DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A 63-story luxury hotel was engulfed in flames even as a massive New Year's fireworks display kicked off at the world's tallest skyscraper nearby, while tens of thousands of people whistled and cheered at early Friday's pyrotechnics.
Just minutes before the fireworks began in the Gulf emirate of Dubai, large explosions could be heard from inside the burning building, which was cloaked in thick black smoke. Other blasts followed later during the night. It was not clear what caused them.
In the final session of his two-decade career in the Senate, Assistant Minority Leader Robert Hedlund assumed a post rarely held by Republicans in Massachusetts: on the rostrum and wielding the gavel.
Hedlund, who plans to resign his Senate seat on Jan. 4 to become the next mayor of Weymouth, presided over an informal session Wednesday and signed a bill authorizing the town Raynham to grant an additional liquor license (S 2075).
