World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

Spain sets out 8.9bn euros of new austerity measures

Spain has seen a number of large protests against the government's austerity measures

Spain's new conservative government has outlined 8.9bn euros ($11.5bn, £7.5bn) in new spending cuts and tax rises to lower the country's borrowing.

The announcement is the first in a wave of austerity measures, with a total of 16.5bn euros to be cut in 2012.

It also said Spain's 2011 deficit will be about 8% of its output - higher than the 6% seen by the previous government.

The Popular Party last month ousted the Socialists from power at elections amid deep economic gloom.

The government of new Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has vowed to meet Spain's target of reducing the public deficit to 4.4% of gross domestic product in 2012, no matter what.

On Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria maintained a freeze on public sector wages for another year and ruled out practically all government hiring.

"This is the beginning of the beginning," Ms Saenz de Santamaria said.

"We are facing an extraordinary, unexpected situation, which will force us to take extraordinary and unexpected measures."

Taxes on the wealthiest Spaniards will also be raised for at least two years, raising 6bn euros, she said.

Spain's borrowing costs have jumped in the last year - reaching as high as 6.7% for 10-year debts - as investors feared that Spain might join Greece, the Irish Republic and Portugal in needing a bailout.

The country's economy has shrunk sharply since a housing bubble burst in 2008, and it has an unemployment rate of 21%, the highest in Europe.

The austerity measures have sparked a number of large protests across the country.

[Mr Lick]

Singer Sinead O'Connor ends marriage after 16 days

Ms O'Connor married Mr Herridge in a ceremony in Las Vegas

Irish singer Sinead O'Connor has announced the end of her marriage to therapist Barry Herridge.

Writing on her blog, O'Connor blamed the end of her fourth marriage after only 16 days on disapproval from Mr Herridge's family and friends.

O'Connor admitted that they had "made a mistake rushing into getting married".
They were parting company "amicably", she said, calling Mr Herridge a "wonderful man".

She urged the media to respect his and his family's privacy.

The pair met earlier this year when Mr Herridge, 38, responded to an internet appeal O'Connor posted.

She said that within three hours of the ceremony, the marriage was "kyboshed by the behaviour of certain people in my husband's life".
Short-lived celebrity marriages

• Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries - married for 72 days in 2011
• Britney Spears and Jason Alexander - married for 55 hours in January 2004
• Zsa Zsa Gabor and Felipe de Alba - their 1983 marriage was annulled after a day because Ms Gabor had not divorced husband number seven
• Cher and Gregg Allman - married for nine days in 1975
• Dennis Hopper and Michelle Philips - married for eight days in 1970

She also blamed the split on taking her husband on what she described as "a bit of a wild ride" looking for marijuana on her wedding night, as she does not drink.
"My husband was enormously wounded and very badly effected (sic) by that experience and also by the attitude of those close to him toward our marriage," she wrote.

[Mr Lick]

Up Helly Aa vikings from Lerwick in the Shetland Islands stand with flaming torches during the annual torchlight procession to mark the start of Hogmanay (New Year) celebrations in Edinburgh Dec. 30, 2011. The annual torchlight procession starts at the Parliament Square and finishes with a fireworks display at Calton Hill in Edinburgh.

[Mr Lick]

Kurds carry the coffins of victims of a Turkish air raid, outside Uludere Hospital in Uludere, Sirnak province, on Dec. 30. The weeping mourners accompanied the coffins to the cemetery in Gulyazi village, near the Iraqi border, from the nearby town of Uludere where a service was held at the mosque.

[Mr Lick]

Palestinians carry the body of militant Momen Abu Daf during his funeral in Gaza City, Dec. 30. Israel killed the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired faction in the Gaza Strip on Friday, accusing him of involvement in firing rockets and a planned attack on the Jewish state from the neighboring Egyptian Sinai.

[Mr Lick]

Parvin Ahmadinejad,center, sister of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaks to the media while registering as a candidate for Iran's 2012 parliamentary election at the Interior Ministry building in Tehran, Dec. 30. Candidates began registering for Iran's parliamentary elections in March, the first litmus test of the clerical establishment's popularity since the 2009 disputed presidential vote.

[Mr Lick]

South Korean shopkeeper Kim Young-Shik has been impersonating Kim Jong Il for over 15 years, making appearances in advertisements and at birthday parties and even singing at weddings.

