Dubai investigates cause of luxury-hotel fire

Authorities in Dubai say they are working to determine the cause of the fire that engulfed a 63-storey luxury hotel in the city on New Year's Eve even as firefighters continue to douse its embers.

The fire erupted before the city's fireworks extravaganza and engulfed the Address Downtown, comprising hotels and residences in Dubai, one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates.

The authorities said on Friday 16 people suffered mostly minor injuries despite the presence of thousands in the area to watch the celebrations.

At least 14 people were slightly injured, one was moderately injured and one person suffered a heart attack during the evacuation, they said.

All victims have been discharged from hospital except for a pregnant women and an elderly man who were said to be "well" but were kept in "to ensure their safety", the civil defence said.

Dubai and neighbouring emirates of the UAE have faced a series of fires in highrise buildings [EPA]

Firefighters spent Thursday night trying to extinguish the blaze.

Despite the fire, officials went ahead with plans to ring in the new year and thousands gathered in the area to watch the fireworks.

The Address would have a prime spot for viewing the midnight fireworks display, centred at the nearby Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.

The Address boasts a luxury hotel with nearly 200 rooms, along with more than 600 residential units. Rentals of a one-bedroom can run $70,000 a year.

The fire started around 9:30pm on Thursday, racing up the sides of the Address.

More than 12 hours later on Friday morning, Dubai firefighters largely watched the fire from the ground, unable at one point to use a water hose on a ladder truck.

Dubai's economy depends heavily on tourism, and New Year's Eve is one of the busiest seasons [AP]

They later regained water pressure and resumed spraying the building.

Restaurants nearby opened on Friday for business, but served limited menus as civil defence officials cut natural gas to the area.

By the afternoon, the blaze had largely died down, but small fires were still visible burning through some windows, sending smoke into the air.

Dubai Civil Defence said the fire appeared to have started on the 20th-floor terrace, according to a statement by the government media office.

Witnesses who saw the blaze start said they believed it began on the building's ground floor.

The Civil Defence said "cooling procedures" were still under way on Friday, and that the investigation was under way into the cause.

Around one million people had been expected to gather around the Burj Khalifa skyscraper to watch the fireworks.

Dubai's economy depends heavily on tourism, and New Year's Eve is one of the busiest seasons, drawing people from around the world to watch the fireworks that Dubai puts on at the world's tallest tower, as well as the Burj Al Arab and over a palm-shaped artificial island.

Dubai-based Emaar Properties, which built the Burj Khalifa, the Address Downtown and other surrounding developments, issued a statement praising authorities "for their immediate and professional support".

"An investigation is ongoing and details will be provided once they are ascertained," the statement said.

Lieutenant-General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's deputy prime minister and interior minister, also praised first responders to the blaze for "the success of the rescue operation" in comments published by the state-run WAM news agency.

The Address was to have been a prime spot for viewing the midnight fireworks display, centred at the nearby Burj Khalifa [Reuters]

However, challenges remain as Dubai has faced a series of recent tower fires.

In November, a massive blaze engulfed three residential blocks in central Dubai and led to services on a metro line being suspended, although no one was hurt.

In February, a huge fire gutted one of the emirate's tallest buildings, destroying luxury flats in the Torch tower and prompted an evacuation of nearby blocks in the Dubai Marina neighbourhood.

In 2012, a blaze destroyed the 34-storey Tamweel Tower in the nearby Jumeirah Lake Towers district. It was later revealed to have been caused by a cigarette butt thrown into a bin.

There were no serious casualties in that fire.

In October, a fire broke out in a high-rise residential tower in the neighbouring emirate of Sharjah.

Around one million people had been expected to gather around the Burj Khalifa skyscraper to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks [Reuters]

16 Things Turning 16 in 2016

We made it through the Y2K freak-out mostly unscathed, but that didn’t mean the year 2000 was uneventful. In the new year, these events will hit their 16th anniversaries:

The Dow hit its dotcom-boom peak (Jan. 14): The Dow closed at a whopping 11,722.98 on that day, and then it started to go down—and down. The tech stocks that had buoyed the market began their decline in early 2000. Only two weeks into the decade and the ’90s were really over.

Read TIME’s original coverage of the stock market boom, here in the TIME Vault: Beware the Cult

The final Peanuts comic strip ran (Feb. 13): After decades with Charlie Brown and Snoopy, the world said good-bye to Peanuts, just one day after the death of creator Charles Schulz.

Read TIME’s original coverage of Peanuts, here in the TIME Vault: Comment in the Comics

Jennifer Lopez rocked the Grammy Awards in that dress (Feb. 23): The singer stole the show in a barely-there Versace gown that was still talked about months and years later. And she remembered, too: the iconic palm print made an appearance in 2014 in the video for her song “I Luh Ya Papi.”

