The Eiffel Tower will become a “giant Chistmas tree” as Paris rings in the New Year with a spectacular light and music show, city officials said Wednesday.

The “unique and magical” display will round off a year which saw the tower, one of the world’s most visited sites, mark its 120th birthday and usher in a new decade.

The fete begins at 11:30 pm with the 12-minute display that has been shown every night since October to mark the anniversary, using state-of-the-art LED spotlights.

The Mandarin Royal Hotel, a 44-storey luxury hotel in the center of Beijing burned completely yesterday in a massive fire during the final celebrations for the Chinese New Year.

The luxury hotel has been under construction for 7 years and was due to open later this year.

There are some suggestions that a firework may have started the blaze.

Sol Kerzner, the flamboyant hotelier, is to launch his new Dubai resort with a party so extravagant that organisers claim it will be seen from space.

The event, for the grand opening of the $1.5 billion Atlantis, The Palm, will have 2,000 VIP guests. Kylie Minogue will perform – her first concert in the Middle East – and the final bill for the four-day beachside celebrations is estimated to exceed $30 million, the London Telegraph reports.

The 1,500 room resort, located on the world’s largest manmade island, the Palm Jumeirah ( which has been built to resemble a palm tree when seen from above) features 16 restaurants including a branch of Nobu, and is partially bankrolled by the Dubai Royal Family.

Dubai heralded the new year as only it knows how to, by trying to outdo everyone on planet earth. As always, it had to be the biggest and best spectacular that anyone has ever seen.

Their attempt was to break the world record for a fireworks display.

Grucci, the fireworks company that created displays at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, was hired by organizers to create the world’s largest fireworks display – reaching as high as 1,000 feet reports UPI.

Via thedubailife