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Asia makes multi million dollar entry into new millennium

HONG KONG: The Asia Pacific region, safely innoculated against the Y2K bug, Saturday counted the cost of the multi-million dollar celebrations to welcome in the new millennium.

With a dose of enthusiasm far in excess of normal New Year's Eve celebrations, governments tussled for the right to claim their festivities as first or best.

Samoa waited patiently to be the last country to exist the second millennium at midnight Friday (1100 GMT Saturday).

Fears of computer glitches were largely unfounded although officials in Japan said one of two reported faults at nuclear power stations could have been a millennium bug problem.

Sydney, which staged a six million dollar (3.8 million US) fireworks display, recouped that with tens of millions of public relations dollars according to Lord Mayor Frank Sartor citing prime time television space on networks such as CNN.

"I would say that event was worth to Sydney a lot more than the annual state tourism budget which is 35 million dollars or so," he said.

As 75 tonnes of rubbish was removed from city streets, New South Wales Premier Bob Carr branded the biggest party in Australian history a triumphant success, with the decision to let pubs operate around the clock vindicated.

The much-hyped arrival of the 21st century came in Kiribati in Micronesia and the Polynesian kingdom of Tonga, who both grabbed their moment of glory with deft manipulation of time zones.

On Millennium Island dancers swayed to a hymn of peace and unity. In Tonga a 10,000-voice choir sang the "hallelujah" chorus from Handel's Messiah.

New Zealand, the early frontrunner to be first into the millennium was left with producing the first baby of the century on a night of unseasonal rain, wind and low cloud.

"We're a bit disappointed by the weather, especially with the eyes of the world on us. But it's a great night anyway." Auckland couple, Joe and Veronica Meloni told the New Zealand Herald. As the clock ticked through midnight across East Asia, millions took to the streets of Tokyo, Manila, Seoul, Hong Kong, Beijing, Bangkok, Singapore, Taipei and Kuala Lumpur for parties, fireworks extravaganzas and official ceremonies.

In Japan millions of people flooded to temples, while 300,000 people crammed Seoul for a celebration of traditional culture and a plea for unification with the North.

In the Philippines, where the New Year is traditionally marked by all-night noisemaking with guns fired into the air and fireworks set off to scare away evil spirits, celebrations were marred with at least one fatality and more than 600 injured.

A girl was declared dead on arrival at a hospital in the southern city of Zamboanga after midnight after being hit by a stray bullet, hospital personnel said.

Malaysian police said millennium celebrations in Kuala Lumpur were generally peaceful.

However, six people were injured, three seriously, when hit by fireworks during a 10-minute display in a district outside the capital, according to the official Bernama news agency.

Bernama said hundreds of revellers, mostly youths, also "looted" a convenience store in the city Ñ taking food and drink without paying as celebrations were going on.

An employee was slapped when he asked one of them to pay for his drink and the store was left in a shambles.

Millennium festivities in Taipei proved too much for the public transport system as thousands of weary party goers tried to make their way home from special concerts and fireworks displays.

With the subway system clogged many people opted to spend the night in downtown pubs waiting for the congestions to ease.

Hong Kong aimed for the biggest percentage participation in millennium events with about 1.2 million people, about a sixth of the population, taking to the streets.

Across the border, hundreds of thousands of normally reserved Beijingers sang and danced in the street, while around 10,000 crowded various high points of Taishan, the most venerated of China's five sacred Taoist mountains, which myth said was the first spot to greet each dawn.

Astronomers however said the correct spot was 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) away in the sleepy 1,000-year-old fishing village of Shitang in coastal Zhejiang province.ÑAFP