5 Things to Know on the First Day of 2015
— -- 1. Happy New Year!
Fireworks, light shows, music and other revelry blazed around the globe from Australia and Asia, through Europe and to the Americas.
Amid the revelry, however, there was also tragedy. In Shanghai, China, 35 people died and 43 were injured in a stampede during New Year's Eve celebrations shortly before midnight, government officials said, according to The Associated Press.
Elsewhere, however the shows went on, with drones capturing Sydney's New Year's light and fireworks show and LED lights on a skyscraper underpinning one of the evening's most lavish displays in Dubai.
2. AirAsia Flight 8501 Searchers Race 'Against Time and Weather'
Searchers trying to recover the dead from AirAsia Flight 8501 raced "against time and weather" Thursday as wind and heavy rain prevented a lengthy search for wreckage of the plane.
Seven bodies have been recovered from the Java Sea where the plane crashed Sunday with 162 people on board. Strong currents and rough seas are believed to be moving debris, including what officials said early in the search was what appeared to be a large part of the missing plane.
"It's possible the bodies are in the fuselage," said Vice Air Marshal Sunarbowo Sandi, search and rescue coordinator in Pangkalan Bun, according to The Associated Press. "So it's a race now against time and weather."
3. Storm Brings Snow, Cold to West for New Year's
Bundled-up revelers planning to usher in 2015 along the Las Vegas Strip or watch flower-decorated floats in the Rose Parade in Southern California were dealing with near-freezing temperatures early Thursday after a blustery winter storm dumped show and ice across the West, reports The Associated Press.
Wednesday's storm made driving treacherous in the mountains from California to the Rockies, and forced residents and party-goers in some usually sun-soaked cities to bundle up for a frosty New Year's.
Giddy residents in Southern California foothills snapped photos of snow-covered lawns as kids tossed snowballs. In suburban Phoenix, swimming pools and cactus-lined backyards were dusted with snowflakes.
4. College Football Playoff Semifinals
The inaugural college football playoff begins today with two afternoon bowl games.
In the Rose Bowl, defending national champion Florida State plays Oregon. The match-up pits the last two winners of the Heisman Trophy - Oregon's Marcus Mariota and FSU's Jameis Winston - against each other.
In the Sugar Bowl, Alabama faces Ohio State. Buckeyes quarterback Cardale Jones is making only his second career start.
5. Hoax Threat May Have Led to FBI Sony Alert
Federal authorities are trying to determine whether a threat to news media that covered the Sony hack was a hoax by a tweeter who says he was just “messing around.”
The FBI and the Homeland Security issued a joint intelligence bulletin last week by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security to law enforcement agencies across the country.
The bulletin lays out much of what the public already knows: threats against Sony in late November if it released “The Interview,” the massive cyber-hack of Sony days later, the subsequent threat of a 9/11-style attack on theaters showing the film, and then Sony’s hesitation in releasing the film.