{"id":280999,"date":"2016-12-31T17:50:11","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T17:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=280999"},"modified":"2016-12-31T17:50:11","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T17:50:11","slug":"new-year-celebrations-festivities-begin-to-welcome-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=280999","title":{"rendered":"New Year celebrations: Festivities begin to welcome 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Celebrations have begun as people around the world ring in the New Year.<\/p>\n

From Sydney to Pyongyang, festive crowds gathered to say goodbye to 2016, a tumultuous year in global politics.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Auckland in New Zealand became the first major world city to welcome the New Year.<\/p>\n

Many cities around the world have stepped up security for New Year’s Eve celebrations, after a year in which attackers drove lorries into crowds in Berlin in Germany and Nice, France.<\/p>\n

Thousands of extra police will be on duty in London and other cities.<\/p>\n

\"RevellersImage copyright<\/span>REUTERS<\/span><\/span>
A countdown event was held at the famous Shibuya crossing in Tokyo, Japan<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Paris, Madrid and New York, concrete barriers and heavy goods vehicles will be used to block off central squares where crowds gather to celebrate.<\/p>\n

Some 17,000 police officers will be on duty in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with some disguised as Santa Claus and street vendors, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.<\/p>\n

The iconic midnight fireworks display at Sydney Harbour in Australia paid tribute to Prince and David Bowie, two music superstars who died in 2016.<\/p>\n

\"FireworksImage copyright<\/span>AP<\/span><\/span>
Singapore and several other Asian countries have already rung in the New Year<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“This year, sadly, we saw the loss of many music and entertainment legends around the world,” fireworks co-producer Catherine Flanagan said.<\/p>\n

“So celebrating their music as part of Sydney New Year’s Eve fireworks displays is an opportunity to reflect on the year that has been and what the future may hold.”<\/p>\n

Seven tonnes of fireworks were set off in two displays watched by about one and a half million people.<\/p>\n

\"CrowdsImage copyright<\/span>EPA<\/span><\/span>
Image caption<\/span>Crowds gathered early to wait for the fireworks at Sydney Harbour<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pacific islands including Samoa, Tonga and Kiribati entered 2017 at 10:00 GMT, followed an hour later by Auckland, where fireworks erupted from the 328m (1,080ft) tall Sky Tower in the city centre.<\/p>\n

On Friday a man in Sydney was charged in connection with threats made against Sydney’s New Year’s Eve celebrations.<\/p>\n

Police said he was charged with a “crimes act offence, but not a terrorist offence” and there was no continuing threat to the community.<\/p>\n

\"FireworksImage copyright<\/span>AP<\/span><\/span>
Large crowds gathered for the fireworks display at Auckland’s Sky Tower<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"SwimmersImage copyright<\/span>EPA<\/span><\/span>
Swimmers emerge from 4C (39F) water after a traditional New Year’s Eve swim in Moosseedorf, Switzerland<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Israel has also warned its citizens travelling in India to avoid crowds, saying there is a risk of imminent “terrorist attacks”.<\/p>\n

‘Many enemies’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, US President-elect Donald Trump tweeted New Year greetings, including to his “many enemies”.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump will be sworn in as US president on 20 January.<\/p>\n

\"DonalImage copyright<\/span>TWITTER<\/span><\/span><\/figure>\n
\"PeopleImage copyright<\/span>REUTERS<\/span><\/span>
Revellers in Beijing, China<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A “leap second” will be added to the countdown in countries in the GMT timezone including the UK to compensate for a slowdown in the Earth’s rotation.<\/p>\n

The extra second will occur as clocks strike midnight and a time of 23:59:60 GMT will be recorded, delaying 2017 momentarily.<\/p>\n

This is required because standard time lags behind atomic clocks.<\/p>\n

\"\"Image copyright<\/span>EPA<\/span><\/span>
So-called “bearded men” parade through the streets of Slawatycze in Poland’s Lublin region as part of a local tradition-<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

–<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celebrations have begun as people around the world ring in the New Year. From Sydney to Pyongyang, festive crowds gathered to say goodbye to 2016, a tumultuous year in global politics. Earlier, Auckland in New Zealand became the first major world city to welcome the New Year. Many cities around the world have stepped up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":281002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}