met three months ago, prices mostly have hovered between $70 and $80 a barrel – a range that most OPEC nations have factored into their national budgets this year. That has kept even hardliners Iran and Venezuela on board with other OPEC members.”OPEC should not take any decision to change production,” Iranian oil minister Masoud Mirkazemi told reporters in Tehran on Monday, echoing comments voiced by Rafael Ramirez, his Venezuean counterpart.Still, there will be behind-the-scenes pressure on some members to produce less by honoring their allotted targets.

At close to 27 million barrels a day, OPEC now is producing a daily 600,000 barrels above its official target – a result of cheating by individual nations on their quotas. While OPEC does not reveal which nations are overproducing, the Paris-based International Energy Agency put overall quota compliance within OPEC at only 58 percent in January.World oil demand is expected to rise this year due to surging economic activity in Asian countries, especially China. The IEA, which advises oil-consuming countries, predicts that the world’s appetite for crude will average 86.6 million barrels a day this year, or 1.6 million barrels a day more than 2009’s 86.5 million barrels.Still, oil markets remain concerned about shaky demand in the U.S. Crude consumption there and in other top industrialized nations is expected to contract in 2010 for the fifth consecutive year.(AP)

Israel to Build Nuclear

JERUSALEM Israel expressed interest in building nuclear power plants. This step could certainly attract the suspicion of other countries over Israel’s nuclear activities are kept secret for so long. Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau is planning to announce this plan on the International Nuclear Energy Conference in Paris, France today. “Building a nuclear reactor to produce electricity allows Israel to produce their own energy, while eliminating the dependence on other countries,” Landau said as quoted by the Associated Press, Tuesday (9/3/2010).

Landau added, if it can be applied nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and cooperation between nations. Jewish state is indeed dependent on other countries to supply energy for the people. So far Israel’s use of coal and gas to produce electricity. Landau himself had a meeting with the French Energy Minister Jean Lous Borloo and articulate a plan of cooperation between France, Israel and Jordan, to develop nuclear power. This plan was greeted enthusiastically by the French Minister.

History of cooperation in the French-Israeli nuclear affairs lasted a long time indeed. In 1950 France helped Israel build a nuclear reactor in Dimona. In reactor development were allegedly used as the Israeli nuclear arsenal. While other reactor at Nahal Soreq, often used as research interests. Regarding the planned third reactor, the Minister Uzi Landau said, his department had no specific plans to build it until now. Development of nuclear reactor by Israel certainly can invite a strong reaction from many countries, especially in the Middle East. Meanwhile, when asked about the Jewish state’s willingness to do the inspection by the UN Nuclear Energy Agency (IAEA), it would be appropriate to the prevailing regulations. Israel has yet to sign non-proliferation treaty that aims to limit the number of countries capable of developing nuclear weapons.

Violent storms swept through France over the weekend, killing at least 15 people

PARIS   Violent storms swept through France over the weekend, killing at least 15 people, officials said.Local authorities said three people died on Saturday and another 12 on Sunday and warned the toll could rise. Some drowned while others were hit by falling trees and branches. Brittany and central France were among the worst-hit regions.

The storm had also cut off electricity to more than 1 million residents said ErDF, the distribution arm of French energy group EDF.Weather forecasters said the storm, named Xynthia, had headed to France’s north-east and would then hit Belgium and Luxembourg.Gusts of wind reaching 100 km (60 miles) per hour had already battered France’s northern regions by 1207 GMT (7:07 a.m. EST), Meteo France said on its website.It said the storms appeared less fierce than those that hit France in December 1999, in which 92 people were killed.(Reuters)

Eurostar trains between London and Paris are experiencing minor delays after a “major technical fault” late yesterday

Eurostar trains between London and Paris are experiencing minor delays after a “major technical fault” late yesterday, according to the rail operator.The 8:43 p.m. Paris to London train broke down yesterday because of a fault that is under investigation, Bram Smets, a spokesman for Eurostar Group Ltd., said today by telephone. Passengers were evacuated onto another train, with a total delay of 4 hours and 33 minutes, he said. Eurostar issued refunds and gave passengers a free round-trip ticket for a future trip.

Eurostar is operating a limited service between the U.K. and Brussels after a commuter train crash in Belgium on Feb. 15 that killed 18 people. The company is currently offering three return services a day and reiterated today that it intends to resume a full Brussels schedule by March 2.

All Eurostar rail service was suspended for three days before Christmas because locomotives were insufficiently prepared for winter and the company neglected maintenance of seals that allowed snow to penetrate electrical systems, according to a study commissioned to help the train operator prevent future breakdowns.Procedures for evacuating people from the tunnel under the English Channel were also inadequate and Eurostar failed to communicate sufficiently with customers stranded at stations, according to the report.Smets declined to specify the nature of last night’s train fault.

