Yugoslavia Celebrations

After hours of swaying trance-like and chanting Islamic prayers, the dervishes who live in Serbia's Kosovo province began the ultimate test of their faith. Crowded before a dervish altar, the little boys went first. Shejh Xhemali Shehu, the holy father of the clan, blessed a metal spear the size of a knitting needle and then guided it through the fleshy cheek of each youngster's beaming face. No blood. A miracle, the holy father proclaimed. The older men went next.

After hours of swaying trance-like and chanting Islamic prayers, the dervishes who live in Serbia's Kosovo province began the ultimate test of their faith. Crowded before a dervish altar, the little boys went first. Shejh Xhemali Shehu, the holy father of the clan, blessed a metal spear the size of a knitting needle and then guided it through the fleshy cheek of each youngster's beaming face. No blood. A miracle, the holy father proclaimed. The older men went next.

Under a sky dotted by fireworks, tens of thousands of festive anti-government demonstrators poured into downtown Belgrade on Tuesday to ring in the New Year--literally--with hand-held alarm clocks set at midnight. The clocks, they said, symbolized that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's time is running out. For his part, Milosevic used the New Year's celebration to send a rare, televised message to his citizens, promising better salaries, more investment and vague reforms.

Under a sky dotted by fireworks, tens of thousands of festive anti-government demonstrators poured into downtown Belgrade on Tuesday to ring in the New Year--literally--with hand-held alarm clocks set at midnight. The clocks, they said, symbolized that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's time is running out. For his part, Milosevic used the New Year's celebration to send a rare, televised message to his citizens, promising better salaries, more investment and vague reforms.

Much of the world welcomed 2001 today with fireworks, good cheer and optimism, and even in troubled lands the hope of a better future prevailed. Yugoslavia's celebrations, the first since the ouster of former President Slobodan Milosevic, were dubbed "the first free New Year." Heavy rains in the last few days brought some relief from power cuts in Yugoslavia by boosting water levels behind power dams.