From Washington,this is VOA News.

Fireworks are crackling through the night skies around the world as revelers celebrate the first moments of 2014.

Crowds gathered in public spaces in major cities across the Asia-Pacific region to ring in the new year with music, fireworks and revelry. The night skies in New Zealand, Australia and Hongkong start the world wide celebrations of the new year.

Dubai created what it called the world's largest fireworks show. And about a million people are expected to gather in New York's Times Square to watch a giant ball drop at the stroke of midnight,five hours from now, the best known of the American New Year's Eve rituals.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used a new year's address to warn terrorists he will fight them unitl their "total destruction," following the two suicide bombings in the southern city of Volgograd on Sunday and Monday that left 34 people dead.

Mr Putin said that at the country's most trying times, Russia has always been united and consolidated.

Representatives for South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar have arrived in Addis Ababa Ethiopia for talks on ending deadly civil unrest that broke out earlier this month.

The tribal bloodshed erupted when President Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, accused Machar, an ethnic Nuer, of attempting a coup.

The U.N. says the fighting has left more than 1,000 people dead and displaced tens of thousands.

Israel freed 26 more Palestinian prisoners who were jailed for deadly attacks on Israeli civilians, most of them more than twenty years ago.

It is the third scedule release under an agreement to revive peace talks between the two sides.

VOA Scott Bobb reports.

Ramadan Yakoub is tasting freedom for the first time in 21 years. Until a few hours ago, he was in prison, convicted of killing an Israeli woman.

His release brought to 78 the number of long-term Palestinian prisoners freed as part of confidence-building measures to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks

The release early Tuesday brought joyous celebration and welcome from the head of the Palestinian authority,Mahmoud Abbas.

"This day is a happy day for all of us, for our people, for our families, and for our hero prisoners who were freed today to live free."

But the release angered many Israelis, who view the former prisoners as terrorists.

Scott Bobb VOA News WEST BANK.

The United States freed the last three Uighur prisoners from Guantanamo Bay for their new lives in Slovakia.
 
The men, Muslims from China, were among 22 Uighurs arrested in Afghanistan and held as alleged terrorists.

The Syrian government missed a Tuesday deadline for moving its deadliest chemical weapons components out of the country, with international monitors attributing the delay to unspecified security concerns and bad weather.

Under an internationally brokered deal announced earlier in 2013, Damascus was to have shipped its most lethal chemicals -- including about 20 tons of mustard nerve agent -- out of the Mediterranean port of Latakia by December 31. The toxins are slated for destruction at sea, with a mid-2014 deadline looming for the removal of the entire Syrian chemical arsenal.

Pakistan’s former military president Pervez Musharraf goes on trial for treason today. He said the charge was unfounded and the result of a political vendetta.

Ayaz Gul has the details.

In a special video message to a gathering of more than 200 retired army generals in Islamabad Tuesday, former Pakistan’s military ruler Pervez Musharraf vowed to “boldly” confront the treason trial and other legal challenges facing him to prove them wrong.

“All these cases are framed cases. I have not done anything for myself, for my family’s benefit. I only acted for the country and for its people."

Pakistani authorities say they have put in place tight security measures to ensure resumption of the legal proceedings. Mr Musharraf faces the death penalty if found guilty.

Ayaz Gul VOA News ISLAMABAD.

A senior Iranian nuclear negotiator said Iran and world powers have made "good progress" in talks on how to implement an agreement regarding the country's nuclear program.

Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that "some issues remain" after experts from both sides met in Geneva Tuesday.