Horror events in China and Afghanistan take gloss off stunning celebrations elsewhere

Millions of revellers took to the streets across the world from Sydney to New York to usher in 2015, but in China celebrations turned to tragedy when 36 people were killed in a stampede in central Shanghai.
As the rest of the globe celebrated with spectacular fireworks displays in cities from Sydney to Moscow and London, chaos broke out in China's financial hub as people packed the Bund district to welcome the New Year.
In Afghanistan, a rocket fired amid fighting between Taliban insurgents and Afghan soldiers killed at least 26 people at a nearby wedding party - marking a horror end to a grim year.
Stampede in Shanghai
Witnesses said the stampede on Shanghai's historic waterfront was sparked when revellers scrambled for fake money thrown from a building.
A photo on the website of the Shanghai Daily newspaper showed what appeared to be dead and injured people lying on the ground with crowds still in the background.

State TV footage showed abandoned footwear littering the area and a line of police vans with sirens flashing.
While the cause of the crush was still under investigation, the official news agency Xinhua cited a witness as saying people had rushed to retrieve US dollar-like notes thrown from a nearby window. City officials said 47 people had been injured, 13 of them seriously.
The Bund, renowned for its pre-Chinese revolution architecture, is the former financial district of the country's commercial hub and now a popular tourist destination.
Fake currency has long been burned at Chinese funerals to ensure the dead have money in the afterlife, and nowadays is also frequently used as an advertising medium.
Pictures posted online showed the slips of paper were a similar size, shape and colour to the US currency, but emblazoned with the logo of M18, a nightclub in the building, and stamped "New Year 2015".
But other online posters said the paper-throwing happened across a wide street where the Government said the main stampede occurred.
Wedding disaster
The rocket that struck a wedding party in Afghanistan hit a house in southern Helmand province's Sangin District.
Police spokesman Fareed Ahmad Obaid said the rocket wounded at least 45 people. Bashir Ahmad Shakir, a provincial council member, said the death toll could be up to 30 killed with as many as 60 wounded.
Fireworks fire
Philippine officials say a huge fire, believed to have been ignited by firecrackers, razed hundreds of shanties in a creekside slum in metropolitan Manila in one of more than a dozen fires that were reported as Filipinos welcomed the New Year.
Village officer Noel Carino said the fire, apparently sparked by firecrackers set off by children, spread rapidly due to strong winds through nearly a kilometre row of shanties in a village in suburban Quezon city. A firefighter and a resident were injured.
The Bureau of Fire Protections said at least 14 fires were reported nationwide. At least seven people died in two of the fires.

The New Year started with a bang around the world with big fireworks displays in Rio de Janeiro. Photo / AP

Parties and prayers
Across Asia revellers celebrated with fireworks and music, with hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese crowding near the landmark skyscraper Taipei 101 to watch performances by pop singers. But in Malaysia, a sombre mood prevailed after the crash of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 carrying 162 people and flooding in the northeast that has displaced almost 250,000 people. In Indonesia, where most of the air crash victims were from, New Year festivities in the capital Jakarta started solemnly with a prayer for the victims.
In Hong Kong, hundreds of thousands of people crowded the city's promenades to watch an eight-minute pyrotechnic display after a year in which busy thoroughfares were paralysed for months by pro-democracy protests. "I think a more peaceful year would be good for everybody," said Louis Ho, 65.
In Tokyo, the Meiji Jingu shrine brought out stocks of lucky charms and set up large offertory boxes.
Hundreds of revellers gathered around a popular British-colonial era shopping arcade in central New Delhi to greet the New Year, braving unusually chilly weather. Pubs and eateries were festooned with fairy lights and brightly coloured balloons.
A big bash in Sydney
A general feeling of optimism for the New Year was demonstrated in Australia, where an estimated one million people flocked to a massive fireworks display on Sydney Harbour. "We are celebrating that we are a multicultural, harmonious community, but we will be thinking about what happened," Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore said in reference to the deadly stand-off at a cafe in the city's CBD.
Breaking a record in Dubai
The Gulf Arab emirate of Dubai was aiming to break the world record for the largest LED-illuminated facade with its spectacular display centred on the world's tallest building.
Some 70,000 LED panels around the 830m Burj Khalifa flashed coloured lights and projected images of the country's leaders as a massive fireworks display erupted. Emaar Properties said a team from Guinness World Records monitored the preparations. Last year, Dubai won the title for the world's largest firework display, according to Guinness.
Putin sends a message
Europe's celebrations kicked off in Moscow, where red and green fireworks lit up the sky over St Basil's Cathedral, bringing "oohs" and "aahs" from the crowd braving sub-zero conditions.
President Vladimir Putin sent a greeting to his US counterpart Barack Obama, saying they had a mutual responsibility to ensure world peace after a year that has seen relations between Russia and the West sink to their worst point since the Cold War.
The Hoff takes Berlin
London's skyline was illuminated by a thunderous 11-minute firework display accompanied by an electronic sound-track and followed by Auld Lang Syne in front of more than 100,000 ticket holders gathered on the banks of the River Thames. Up to 75,000 people could be heard counting down the final moments of 2014 in Edinburgh before a mass rendition of Auld Lang Syne.
In Paris, the Champs-Elysees was closed off to traffic to allow pedestrians to watch a visual spectacle projected on to the Arc de Triomphe before a huge firework display greeted the New Year.
Tens of thousands gathered near the Brandenburg Gate in central Berlin to watch a huge fireworks display and free concert featuring David Hasselhoff, the star of Baywatch, a 1980s TV series. "The Hoff" had the crowd singing along to Looking for Freedom, the song he performed 25 years ago as the Berlin Wall fell.
Celebrations for Rio
More than two million people attended a huge fireworks show on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro to open celebrations marking 450 years since the founding of the city. Two dozen artists and DJs performed on three stages. The massive fireworks display was blasted from boats on the Atlantic Ocean.
New York, New York
About one million revellers claimed spots to ring in 2015 in Times Square, some arriving early and enduring freezing temperatures and a scarcity of restrooms before the glittering ball dropped. A tonne of confetti showered those watching. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience," said 16-year-old Allie Casertino, who travelled to the city from nearby Glen Falls, New York.
Watching the ball drop
The ball drop is a tradition that's being increasingly copied across the United States with twists celebrating local icons. Among the items being dropped: a big chili in Las Cruces, New Mexico; a replica peach in Atlanta; a musical note in Nashville, Tennessee; a large pine cone in Flagstaff, Arizona; an oversized spurred cowboy boot in Prescott, Arizona; a 270kg walleye made of wood and fibreglass in Port Clinton, Ohio; a 36kg wedge of cheese in Plymouth, Wisconsin; and in Escanaba, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a replica of a pasty.
Trying to celebrate in Baghdad
In Iraq's war-scarred capital, Baghdad, authorities ordered a one-off lifting of the overnight curfew in force for more than a decade to allow the city's revellers to stay out late on the streets. Traffic was unusually heavy and authorities closed commercial streets in the city's centre as a precaution against possible suicide bombings by militants of Isis (Islamic State).
Getting down in BVI
Thousands of partygoers arrived on speedboats, yachts and ferries to dance the night away on the tiny Caribbean island of Jost Van Dyke that has long hosted one of the region's biggest, most uninhibited New Year's bashes. In the British Virgin Islands, Jost Van Dyke balloons from about 300 full-time residents to roughly 5000 people each New Year's Eve as throngs of barefoot, tipsy people groove to reggae bands on white sands and hop from bar to bar.