It's a wet wait for a new year in New York

A New York City K-9 unit walks past revellers gathered in New York as they take part in a New Year's celebration. Photo / AP

United States: A rainy New Year's Eve in New York has some Times Square revellers ponying up to keep dry, while police are scrapping plans to deploy a drone to keep watch over the crowd for the first time. The damp, but mild weather saw people paying up to US$10 for the kind of plastic ponchos that sell for less than US$2 at Walmart. Larissa Duke, of Ontario, Canada, went for a more frugal option. The 22-year-old college student wrapped herself in a garbage bag and placed the top of an umbrella on her head to stay dry. Umbrellas were banned from the celebration, so Duke had to discard the shaft of the umbrella at a security checkpoint. This year, the temperature will be 7-10C, but rain is expected to linger.

Bangladesh: The day after winning a record fourth term in power, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina trumpeted her accomplishments and dismissed opposition claims that the vote was rigged. Hasina's ruling alliance won virtually every parliamentary seat in the general election, according to official results, giving her a third consecutive term despite opposition allegations of intimidation. Hasina earlier served a single term. The coalition led by Hasina's Awami League party won 288 out of 300 seats — 96 per cent — the Election Commission Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed said. The opposition alliance led by prominent lawyer Kamal Hossain won only seven seats.

United States: Elizabeth Smart says people with a history of child abuse and sexual violence like the one who helped kidnapped her should be housed as far away from schools as possible. Smart issued the statement after learning that the woman who helped abduct her when she was a teenager is living in a Salt Lake City apartment a couple of blocks from a school. Utah's sex-offender registry lists 73-year-old Wanda Barzee as living near Parkview Elementary School while she's on federal supervised release. Barzee pleaded guilty to helping her husband abduct Smart at knifepoint in 2002 when she was 14. Sex offenders in Utah are prohibited from going on school grounds.

Vatican City: The Vatican spokesman, Greg Burke, and his deputy resigned abruptly amid an overhaul of the Vatican's communications operations and a crisis period in Pope Francis' papacy. The departures of Burke and his deputy, Paloma Garcia Ovejero, signalled that the problems associated with Francis' reform of the Vatican bureaucracy had come to a head, and at a very bad time: The Pope is struggling to address a global sex abuse and cover-up scandal that threatens his own legacy. Francis nevertheless accepted the resignations, which take effect tomorrow. He named a longtime member of the Vatican's communications operations, Alessandro Gisotti, as an interim replacement for Burke.

I joined the Vatican in 2012. The experience has been fascinating, to say the least. Thank you, Pope Francis. Un abrazo muy fuerte. pic.twitter.com/joxX4YoYSn

— Greg Burke (@GregBurkeRome) December 31, 2018

United States: Former House of Cards star Kevin Spacey must appear in a Massachusetts court on accusations that he groped a young man in 2016, a judge ruled. The 59-year-old Oscar-winning actor had argued he should be excused from attending his January 7 arraignment at the Nantucket District Court because his presence would "amplify the negative publicity already generated in connection with this case". But Judge Thomas Barrett denied Spacey's request. Spacey has said he will plead not guilty to felony indecent assault and battery. The allegations were first brought in November 2017, when former Boston TV anchor Heather Unruh told reporters that Spacey groped her teenage son during a chance encounter in the crowded bar of a Nantucket restaurant.

The Netherlands: Dutch military police evacuated passengers from a departure area at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport for a short time due to a bomb threat, police said. The Royal Marechaussee police force said in a tweet that officers overpowered a suspect and quickly lifted the evacuation order. An update from the military force's Twitter account said the suspect was a 51-year-old Canadian man who was held for questioning. The force in the Netherlands did not identify him. It said no explosives were found at Schiphol Airport.

Schiphol airport evacuated after reports of man yelling ‘I have a bomb’https://t.co/NRQOg19idi

— Metro (@MetroUK) December 31, 2018

United States: Investigators say they have an image from surveillance video of a ute whose driver fired several shots into a car carrying a family, killing a 7-year-old girl and wounding the child's mother. Harris County sheriff's Lieutenant Christopher Sandoval told reporters that the image of the red, four-door ute was captured shortly before the shooting occurred. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez declined to speculate on what prompted the driver to fire into the car carrying Jazmine Barnes, three of her sisters and her mother. Jazmine died at the scene, her mother suffered a gunshot wound to the arm and her 6-year-old sister was injured by shattered glass. The mother, 30-year-old LaPorsha Washington, remained in a hospital. Gonzalez described the shooting as "totally unprovoked".

Space: A Nasa spacecraft has gone into orbit around an ancient asteroid, setting a pair of records. The Osiris-Rex spacecraft entered orbit around the asteroid Bennu, 110 million km from Earth. It's the smallest celestial body ever to be orbited by a spacecraft. Bennu is just 500m across. The spacecraft's laps are barely 1.5km above the asteroid's surface, another record.

The zoological park intern killed by an escaped lion in North Carolina "loved animals" and wanted to make a career of working with them, her family says https://t.co/ee3mnGH9Ls

— CNN (@CNN) December 31, 2018

United States: The fatal mauling of a zoo intern by a lion that escaped from a locked pen illustrates the need for North Carolina regulators to crack down on unaccredited exhibitors of dangerous animals, animal welfare advocates said. Alexandra Black, 22, was attacked while cleaning an animal enclosure with other staff members. It was at least the 10th instance of an escape or attack by an animal at a privately run North Carolina wildlife facility since 1997, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Officials said the lion somehow escaped from a nearby pen and killed the recent college graduate just two weeks after she started working at the Conservators Centre near Burlington. Sheriff's deputies shot and killed the animal before retrieving Black's body.

Italy: The 5-Star Movement has expelled four lawmakers from the party, including a former Coast Guard commander who once attracted publicity for ordering the captain of a sinking cruise ship to get back on board. The party, a partner in Italy's coalition government, is known for its hard-line treatment of members caught veering from the 5-Star line. Senator Gregorio De Falco didn't shy away from criticizing the migration policies of the populist government the 5-Star Movement formed with the League. As a Coast Guard commander, De Falco received international attention when he ordered the captain of the Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, to return to the sinking ship he left with passengers still on board. Thirty-two passengers and crew members died in the January 2012 disaster.

- AP