Read TIME’s original coverage of that year’s Grammys, here in the TIME Vault: The Shoes Aren’t Bad, Either

Erin Brockovich got us on her side (Mar. 14): The film was a hit and won Julia Roberts an Oscar, though some of the actual people involved in the case that made Brockovich famous claimed the movie didn’t do justice to their story. The real Brockovich, for her part, continues to work as a consumer advocate.

Read TIME’s original coverage of the film, here in the TIME Vault: Erin Go Bra

Pope John Paul II visited Israel (Mar. 21): During the historic trip, the Pope apologized to the Jewish people for the ills done to them by Roman Catholics over the years, from the Crusades to the Church’s failure to act during the Holocaust.

Read TIME’s original coverage of the visit, here in the TIME Vault: The Pope in the Holy Land

Metallica took Napster to court (April 13): The rock band became the face of resistance to changes in the music industry, ready to do whatever it took to defend its copyright. Thanks in part to the case, Napster eventually lost its place as the primary music-sharing platform—but not before permanently changing the way we listen to music.

Read TIME’s original coverage of Napster, here in the TIME Vault: What’s Next for Napster

Elian Gonzalez was removed from his relatives’ home in Florida (April 22): Months into the international saga of where a young Cuban boy ought to live—with relatives in Miami or with his father in Cuba—Attorney General Janet Reno made the decision to have the Immigration and Naturalization Service seize the child.

Read TIME’s original coverage of the controversy, here in the TIME Vault: Elian and His Dad

The Vermont legislature approved civil unions for gay couples (April 26): Almost exactly 15 years before the Supreme Court extended the right to full marriage to all Americans, the state of Vermont made history by being the first to offer legal unions to gay couples.

Read TIME’s original coverage of the law, here in the TIME Vault: The Marrying Kind

The world was enthralled by Gladiator (May 5): Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott offered audiences a macho fantasy epic for the ages. Later that year, 2.3 million copies of the DVD sold in 10 days.

Read TIME’s original coverage of the film, here in the TIME Vault: The Empire Strikes Back

Survivor got us hooked on reality TV (May 31): An adaptation of a Swedish show, Survivor wasn’t the first reality show competition—but its runaway success ushered in a new paradigm for television. And it’s still on today.

Read TIME’s original coverage ofSurvivor, here in the TIME Vault:Candid Cameras

Eminem returned with The Marshall Mathers LP (May 23): The rapper offended many with his lyrics—even his own mother didn’t escape his wrath—but fans gobbled up the album gleefully. More than a decade later, Enimen produced a sequel, The Marshall Mathers LP 2.

Read TIME’s original coverage of the album, here in the TIME Vault: A Whiter Shade of Pale 

Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open by 15 strokes (June 18): His margin of victory was unprecedented for Pebble Beach, and his level of fame was—for a while at least—similarly untouchable.

Read TIME’s original coverage of Tiger Woods, here in the TIME Vault: Tiger’s Tale

Scientists announced they’ve decoded the human genome (June 25): We’re still figuring out more that we can do with the knowledge, but mapping out our 3 billion chemical base pairs was a start.

Read TIME’s original coverage of the Human Genome Project, here in the TIME Vault: Cracking the Code!

Mifepristone was approved by the FDA (Sept. 28): The ability to provide abortion with a pill rather than surgery was meant to change the calculus for American women, but the new option didn’t put an end to philosophical debate.

Read TIME’s original coverage of RU 486, here in the TIME Vault: The Abortion Pill

The first crew arrived at the International Space Station (Nov. 2): The Space Station had been orbiting the Earth for years when the Russian and American crew arrived on board. In the years since, it has never been unoccupied.

Read TIME’s original coverage of the space station, here in the TIME Vault: Coming Soon to the Skies Near You

Bush v. Gore decided the election (Dec. 12): It came at the end of the year—and months after the election results were supposed to be in—but it was perhaps the most influential event of the whole 12 months. In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court put an end to the recounts and put George W. Bush in the White House.

Read TIME’s original coverage of the decision, here in the TIME Vault: The Supreme Showdown

Kim Jong Un Promises ‘Holy War of Justice’ If Provoked

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in an annual New Year’s speech Friday that he was ready for war if provoked by “invasive” outsiders, but he stayed away from past threats involving the country’s nuclear weapons and long-range missile ambitions.

His comments stuck to well-worn propaganda meant to lift his image for the elite residents of one of the world’s poorest, most closed countries, and could be read as an attempt to keep ties with rivals Washington and Seoul from getting worse so he can try to turn around a miserable economy and further solidify his leadership.

