Limited revellers return to Times Square to usher in 2022
CTV
New York City readied to embrace the new year -- and bid good riddance to another pandemic-marred 12 months -- as it revived its annual New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square, after forgoing a public event last year.
It did so as an uneasy nation tried to muster optimism that the worst days of the pandemic are now behind it -- even as public health officials cautioned Friday against unbridled celebrations amid surging COVID-19 infections from the omicron variant.
The year marched across the globe, time zone by time zone, and thousands of New Year's revellers stood shoulder to shoulder in a slight chill to await the festivities.
Mary Gonzalez stood a few feet behind a crowd, wanting to keep her distance from anyone unwittingly carrying the virus into the celebration.
"I'm happy that 2021 is over because it caused a lot of problems for everybody," said Gonzalez, who was visiting from Mexico City and wanted to take in an American tradition. "We hope that 2022 is much better than this year."
Five children from Connecticut, ranging in age from 8 to 17, were killed in a fiery early morning crash Sunday on a New York highway, police said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the occupied port city of Mariupol, his first trip to Ukrainian territory that Moscow illegally annexed in September and a show of defiance after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges.
Top Republicans, including some of Donald Trump's potential rivals for the GOP's 2024 presidential nomination, rushed to his defence Saturday after Trump said he is bracing for possible arrest.
The Memphis police supervisor on scene when Tyre Nichols was beaten to death by officers retired the day before a hearing to fire him, according to documents filed to revoke his law enforcement certification.
On the eve of the expiration of a deal enabling Ukraine to export grain, Russia's U.N. ambassador reiterated that Moscow is ready to extend the deal -- but only for 60 days, just half the 120 days in the agreement.
Law enforcement officials in New York are making security preparations for the possibility that former President Donald Trump could be indicted in the coming weeks and appear in a Manhattan courtroom in an investigation examining hush money paid to women who alleged sexual encounters with him, four law enforcement officials said Friday.
Protests against French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to force a bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 through parliament without a vote disrupted traffic, garbage collection and university campuses in Paris as opponents of the change maintained their resolve to get the government to back down.
Two decades after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, young Iraqis deplored the loss of stability that followed Saddam's downfall -- but they said the war is in the past, and many were hopeful about nascent freedoms and opportunities to pursue their dreams.
North Korea said Friday that its latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch was intended to send a 'stronger warning' over combined U.S. military exercises with South Korea, blaming those for creating a 'most unstable security environment' in the region.
An Oklahoma man has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to killing three people, including a woman whose heart was cut from her body, weeks after being released from prison as part of a mass commutation effort.
Some 2.5 tons of natural uranium stored in a site in war-torn Libya have gone missing, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Thursday, raising safety and proliferation concerns.