People

Party Square

New York city Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and a young Chinese gymnast ushered in 1999 at Times Square amid fireworks and tons of confetti, as a record500,000 people cheered on in frigid weather. Giuliani and Sang Lan, the 17-year-old gymnast who was partially paralyzed after a bad practice fall during the Goodwill Games in August, pressed the button together that dropped the New Year8217;s Ball hanging over number one, Times Square. 8220;This is a special honour not only for me, but also for the Chinese people,8221; Sang told reporters hours earlier. 8220;She8217;s really an exceptional woman, the kind of person that I think exemplifies the very, very best. A person of tremendous courage, tremendous spirit,8221; Giuliani said of the young athlete. Some half-a-million people braved minus five degrees Celsius temperatures to celebrate the beginning of the last year of the millennium.The festivities and the enormous crowd, in record number, was also a dress rehearsal for what has been tagged the 8220;biggest party in history8221; for the year 2000. 8220;This is the biggest celebration ever,8221; Giuliani told CNN. 8220;Hard to believe it can be bigger than this, but already we8217;re planningfor the Crossroads of the World,8217; the millennium celebration right here in Times Square,8221; next year.

Gore for President

United States Vice President Al Gore was set to mail papers to federal election officials that would make him a candidate for the 2000 presidential race, CNN reported. The Vice President, long rumored to be a contender for the Democratic Party8217;s nomination, was to take that step on Friday. Once the papers have been filed with the Federal Election Commission and Gore8217;s campaign raises and spends 5,000, Gore officially would become a presidential candidate, the television network said. Gore, considered the Front-runner for his party8217;s nod, was likely to face criticism from other Democratic contenders over his central role in the scandal-plagued administration of President Bill Clinton. Clinton8217;s second and final term ends in January 2001.

Pope8217;s prayer

Pope John Paul II hoped for better times in 1999 for those who have suffered through the last year. In his traditionalnew year message at the Saint Ignatius of Loyola church in the heart of Rome, the aged pontiff thanked God for the blessings of 1998 but also recalled the tragedies and problems, including 8220;the families hit by economic difficulties. the despair of the young with little hope for the future, the suffering of the ill, the aged and those who live alone,8221; as well as those homeless and 8220;abandoned by society8221;.

No rescue, this

A Briton who saw his wife killed when Yemeni forces botched a bid to rescue them was forced to change his account to fit in with the official Yemeni version, British newspapers reported. Laurence Whitehouse8217;s wife Margaret was one of four westerners who died in the shootout between Yemeni forces and the Islamic militant captors. Some survivors have blamed the Government side for beginning the shooting, although Yemeni officials say they only intervened after the kidnappers began killing some of their 16 captives.Whitehouse told British reporters in Aden that he had been made tochange one part of his statement, where he had said the bullets that killed his wife Margaret 8220;could have been anybody8217;s8221;. 8220;The Yemeni colonel did not like that and wanted it deleted. I deleted it,8221; said Whitehouse, 54. 8220;They were unhappy with my suggestion that Margaret might have been killed by their Army who were meant to be rescuing us.8221;

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