Merriment and mayhem as the world greets 2001

Merriment and mayhem as the world greets 2001
Agence France Presse

JAN 1: A blue Eiffel Tower, snow in New York, war and peace in Africa, killings in the West Bank and crowds in Asia. The world saw in the new year with a mixture of joy and fear.

There was no ceasefire in the Middle East today where a Jewish extremist and his wife were gunned down by Palestinians in the West Bank. Binyamin Zeev Kahane and his wife Talia were shot dead in their car and their five daughters injured.

Hours later, an official in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement was shot dead by the Israeli Army.

At the Vatican, Pope Jean Paul II hoped that the new millennium would bring "peace, Justice, brotherhood and prosperity to all nations," extending a particular appeal to the young, whom he called the hope of the future.

However elsewhere there was more violence. Seven people were injured when a bomb exploded in central Istanbul's Taksim place where thousands were assembled to greet the new year.

Police bomb disposal experts defused a car bomb in the southern Spanish city of Sevilla today, police said.

Two people were killed and 10 injured overnight near Naples, southern Italy, in an explosion caused by fire works.

The weather was also a threat to revellers. Snow storms lashed parts of Europe today, killing at least 10 people and disrupting new year's eve celebrations, with Britain and portugal bracing for more snow and rain.

Six died and several others were injured in spain, with at least three more fatalities in Britain.

The problems did not prevent tens of thousands from gathering to usher in the new year in cities throughout the world.

Russians thronged Moscow's Red Square to ring in the new year to the stirring tones of the new national anthem, played for the first time on the stroke of midnight.

In London, up to 80,000 people crowded into Trafalgar Square to listen to the chimes of Big Ben, the huge clock overlooking parliament, ring in the new year, police said.

Revellers also flocked onto the streets across Asia today to usher in the new year.

Beijing's celebrations "reached their climax", according to the official Xinhua news agency, when 2,001 students scaled The Great Wall, which was built to defend the nation from intruders in ancient dynasties.

But police put down a demonstration by the banned Falungong spiritual movement, arresting 300 practitioners.

The event also coincided with Australia's 100th anniversary - described by Prime Minister John Howard as the greatest historical celebration in the nation's short history.