New Year rolls into Europe; bombs cancel Thai celebration

Jan 1, 2007, 3:17 GMT

Revelers around the world welcomed 2007 with fireworks and parties Monday.

Celebrations in Romania and Bulgaria took on a special tone with the entry of those countries in the European Union, but the holiday was overshadowed by bombings that led to the cancellation of events in Thailand.

Six bombs were set off in Bangkok, the capital, injuring at least 25 people.

Celebrations were called off after the bombing in the early evening at several busy locations. Officials feared people gathered to celebrate the could be targets of further bombs.

Initial suspicion was cast on southern Muslim militants, who have been waging an increasingly bloody separatist struggle in Thailand's three southernmost provinces over the past three years, or groups opposed to the current military-installed government.

In Bucharest, thousands of people gathered to celebrate Romania's entrance into the European Union with an open air rock concert.

President Traian Basescu praised Romanians for making the country's EU bid successful, calling 'welcome Europe' to the crowd gathered in the city's university square.

Political rival Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu celebrated separately with EU expansion commissioner Olli Rehn. The rest of the nation's official guests celebrated with Basescu. Earlier Sunday, it had been reported that the rivals would celebrate together.

In Bulgaria, people gathered in Sofia's main square to watch fireworks and sing the EU hymn despite freezing temperatures.

President Georgi Purvanov said 2007 would be Bulgaria's star hour, calling January 1, 2007 one of the most important days of the nation's history.

Elsewhere in Europe, tens of thousands people in Poland welcomed the New Year on open squares, sharing champagne and vodka with strangers.

One of the biggest open air parties will be staged in Cracow where Polish popstars will lead into the countdown for 2007.

Posh Poles prefer ballrooms, but there are some exotic spots to welcome the new year, for example 200 metres below earth level in the Wieliczka saltmine, where salt sculptures and candelabras are used to decorate an underground ballroom.

In the German capital Berlin, gale force winds kept the city's emergency services busy on Sunday, but officials said the capital's spectacular New Year's Eve party would go ahead as planned.

More than one million people were expected to throng the main boulevard heading from the landmark Brandenburg Gate for a night of partying and a spectacular midnight fireworks display.

Top DJs and groups such as the Scissor Sisters and Sugababes were to entertain the New Year revellers on three stages and disco tents erected along the 2-kilometre route.

Opening acts were Bulgarian rock band Roberta and Romanian group Sistem - invited to mark the two countries' accession to the European Union on New Year's Day.

Finland was the first Nordic nation to celebrate the New Year - one hour ahead of neighbouring Sweden.

Rain in the capital Helsinki dampened the effect of a firework display on Senate Square, a focal point for Finnish revellers.

The open-air museum Skansen in the Swedish capital Stockholm staged a firework display that was also broadcast on public broadcaster SVT.

Just before midnight actor Jan Malmsjo recited Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem Ring Out Wild Bells, in a tradition introduced at Skansen in 1895.

Queen Margrethe of Denmark and King Harald of Norway held televised addresses earlier on New Year's Eve.

The queen touched indirectly on the crisis triggered by a Danish newspaper's controversial publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked protests in several Muslim countries in 2006. She called for tolerance and mutual understanding.

'We know better what we stand for, what we can and cannot compromise on,' the queen said, adding that immigrants 'should not be expected to jettison all their experiences.'

In South Africa, US talkshow host Oprah Winfrey hosted a bash at the Sun City casino for top Hollywood celebrities including actor Sidney Poitier, comedian Chris Rock and singers Mariah Carey and Mary J Blige.

Among the first to usher in 2007, Sydney provided a huge fireworks display for its New Years celebration.

As many as 1 million Sydneysiders braved wind to welcome 2007, but predicted rain stayed away. And, as usual, the Harbour Bridge was the hub of the extravaganza.

The midnight (1100 GMT) fireworks show, billed as the biggest and best to date, lasted 13 minutes and featured pyrotechnics displays off CBD buildings, the bridge and harbourside locations.

The 4-million-Australia-dollar (3.2-million-US-dollar) festivities were dubbed 'a Diamond Night in the Emerald City.'

In her New Year's Eve message, Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the city could make a shared commitment to strengthening the community and extending goodwill and optimism into 2007.

'Today we are truly part of the one global village and I hope we can also remember those who do not share our great good fortune in living in this peaceful, lucky country,' Ms Moore said.

In New Zealand, where it is mid-summer, unseasonably cold and wet weather put a dampener on celebrations in many parts of the country.

The traditional New Year's Eve party and free concert in Wellington's Civic Square was cancelled after hours of heavy rain on a day when the temperature did not rise above 12 degrees Celsius - slightly over the lowest maximum ever recorded in the capital in December.

Rain also took the shine off festivities in key tourist centres including Taupo, Gisborne and Whangamata on the Coromandel Peninsula where thousands of summer vacationers gathered for the annual summer holidays.

Meanwhile, the crew aboard the International Space Station celebrated the New Year 16 times, in that many orbits around the Earth.

The astronauts did not have any alcohol to ring in the new year, but Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and US astronaut Michael Lopez- Alegria said they would dress as traditional Russian Frostmen to celebrate the occasion. Female astronaut Sunita Williams was to portray the young 'SnowFlake.'