GLOBAL New Year festivities began under tightened security, with Brussels scrapping celebrations as fears of militant threats cast a pall, just weeks after brutal attacks in Paris. Australia's biggest city, Sydney, traditionally the first to host a major event to ring in the New Year, held its 1000 GMT family fireworks, with pyrotechnics exploding over the harbor ahead of the main show at midnight. Crowds thronged to vantage points to see the displays which drew about a million people, ahead of the chimes of midnight moving across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and finally the Americas. Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore and other Asian cities rivaled Sydney's pyrotechnic splash, but Brunei offered a sober evening after banning Christmas in a shift to Islamic law. Jakarta remained on high alert after anti-terror police foiled detailed plans for an alleged New Year suicide attack in the Indonesian capital. Stray bullets and exploding firecrackers killed one person and injured almost 200 others as the Philippines plunged into its annual chaotic New Year revelry. Officials said 185 people were treated for blast-related or gunshot injuries and one person has been shot dead since Dec. 21, when the mostly-Catholic country launched into two weeks of holidays and merrymaking. At the heart of Europe, annual festivities and fireworks in Brussels were canceled as the Belgian capital — home to NATO and the European Union — remained on high alert. "It's better not to take any risks," mayor Yvan Mayeur said after police arrested two people suspected of plotting to launch attacks during the festivities at Brussels landmarks. The French capital, still reeling from the Nov. 13 slaughter of 130 people, also canceled its fireworks display. Earlier, authorities agreed France's biggest public gathering since the attacks can go ahead on the Champs Elysees avenue, with bolstered security. "The people of Paris and France need this symbolic passage into the New Year," said Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo. "After what our city has lived through, we have to send a signal to the world," she told the weekly Journal du Dimanche. In Turkey, police detained two Daesh (the so-called IS) suspects allegedly planning to stage attacks in the center of Ankara which was packed on New Year's Eve. Meanwhile, in Moscow police for the first time closed off Red Square where tens of thousands of revelers traditionally gather. "It's no secret that Moscow is one of the choice targets for terrorists," Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said recently. In Britain, around 3,000 Scotland Yard officers were stationed across central London in what was reported to be an unprecedented anti-terror security effort. "Our plans are purely precautionary and not as a result of any specific intelligence," said Superintendent Jo Edwards, spokeswoman for Scotland Yard. Fireworks were banned in towns and cities across Italy, in some cases because of a recent spike in air pollution but also because of fears that, in the current climate, sudden loud bangs could cause crowds to panic.