Now, he wistfully admits that it may be time to hang up his dark glasses, and for a younger man to step forward to play the role of the new "Great Leader", Kim Jong Un.
"I feel very empty," he told AFP. "I'd like to do more acting as Kim Jong Il, but they'll find someone new for Jong Un. They asked if my son looked like him but he doesn't or I would have sent him to an audition,'' he said.

[Mr Lick]

Caracas, Venezuela: A plate of a burned-out car at the scene of an accident in which reportedly 14 people were killed



Israel: Israeli Apache helicopters release flares during an air force pilots' graduation ceremony at Hatzerim air base



Wuppertal, Germany: Baby elephant Uli resists the weigh-in at the zoo's annual inventory



Chulmleigh, UK: Liberty the last ex-battery hen to be rehoused is fed. The small battery hen cage has been phased out and replaced by more spacious 'enriched cages'



Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: People push a boat filled with flowers into the sea off Copacabana beach as an offering for Yemanja, the goddess of the sea



Lima, Peru: Peruvian shamans make a ritual of predictions for 2012, at San Cristobal hill



Harbin, China: Children of migrant workers lie on the snow to form the number 2012 while celebrating the coming new year in front of a snow sculpture

[Mr Lick]

Liverpool v Newcastle



Costing £35 million from Newcastle (in case you'd forgotten), Andy Carroll was bought to score the goals that would hoist Liverpool up the Premier League table. Instead the Reds go into the match against Newcastle having scored fewer goals than either of the division's two bottom clubs, Blackburn and Bolton, and Carroll's contribution this season has been paltry. But with Luis Suárez suspended tonight, Carroll is in the starting line-up



After a drab opening, Newcastle take the lead in fortuitous circumstances in the 25th minute. Demba Ba half-heartedly claims the goal, but in truth Daniel Agger inadvertently shouldered the ball into his own net after a curling left wing cross was glanced on by Yohan Cabaye



Liverpool respond swiftly when Craig Bellamy lashes home after Charlie Adam's low cross is only half cleared






Steven Gerrard replaces Charlie Adam during the second half to an uproarious reception from the Kop



Bellamy bags his second of the night with what was either an intelligent or totally mis-placed free-kick. His effort is aimed driectly for the centre of the goal where the Newcastle keeper Tim Krul is waiting, but the movement of Andy Carroll, plus an unnecessary intervention from Danny Simpson, prevents him making an effective save. Did Bellamy anticipate such havoc? He may well have done



Carroll has been having a greater impact on the game in the second half and at one point he thumps the crossbar with a header from Gerrard's cross



Gerrard himself then rounds off the victory with a run to the byline, which he finishes by slipping the ball between Krul's legs from an acute position



Gerrard is back in business and Liverpool are up to fifth in the table. Who needs Luis Suárez?

[Mr Lick]

How the world prepares for New Year's Eve



Edinburgh, Scotland: Some of the 5.5 tonnes of fireworks at Edinburgh Castle for the city's Hogmanay celebrations



Madrid, Spain: A clockmaker checks and adjusts the Puerta del Sol Square clock, the emblematic chronometer that will ring the bells bidding farewell to 2011 and welcoming the new year



New York, USA: Organisers toss confetti from a window during the annual air worthiness test in Times Square during preparations for New Year's Eve celebrations

[Mr Lick]

Ahmedabad, India: A man has his beard trimmed into the shape of 2012 to welcome the New Year



Hong Kong: Models wearing different national costumes smile during a promotional event outside the Times Square shopping mall, a popular New Year countdown venue



Beijing, China: A lighting test for the new year gala at the Temple of Heaven Park

[Mr Lick]

Bocaue, Philippines: Women make pyrotechnics in a backyard factory for new year



New York, USA: Workers install some of the 288 Waterford crystals, featuring this year's Let There Be Friendship design, on the Times Square New Year's Eve ball



Singapore: Marina Bay Sands is lit up by a spectacular light display during rehearsals for New Year's celebrations



Jakarta, Indonesia: A vendor waits for customers as he sell paper trumpets for New Year's Eve

[Mr Lick]

Trader Peter Tuchman of Quattro M Securities Inc. wears "2012" glasses as he works on the main trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange during the final trading day of 2011 in New York December 30, 2011.