PARIS Airbus on Tuesday increased pressure on European governments to give it more money for the troubled A400M military transport plane

A400M military plane

PARIS Airbus on Tuesday increased pressure on European governments to give it more money for the troubled A400M military transport plane, saying it is considering scrapping the project just weeks after its maiden flight.The plane is running at least three years late and over budget.The seven customer governments agreed to re-negotiate the original contract, which Airbus CEO Tom Enders has slammed for being badly drawn up and making the planemaker shoulder too much of the cost overruns.EADS, Airbus’ parent, hopes governments will either pay more for the planes or reduce the number of planes on order. Other options include reducing the specifications, or spreading increased payments out over time.Negotiations have so far failed to find a compromise – notably over EADS’ demand for more money.Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said that ending the program “is a scenario” if the military plane project “continues to contribute to a loss.””We are suffering from a stagnation, he said. “The loss-making is serious. This needs to be urgently resolved.”He urged the governments involved in the program to reach a decision on whether to continue financing it by the end of this month.

Engineers working on the project could be better deployed on Airbus’ A350 or A380 airliner programs, he said.The A400M had its maiden flight last month in Spain – with first delivery scheduled in three years.The program was launched six years ago with an order for 180 planes from seven governments – Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey. The original price was euro20 billion ($29.5 billion), but a preliminary report by auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers said parent company EADS might need an extra euro5 billion – inflating the final bill by 25 percent.

Abandoning the project would cost EADS euro5.7 billion ($8.4 billion) in advance payments it would have to return to governments – and would dent its credibility. It has already put aside euro2.4 billion in provisions against losses related to the plane.

South Africa recently pulled out of an order for eight A400Ms, leaving Malaysia as the only export customer.A German defense ministry spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said that the decision on the A400 was due by the end of January. A meeting of high ranking defense officials is tentatively scheduled for next week, he said.For governments, canceling the project would also have consequences in terms of jobs and also military needs.Britain and France – who have Europe’s largest air forces – need the airlift capacity for military and humanitarian missions in rugged areas.

There are other planes, such as the U.S.-built Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules and the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III. But neither fulfills the requirements set out by European air staffs. The C-130J turboprop carries only half the payload of the A400M, and the much more expensive C-17 jet is considered too large and lacks the tactical versatility of the Airbus design.While waiting for the A400M, Britain’s Royal Air Force acquired six C-17s and has flown them out of its air base at Brize Norton in central England in support of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.They have also been used for humanitarian purposes after tsunamis in Southeast Asia and earthquakes in Pakistan.Last month Boeing said the RAF would acquire a seventh C-17.Defense ministers from the seven countries agreed in July to re-negotiate the contract after EADS missed a March 31 contract deadline for the first flight.Sandy Morris, an analyst with Royal Bank of Scotland, said uncertainty on the outcome was weighing on EADS’ the share price. On Tuesday, EADS shares were trading down 1.2 percent at euro13.82.”Does EADS want clarity on this? Absolutely because the A400M is dominating sentiment toward a the company,” he said.The company reports its full year results on March 10.Union leaders expressed concern about possible job losses if the project ends – a possibility they say has already been raised by Airbus CEO Tom Enders.”Mr. Enders told me himself that he seriously considers backing out of the A400M,” said Bernhard Stiedl, a spokesman for Germany’s powerful IG Metall union. “He said the project cannot be realized cost-effectively and is therefore not profitable for Airbus,” Steidl said.Enders has said that he would prefer to end the project than let it continue hurting the company.”Better an end with horror than a horror without end,” he was quoted as saying in German media last year.(AP)

world celebrations for the new years

Taipei 101

PARIS jazzed up the Eiffel Tower with a multicolored, disco-style light display as the world basked in New Year’s festivities with hopes that 2010 and beyond will bring more peace and prosperity.From fireworks over Sydney’s famous bridge to balloons sent aloft in Tokyo, revelers across the globe at least temporarily shelved worries about the future to bid farewell to “The Noughties” – a bitter-tinged nickname for the first decade of the 21st century playing on a term for “zero” and evoking the word naughty.In New York City, hundreds of thousands of revelers gathered in chilly weather in Times Square to usher in the new decade. Organizers were preparing 3,000 pounds (1,360 kilograms) of confetti that will be scattered when the New Year’s Eve crystal ball drops at midnight.Fireworks were set off at about 6 p.m. and the gigantic ball was lowered into place in preparation for midnight. Many people wore conical party hats and 2010 glasses that blinked colorfully, and some were jumping up and down to keep warm – the National Weather Service said the temperature will be in the low 30s and forecast snow for around midnight.Las Vegas prepared to welcome some 315,000 revelers with fireworks from casino rooftops, a traffic-free Las Vegas Strip and toasts at nightclubs from celebrities including actress Eva Longoria and rapper 50 Cent.

Sydney Harbour

Even as some major stock market indexes rose in 2009, the financial downturn hit hard, sending many industrial economies into recession, tossing millions out of work and out of their homes as foreclosures rose dramatically in some countries.”The year that is ending has been difficult for everybody. No continent, no country, no sector has been spared,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on national TV in a New Year’s Eve address. “Even if the tests are unfinished, 2010 will be a year of renewal,” he added.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned her people that the start of the new decade won’t herald immediate relief from the global economic ills. South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, was more ebullient, saying the World Cup is set to make 2010 the country’s most important year since the end of apartheid in 1994.At midnight in Rio de Janeiro, about 2 million people gathered along the 2.5-mile (4 kilometer) Copacabana beach to watch a huge fireworks display and listen to dozens of music acts and DJs.