“We will continue to work patiently to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula and regional stability. But if invasive outsiders and provocateurs touch us even slightly, we will not be forgiving in the least and sternly answer with a merciless, holy war of justice,” said Kim, who wore thick black-rimmed glasses that continued his efforts to mimic the style favored by his late grandfather, beloved national founder Kim Il Sung.

While largely repeating the daily propaganda in state-controlled media, Kim’s words will be pored over by analysts for hints about the country’s intentions for the coming year. There is little public information about the inner workings and policy goals of North Korea’s government, which considers democratic South Korea and its ally the United States its enemies and is pursuing a long-range missile that could carry a nuclear warhead to America’s mainland.

Some observers had predicted that Kim would avoid overly provocative statements because the county wants to improve relations with South Korea and also China, its most important economic and strategic ally. Ties between North Korea and China have been cool since Kim took power in 2011, but seemed to improve when a senior Chinese official attended a high-profile military parade in Pyongyang in October.

Kim said he was open to talks with anyone truly interested in “reconciliation and peace” on the Korean Peninsula, and ready to “aggressively” work to improve ties with the South. But a far larger part of his speech on North Korea’s state TV was devoted to criticism of Seoul’s approach to inter-Korean talks and its alliance with Washington.

He vowed to improve North Korea’s struggling economy and living standards, and also called for the military to advance its technologies to develop more “diversified attack means.”

Analysts say Kim likely wants a push for tangible diplomatic and economic achievements before a convention of the ruling Workers’ Party in May, the party’s first since 1980, when he is widely expected to announce major state policies and shake up the country’s political elite to strengthen his position.

The rival Koreas have shown mixed progress in reconciliation efforts since stepping away from a military standoff in August, which started when land mine explosions that Seoul blamed on Pyongyang maimed two South Korean soldiers. The countries ended rare high-level talks last month with no breakthroughs.

Nat King Cole's Daughter Natalie Cole Dies

The artist passed away on Thursday evening from ongoing health issues at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, her family said. 

TMZ reports she died from congestive heart failure. Cole had blamed her past intravenous drug abuse after she contracted hepatitis C, which led her to undergo a kidney transplant in 2009. 

"Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived ... with dignity, strength and honor," read a statement from her son, Robert Yancy, and sisters, Timolin and Casey Cole.

Natalie's parents, Nat King Cole (R) and singer Maria Ellington

"Our beloved Mother and sister will be greatly missed and remain UNFORGETTABLE in our hearts forever."

Cole, who was married three times, followed her father into the music business with hits like This Will Be (An Everlasting Love).

The Grammy winner topped the charts in 1991 with Unforgettable, a virtual duet with her late father, who died in 1965 when she was 15. 

In 2000, Cole released an autobiography, Angel on My Shoulder, which chronicled her abuse of heroin and crack cocaine.

Cole was born in 1950 to Nat King Cole and his wife, Maria Ellington Cole, a singer with the legendary Duke Ellington band.

With her parents' pedigree, not to mention musical mentors such as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr, she seemed destined for the stage.

She began performing with her father when she was just 11 years old, before embarking on a career that embraced R&B, pop and jazz. 

Cole faced racism while growing up in Los Angeles' overwhelmingly white, upmarket Hancock Park area.

When told residents didn't want "undesirable" neighbours, the young starlet said: "Neither do I, and if I see (any), I'll be the first to complain."

Her 1991 album, Unforgettable, which reworked some of her father's best-known hits, sold 14 million copies and won six Grammys.

Cole also took television acting roles, appearing on Grey's Anatomy and Touched by an Angel, a supernatural drama.

Why We Celebrate New Year’s Day on January 1

Some things are taken to be so self-evident that they are beyond question: the sun rises in the east; the Cubs will choke in the post-season; and New Year’s Day always falls on January 1. Except it hasn’t always.

For while it may seem obvious that the first day of January marks the beginning of the year it’s only been that way for a few centuries. That’s because we’ve been changing—and obstinately refusing to change—the way we draw up the year ever since Julius Caesar got the calendar wars going.

The story of the calendar used in the U.S. and across the Western world begins in 45 B.C.E., when Caesar ordered up a 12-month calendar starting on January 1 based on one complete rotation around the sun, with three cycles of 365 days followed by one leap year of 366 days to compensate for small discrepancies in the man-made calendar and the way the earth actually moves around the sun.

The Julian Calendar was in wide use until the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century C.E., after which the European calendar fell into a bit of disarray. Dates were shifted to coincide with Christian holidays. In some places the year was moved back to start at Christmas, in others moved up to start in March to coincide with the Incarnation of Jesus.

still have a vestige of the old March-start calendars hidden with us in plain sight: September, the ninth month of our year, is Latin for seventh month; October for eight month; November for ninth, December for tenth.)