A German customs officer displays Polish made fireworks that were confiscated at the German-Polish border in Frankfurt/Oder, December 28, 2011. Polish-made fireworks, or so called Polenboeller, are cheaper and often have a much stronger firepower than similar German products. In many cases the fireworks, popular for New Year's celebrations, do not comply with German health and safety regulations and have repeatedly been reported to have caused severe injuries when exploding unexpectedly, the custom office's spokes person said.



Cars drive on a street which is illuminated for New Year's Eve in Tbilisi, Georgia

[Mr Lick]

New Year 2012 - Wishing you all a great 2012 - Mr Lick

Celebrations around the world



Sydney



Sydney again



Messages sent in balloons from Tokyo



South Korea



Beijing



Hong Kong



Taipei



Moscow

[Mr Lick]

Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters assist a man out of his apartment along with a cage of birds as multiple cars burn in a carport in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles on Saturday, Dec. 31. For the third night in a row, a rash of arson fires has sent firefighters scrambling to extinguish car fires in various neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Most of the fires on this night occurred in the San Fernando Valley.

Officials announced at least $35,000 in rewards for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons responsible.

All of the Friday's fires were in a 2-square mile area and most were in densely populated residential neighborhoods where residents would likely be asleep.

[Mr Lick]

This handout picture taken by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Dec. 28, 2011 shows the funeral procession for North Korea's late leader Kim Jong-Il arriving at the square of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang. This picture has created interest, due to the presence of an unusually tall attendee, seen below, lower right, next to the flag pole.

[Mr Lick]

West Bank: a Palestinian protester kicks a teargas canister fired by Israeli soldiers during a protest against the Jewish settlement of Qadomem, near the city of Nablus. Seven Palestinians were wounded during the clashes



Yemen: an anti-government protester wears bands on his eyes and mouth, to protest against alleged police torture of detained protesters, during a rally to demand that Yemen's outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh be put on trial



Chicago, US: fog descends upon Millennium Park as a lone pedestrian walks in front of a monolithic projection at Crown Fountain



India: newly recruited Indian border security force soldiers congratulate each other after a passing-out parade ceremony in Humhama, on the outskirts of Srinagar. 444 recruits, formally inducted into the BSF, will join Indian soldiers fighting separatist guerrillas in Kashmir to try to end an insurgency that started in 1989

[Mr Lick]

New Year celebrations around the world - more pics



Worshippers of Yemanja, the Goddess of the Sea gather at Paranoa Lake beach in Brasilia



Women spell out 2012 with sparklers in the Philippine capital, Manila



Pakistani Christians hold crosses as they light candles to pray for peace in Lahore



Fireworks explode near Malaysia's landmark, Petronas Towers, which are reflected in a pool during the New Year celebrations in Kuala Lumpur



Thousands of performers gather at the start of the Johannesburg Carnival



Schoolchildren in Jiujiang, China, show lanterns with 2012 written on them in Jiangxi province

[Mr Lick]

The Temple of Heaven is lit up with special light displays to welcome the new year of 2012 in Beijing, China



Balinese dancers perform as they take part in a cultural parade on New Year's Eve in Denpasar, Indonesia



Fireworks explode in downtown Jakarta, Indonesia



A man wearing 2012 glasses poses as he celebrates the New Year in Madrid



New Year reveller Paul Kindle kisses his girlfriend Rachel Fletcher at the Hogmanay street party celebration in Edinburgh



Fireworks over the London Eye, in central London, as part of the New Year celebrations

[Mr Lick]

Marco Fois of Italy dives into the Tiber River from the Cavour bridge, as part of traditional New Year celebrations in Rome Sunday.



Despite temperatures of around 52 degrees Fahrenheit, thousands of people celebrate the New Year by running into the North Sea at Scheveningen, near The Hague, Netherlands.



New Year revelers, many in fancy dress, braved freezing conditions in the River Forth in front of the Forth Rail Bridge during the annual "Loony Dook" swim Sunday.



A winter bather of the "Berlin Seals" poses in near-freezing water of the Orankesee lake during a New Year's swimming event Sunday.

[Mr Lick]

A resident looks for his belongings in his home that was destroyed during an explosion in Yangon December 29, 2011. At least 17 people died and 80 were injured in the early morning explosion at an industrial district on Thursday in an eastern suburb of Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, police said.



Woman stand together during a demonstration to demand the trial of Yemen's outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa December 29, 2011.



