Much of the world welcomed 2001 with fireworks, good cheer and optimism, and even in troubled lands the hope of a better future prevailed. Dance of Defiance In Argentina, police blocked off Corrientes Avenue in Buenos Aires to create space for a New Year's Eve tango-fest. Pakistan's militant Muslims warned against celebrations and deployed extra soldiers to make sure no dancing took place, and authorities in Lebanon and Syria warned celebrants to leave their guns at home.
Some people think that gunfire and fireworks reflect happiness.
They are very dangerous. Lebanese authorities banned firing into the air after the nation's civil war ended in 1990. However, shooting remains a New Year's Eve tradition. Jumpers Jumping In Paris, a thousand drummers from all over Europe were recruited to beat the countdown to midnight in unison at the Georges Pompidou Center. Fifteen parachutists from the United States, Europe and Asia leaped from the old millennium to the new as midnight chimed today, using the world's tallest skyscrapers as a launch pad.