In the Middle Ages smart people sorted out that the Julian leap year was poorly calibrated such that it actually added a day every 128 years, and by the 16th century things were completely out of whack. The equinoxes were coming too early and some holidays, like Easter, fell in the wrong season. To fix things Vatican created a new calendar, the Gregorian Calendar, which in 1582 officially moved the starting day back to January 1 and reconfigured things in general to impose a sense of order. 

However, by the late 16th century England did not recognize the authority of the Pope or of his newfangled calendar. Both it and its nascent colonies kept to the old calendar, despite the confusion — though many people used both, for the sake of being understood. From January to March, for example, some would date documents with both years to attempt to clear things up.

At last in 1752, acknowledging that its calendar was now a full 11 days out of sync with the rest of Europe, England finally adopted the Gregorian Calendar, starting the year on January 1 and chopping eleven days from September. Her colonies — including the New World soon to become the United States – followed suit.

And thus it is that in frigid January rather than milder March we gather to sing old songs, kiss our sweethearts and raise a glass to the new year.

Deadly shooting hits pub in Tel Aviv

A deadly shooting incident has killed at least two people in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, leaving at least seven others injured, according to Israeli police.

The attack, which targeted a pub on Dizengoff Street in central Tel Aviv, took place on Friday afternoon, Micky Rosenfeld, Israeli police spokesman, told Al Jazeera by telephone.

"The background is still unclear at the moment and we are still searching Tel Aviv for the suspect," Rosenfeld said.

He said it was unclear whether the attack had "criminal motivations" or was related to the ongoing escalation of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

CCTV footage the incident, which Al Jazeera could not independently verify, was posted on Twitter. It depicted the shooter opening fire with an automatic weapon as pub patrons jumped for cover. 

Tel Aviv: CCTV of the dhooting attack pic.twitter.com/LsRXeKKAMZ

— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) January 1, 2016

 In a post on Twitter shortly before at least one death was confirmed, Israel's emergency medical service, Magen David Adom, posted a picture that showed blood splattered on the sidewalk in front of the bar. 

#UPDATE  ( #TelAviv  ): @Mdais #paramedics  treating 5 victims, including 2 in critical con. #SavingLives  #EMS pic.twitter.com/FuKvQN1U0b 

— MAGEN DAVID ADOM (@Mdais) January 1, 2016 

Speaking to Israel's army radio, the bar owner said that "a man with automatic weapon arrived and started shooting people all over the place".

Munich Terror Plot: Police Hunt 'Seven Suspects'

Some 550 police officers were deployed to hunt down the suspects and secure the city, with authorities warning that the threat remains "high".

A spokesman for German police told the AFP news agency: "We still have many colleagues deployed. There is, as before, a high threat of terror."

The suspects are believed to be Islamic State militants from Syria and Iraq, according to Joachim Herrman, interior minister for the state of Bavaria.

Two stations in Munich were evacuated on New Year's Eve

He said German authorities were tipped off by a "friendly intelligence service" - thought to be France - about an apparent attack, which would have been carried out around midnight.

The "concrete tip" indicated the group was planning a massacre involving suicide bombers targeting train stations in the Bavarian capital.

Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said it was unclear whether the suspects are still in the city or even in Germany.

He told a news conference on Friday: "We received name. We can't say if they are in Munich or in fact in Germany."

Bild is reporting that authorities have the names of the suspects after a tip-off.

The newspaper reported that the plot involved plans for suicide bombers to detonate explosives at the stations, with others waiting to detonate secondary devices when emergency services arrived at the scene.

Just 90 minutes before the New Year, police evacuated Munich's main rail station and one other terminus in the west of the city.

Mr Andrae said "five to seven" suspects were thought to be involved.

Rail services at both stations were suspended at 10:30pm, with a warning from police urging the public to avoid large crowds.

But many revellers continued their planned celebrations.

Torben Ostermann, a German journalist in Munich, told Sky News: "It's just now 2016 and people are celebrating the New Year like nobody seems to know about the terrorist warning."

He added: "It's a bit weird, though, that we have a terrorist warning and people are firing off their fireworks."

The stations have re-opened this morning, but Munich police are warning people to remain vigilant.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said: "The situation in Europe and Germany continues to be serious in the New Year.

"Indeed we did get indications (for a planned attack) yesterday, which were evaluated by the Bavarian intelligence authorities and federal police."

Mr Herrman added there were no concrete indications that an attack could take place imminently and the police presence at the two stations had been scaled back.

European cities have been on high alert over the Christmas period, with both Brussels and Paris cancelling traditional fireworks shows over security fears.

Belgian police have also arrested five people over an alleged New Year plot in Brussels.

Days after attacks in Paris in November, in which 130 people were killed, a football stadium in Hannover was evacuated after a threat was made against a friendly match between Germany and the Netherlands.