“Happy Secure Year!”

“New York is banning backpacks in Times Square, Bangkok tightened security and Sydney cracked down on public drinking as police around the world geared up for millions of New Year’s Eve revelers. The cities said the extra police presence was in the works even before the arrest this week of a 23-year-old Nigerian for trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet. An al-Qaeda group took responsibility for the attempt and threatened more attacks. ‘We always assume the worst,’ New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kellytold reporters this week. The Dec. 25 Northwest incident ‘doesn’t cause us necessarily to re-evaluate specifically, but we always think that we’re up against an intelligent, cunning foe here.’ New York City is putting up barriers and deploying uniformed and undercover officers as hundreds of thousands of people are expected in Times Square to watch the New Year’s Eve Ball drop. The city is searching garages for bombs and setting up detectors for radiation and biological agents.”