New Year Celebrations Free of Terror Attacks
— NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tight security prevented incidents at major New Year's events, but the world marked the first day of 2003 under a cloud of terror fears, political uncertainty and looming war.
A grenade attack had killed nine people in an active Muslim rebel area of the Philippines shortly before midnight and a fireworks explosion in Mexico killed at least 37.
A total of at least 10 were killed as the Philippines rang in the New Year, in the grenade attack and celebratory gunfire. Over 400 were injured in separate incidents involving fireworks but officials said the figure was lower than previous years.
In the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country, where Muslim rebels are known to be active, an unidentified man threw a grenade into a street full of firecracker vendors, killing at least nine and wounding more than 30.
In Veracruz, Mexico, an explosion and fire in a street market packed with fireworks stalls killed 28 people and injured more than 50 in the port city of Veracruz.
In New York, up to 1 million people, screened for alcohol, drugs and weapons by police metal detectors, screamed and sang as the traditional crystal ball dropped at One Times Square.
But thousands of extra police were on duty; mailboxes and trash cans were removed and manhole covers were welded shut. The Coast Guard closed New York harbor to private pleasure boats, and police increased harbor patrols in response to what was called an "uncorroborated" threat of an attack.
PROSPECT OF WAR
At Camp Doha in the Kuwaiti desert, U.S. soldiers facing the prospect of war in neighboring Iraq welcomed 2003 in the conservative Islamic country with alcohol-free beer.
In Vatican City, Pope John Paul appealed for peace in his first message of 2003.
"In the face of today's conflicts and the menacing tensions of the moment, yet again I invited prayer to pursue pacific means for settlement," he said during his homily to celebrate the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace.
In Iraq, U.N. weapons inspectors visited four suspect sites on Wednesday, taking no break for the new year, a public holiday in Iraq. A unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution in November gave Baghdad a final chance to reveal all details of its weapons programs or face "serious consequences."
North Korea issues a new year's message calling on its people to build "a powerful nation" under its "army-based policy." Pyongyang, accused by Washington of secretly developing nuclear arms, has started reactivating a complex capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium and has expelled U.N. inspectors monitoring it.
As Americans celebrated, the FBI hunted five men believed to have entered the United States illegally and wanted for questioning as part of the U.S.-declared war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
U.S. air authorities marked the new year by starting to screen all checked luggage for explosives, compared with only 5 percent before the 2001 hijacked plane attacks.
But bad weather, not terror fear, delayed Philadelphia's annual "Mummers Parade" until Saturday. Forecasters anticipated rain and wind that would damage the Mummers' famed fancy costumes and fanciful displays.
POLITICAL CHANGE
Throngs of Brazilians celebrated the start of a new era as former metalworker Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn in as the first working-class and first leftist president of Latin America's largest country on Wednesday.
In Venezuela, a 31-day general strike that has choked the country's lifeblood oil business dragged on with a massive New Year's street party that organizers said was a show of determination to oust populist President Hugo Chavez.
In London and Paris, tens of thousands celebrated and extra police patrolled after recent arrests of suspects on terror charges. Cars were banned around Paris' famed Champs Elysees.
Remembering two bombs that killed more than 180 in Bali in October, two-thirds of Indonesia's police were deployed across the world's biggest Muslim nation.
Balinese put on a brave face at festivities on the famous Kuta Beach, blocks away from where bombs tore up nightclubs.
In Sydney, Lord Mayor Frank Sartor praised the 700,000 who showed up to celebrate. "They didn't listen to the doomsayers; we didn't listen to the malcontents; we went on and celebrated and had a great party," he said.
Fireworks over the harbor ended a year of drought, brush fires and the Bali bombings that killed up to 90 Australians.
In Russia, 250,000 police patrolled as tens of thousands of people ventured out despite extreme cold. Moscow's City Hall banned alcohol sales in the town center to prevent drink-fueled violence, such as marred World Cup crowds in the summer.
A candlelight vigil in Seoul, South Korea, which organizers had predicted would attract 1 million brought only 12,000 to protest against the U.S. military for the deaths of two girls killed in an accident by an American army vehicle.
The West African country of Ivory Coast relaxed a curfew for the first time since a failed coup on Sept. 19 sparked a civil war. It pushed back a strict 7 p.m. deadline in the maincity Abidjan to midnight to allow New Year celebrations.