New York

USA(AP) — Revelers around the globe are bidding farewell to a decade that will be remembered for the rise of social media, the Arab Spring, the #MeToo movement and, of course, President Donald Trump. A look at how the world is ushering in 2020:

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NEW YORK

Fireworks burst and confetti fell as throngs of revelers cheered the start of 2020 in New York City’s Times Square.

In one of the globe’s most-watched New Year’s Eve spectacles, the crowd counted down the last seconds of 2019 as a luminescent crystal ball descended down a pole.

MONSEY, N.Y. (AP) — A man charged with federal hate crimes Monday in a bloody attack on a Hanukkah celebration had handwritten journals containing anti-Semitic references and had recently used his phone to look up information on Hitler and the location of synagogues, authorities said.

Grafton Thomas, 37, was held without bail after appearing in federal court in White Plains on five counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by attempting to kill with a dangerous weapon. Five people were stabbed and slashed in the Saturday attack north of New York City.

30 December 2019; AFP: A suspect appeared in a New York court on Sunday charged with five counts of attempted murder after a stabbing spree at a rabbi's suburban house that left Hanukkah celebrants throwing furniture to defend themselves.

It was the latest in a spate of attacks on Jewish targets.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 30 (NNN-Xinhua) — Head of the UN Alliance of Civilizations, Miguel Angel Moratinos, has condemned Saturday’s mass stabbings in a rabbi’s home in US New York State during the Jewish Hanukkah celebration.

Moratinos believed that such cowardly attacks should not be tolerated and should be unequivocally denounced, said Nihal Saad, his spokesperson, in a statement.

This anti-Semitic attack is yet another hate crime targeting Jewish people, said Moratinos.

NEW YORK, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that Saturday's mass stabbing at a rabbi's house in upstate New York was an act of domestic terrorism.

The governor made the remarks while visiting the scene in the small town of Monsey, some 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City with a large orthodox Jewish community.

Dozens were celebrating the Jewish traditional festival of Hanukkah at the home of rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, when a man brandishing a machete walked in and stabbed and injured five people.

NEW YORK (AP) — When a suspect walked into the home of a rabbi celebrating Hanukkah and stabbed five celebrants it was the latest in a week of anti-Semitic attacks in the nation’s most demographically diverse area — and an incident that reverberated across the country.

“Again, here we are: mourning another act of senseless anti-Semitic violence committed against our community and praying for those who were the victims of this hate,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement Sunday following the attack a day earlier in Monsey, New York.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 29 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has strongly condemned the deadly terrorist attack in Somalia on Saturday, stressing that the perpetrators must be brought to justice.

At least 79 people died and scores more were wounded when a car bomb exploded at a busy checkpoint in the capital, Mogadishu. Many of the victims were students.

The UN chief described the attack as “this horrendous crime”, according to a statement issued by his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Over the past few months, a number of countries' UN-bound diplomats have suffered visa delays or denials by the U.S. government, for which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced his concern recently.

On Thursday, Guterres' spokesperson said the secretary-general "remains very concerned" about delays in the issuance of U.S. visas to multiple member states' officials and academia.

WASHINGTON, Dec 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The unprecedented increase in tariffs, imposed by the United States against its major trading partners, since early 2018, led to job losses and higher prices for the American manufacturing sector, according to a Federal Reserve study, released earlier this week.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 29 (NNN-TASS) – Over the past few months, a number of countries’ UN-bound diplomats, suffered visa delays or denials, by the U.S. government, for which UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, voiced his concern, recently.

Guterres’ spokesperson said, the secretary-general “remains very concerned” about delays in the issuance of U.S. visas, to multiple member states’ officials.