The multitudes came mostly dressed in traditional white clothing, a nod to the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomble but a custom followed by nearly everyone as it is thought to bring peace and good luck for the coming year.Officials said about 12,000 police were on duty during the New Year’s Eve party in and around Copacabana to provide security.Dressed in white and holding a glass of champagne in his hand, visitor Chad Bissonnette, 27, a nongovernmental group’s director from Washington, D.C., said, “This year was the toughest I’ve experienced – for the first time as an American I saw many friends lose jobs and businesses in my neighborhood close regularly.”

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hailed events in 2009 like the inauguration of the United States’ first black president, and international attempts to grapple with climate change and the global financial crisis.”The great message from 2009 is that because we’ve been all in this together, we’ve all worked together,” Rudd said in a New Year’s message.Australia got the some of the festivities rolling, as Sydney draped its skies with explosive bursts of crimson, purple and blue to the delight of more than 1 million New Year revelers near the harbor bridge.Concerns that global warming might raise sea levels and cause other environmental problems were on the minds of some as the year ended.

Venice revelers rang in the New Year with wet feet as high tide on its archipelago peaked just before midnight to flood low-lying parts of the city – including the St. Mark’s Square.The last year also offered its reminders of the decade’s fight against terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more recently, rising militant violence in Pakistan.Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, in a statement Wednesday, suggested that terrorism book-ended the decade, with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, and foiled plot by a Nigerian man to set off explosives on a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Eve.

“In late December we were reminded at this decade’s end, just as we were at its beginning, that there is a terrorist threat which puts our safety and security at risk and which requires us to take on al-Qaeda and the Taliban at the epicentre of global terrorism,” he said.

The American Embassy in Indonesia warned of a possible terrorist attack on the resort island of Bali on New Year’s Eve, citing information from the island’s governor – though local security officials said they were unaware of a threat.In a more upbeat theme, the Eiffel Tower was decked out for its 120th anniversary year with hundreds of multicolored lights along its latticework. It was seemingly retro in style, but decidedly 21st century as it showered the Iron Lady in a light show billed as more energy-saving than its usual sparkling lights.

Police blocked off the Champs-Elysees to vehicle traffic as partygoers popped champagne, exchanged la bise – the traditional French cheek to cheek peck – or more amorous kisses to celebrate the New Year.Spain rang in the start of its six-month presidency of the European Union with a sound and light show illuminating Sol square in Madrid and images from the 27 member states projected onto the central post office building.Partiers braved the cold – and a shower from sparkling cava wine bottles – in traditional style by eating 12 grapes, one with each tolling of the city hall bell.Despite frigid temperatures, thousands gathered along the River Thames for fireworks were fired from the London Eye attraction just as Big Ben struck midnight – an hour after continental western Europe.

Europe and the Americas may have partied harder than Asia. Islamic countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan use a different calendar; China will mark the new year in February.Still, in Shanghai, some people paid 518 yuan ($75) to ring the bell at the Longhua Temple at midnight and wish for new-year luck. In Chinese, saying “518” sounds like the phrase “I want prosperity.”

Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries where New Year’s Eve is not celebrated publicly. Clerics in the ultraconservative country say Muslims can only observe their faith’s feasts of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. For them, any other occasions are considered innovations that Islam rejects.Unlike many Islamic countries where pigs are considered unclean, New Year’s in Austria just isn’t complete without a pig-shaped lucky charm – and stalls selling the little porkers did a good business Thursday. Some are made of marzipan or chocolate; others come in glass, wood, rubber or soap.

Herbert Nikitsch of the University of Vienna’s Institute of European Ethnology said the porcine phylactery may originate from the fact that pigs represented food and sustenance for farmers in preindustrial times.Some festivities went awry.In the Philippines, hundreds of people were injured by firecrackers and celebratory gunfire during the celebrations. Many Filipinos, largely influenced by Chinese tradition, believe that noisy New Year’s celebrations drive away evil and misfortune – but some carry that belief to extremes.At Zojoji, one of Tokyo’s oldest and biggest Buddhist temples, thousands of worshippers released clear, helium-filled balloons to mark the new year. Nearby Tokyo Tower twinkled with white lights, while a large “2010” sign glowed from the center.

Tokyo’s Shibuya area, known as a magnet of youth culture, exploded with emotion at the stroke of midnight. Strangers embraced spontaneously as revelers jumped and sang.In Istanbul, Turkish authorities deployed some 2,000 police around Taksim Square to prevent pickpockets and the molestation of women that have marred New Year celebrations in the past. Some officers were under cover, disguised as street vendors or “even in Santa Claus dress,” Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said.In Stonehaven, on Scotland’s east coast, the fireballs festival – a tradition for a century and a half – saw in the New Year. The pagan festival is observed by marchers swinging large, flaming balls around their heads. The flames are believed to either ensure sunshine or banish harmful influences.In contrast to many galas worldwide, the Stonehaven Fireballs Association warned those attending not to wear their best clothes – because “there will be sparks flying along with smoke and even whisky.” (AP)