Sarah Schleper from the U.S. holding her 4 year old son Lasse clears a gate during her last slalom World Cup race in the Tyrolean ski resort of Lienz, Austria December 29, 2011.



Actors Michael Maertens (L) and Sunnyi Melles perform on stage during a dress rehearsal of Woody Allen's 'Eine Mittsommernachts-Sex-Komoedie' (A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy) at Burgtheater in Vienna December 29, 2011. The play is directed by Matthias Hartmann and will premiere on December 31.



A boy rests on top of sacks containing relief goods while waiting for distribution in an evacuation center in the southern Philippines city of Cagayan de Oro on Mindanao island December 29, 2011. The death in the Philippines from one of the country's worst natural disaster in two decades has risen to 1,249 with about 1,100 missing, disaster officials said on Monday, as communist rebels said people responsible should be punished.



A disabled Israeli soldier, Ben Naim, 21, slides down a zip line at the Tower of David Museum, near Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Old City December 29, 2011. In light of International Day of Persons with Disabilities marked earlier this month, a local non-profit organization funded by Israel's national insurance institute held the event in which physically challenged youths from the organisation had a chance to abseil and ride zip lines near the walls of the Old City.

[Mr Lick]

UK new year 2012













Edinburgh

[Mr Lick]

Soap star Michael Le Vell cleared in child sex case

Mr Le Vell had strenuously denied the allegations

Coronation Street actor Michael Le Vell has been cleared of child sex allegations.
The actor, who plays mechanic Kevin Webster in the soap, was arrested at his home in Hale, Greater Manchester, in September.

He was questioned and released on bail on suspicion of a sexual offence involving a young girl.

Police confirmed that after their investigation lawyers decided there was not enough evidence to charge him.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: "No further action will be taken against a 46-year-old male from Hale, arrested on suspicion of an [historical] sexual assault.

"A file of evidence was prepared for the Crown Prosecution Service, who decided there was insufficient evidence to charge."

[Mr Lick]

Aum Shinrikyo cult fugitive surrenders to Japan police

Makoto Hirata (rear centre) was arrested on suspicion of abduction

A former member of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult has turned himself in to police after nearly 17 years on the run, one of three remaining fugitives.

Japanese police said Makoto Hirata gave himself up at a police station in Tokyo just before midnight on New Year's Eve.

He had been in hiding since the cult's sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, which killed 13 people.

He was immediately arrested on suspicion of conspiring to kidnap the brother of a follower of the cult.

The man he is accused of abducting died after being given an injection at Aum's main commune at the foot of Mount Fuji, officials said.

Only two other members of the cult are still being sought by police. They went on the run after the gas attack in Tokyo, which injured 6,000 people.

Nearly 200 Aum Shinrikyo members have been convicted of that attack and other crimes.

Thirteen are awaiting execution, after judges in November upheld the death sentence against the final member of the cult to be charged over the 1995 attack.



Cult leader Shoko Asahara is among those on death row

[Mr Lick]

Sweden: Wedding ring 'found on carrot' after 16 years

Lena Paahlsson says the ring was on a small carrot she was about to discard

A Swedish woman has discovered her wedding ring on a carrot growing in her garden, 16 years after she lost it, says a newspaper.

Lena Paahlsson had long ago lost hope of finding the ring, which she designed herself, reports Dagens Nyheter.

The white-gold band, set with seven small diamonds, went missing in her kitchen in 1995, she told the paper.

Although the ring no longer fits, she hopes to have it enlarged so she can wear it again.

Mrs Paahlsson and her family live on a farm near Mora in central Sweden.

She took the ring off to do some Christmas baking with her daughters, but it disappeared from the work surface where it had been left, she explained to Dagens Nyheter.

The family searched everywhere and years later took up the tiling on the floor during renovations, in the hope of finding the ring.

It was not until 16 years later when Mrs Paahlsson was pulling up carrots in her garden that she noticed one with the gold band fastened tightly around it.

Lena Paahlsson and husband Ola say it is incredible that the ring has been found

"The carrot was sprouting in the middle of the ring. It is quite incredible," her husband Ola said to the newspaper.

The couple believe the ring fell into a sink back in 1995 and was lost in vegetable peelings that were turned into compost or fed to their sheep.

"I had given up hope," Mrs Paahlsson told Dagens Nyheter, adding that she wanted to have the ring adjusted to fit her.

"Now that I have found the ring again I want to be able to use it," she said.