If laid end to end, the 14.25 billion euro notes would stretch a million miles, or to the Moon and back twice. For eight years, Rudolph Giuliani played father to the eight million people who live in New York City. He infuriated them, soothed them, scolded them, sheltered them from crime and, when terrible tragedy struck on 11 September, he reassured and consoled them. But suddenly this morning, Rudy, who never seemed to sleep, will be gone.
For New Yorkers, the turning of the year means far more than hanging a new calendar. The city last night bade farewell with relief to 2001, a year that will always be equated to the attacks on the twin towers and the loss of 3,000 innocent lives.But it finds itself peering at a futurethat is uncertain and clouded. A $4bn (£2.7bn) budget deficit looms, a large hole in lower Manhattan, gouged out by al-Qa’ida, must be filled again, and “Mayor Mike” has taken over as head of the household.

Michael Bloomberg is a dynamic businessman; how he will fare in his new job, nobody really knows.So, as revellers began to pour into the Times Square area last night to bring 2002 in, the atmosphere was more complicated than in previous years. A solemn tone was set when bells in churches, mosques and synagogues were sounded across the city to honour the dead from September.The event, which was expected to draw about half a million people and a worldwide television audience of more than one billion, was marred by stringent security measures.Most startling perhaps was the decision to equip scores of police officers with devices to detect radioactivity in case of a nuclear terrorist attack.One innovation was a brief ceremony to mark the transfer of the mayoral responsibilities from Mr Giuliani to Mr Bloomberg. A more formal inauguration will be held at City Hall this morning, where the new mayor is expected to make his first formal speech since he won the office on voting day on 7 November.Mr Bloomberg, 59, who will simultaneously relinquish his post as chief executive officer of the financial news company that bears his name, has given little away about how he means to run the city since his election victory, for which he paid $69m out of his own pocket.He has signalled, however, that he will not be a Rudy II He will not hold daily press conferences. He will try to keep his private life private.This may be hard Much is expected of a big city mayor in America. In New York, especially after Mr Giuliani, they are expected almost to play God.. Riot police cordoned off the Government Palace in Buenos Aires and angry Argentinians lined up at banks as the country grappled with its worst political crisis in decades after the departure of Argentina’s third president in 10 days. The violence left 28 people dead.Yesterday, riot police barred traffic from circulating outside the Government House, or Casa Rosada, erecting metal barricades as they increased security in the adjoining Plaza de Mayo square, which has been the scene of recent riots that forced the current crisis.Police also increased patrols at shopping malls, bus stations, airports and other government buildings with the approach of the New Year holiday, which is normally met with raucous street parties.On Monday, long lines of Argentinians seeking to withdraw cash or collect pensions formed in towns and cities across the nation.

Many expressed fears about the country’s future.”All of these government changes, why what a shame,” said Maria Isabel Girard, a retired woman waiting with hundreds of others. “I am ashamed of our political leaders and ashamed for all that’s happening in our country right now.”Mr Camano called a special legislative assembly today to find a way out of the worst crisis in Argentina since a 1976-83 dictatorship interrupted democracy. He said: “We want the quickest possible solution so we can have a president who can bring the country forward.”Local reports said Peronists, who control the Senate, were far from agreement yesterday on whether the next caretaker government should call elections in March or serve out Mr De la Rua’s term until 2003.Mr Rodriguez Saa was chosen by Congress to lead Argentina until a new presidential election planned for March. His resignation left Argentina without a consensus on how to resolve the crisis.Nestor Kirchner, an influential Peronist leader, said: “The situation in this country is at the breaking point.”Mr Rodriguez Saa’s presidency began to unravel on Friday night as thousands of people flooded the capital to demand that he lift a month-old banking freeze that limits cash withdrawals to an equivalent of $250 a week and remove politicians accused of corruption from his cabinet. The protests left 12 police officers injured.Mr De la Rua imposed the capital controls on 1 December to stem a run on the country’s banks that threatened the currency, the peso, which is now tied one-to-one with the dollar.Announcing his resignation, he said several powerful Peronist provincial governments had withdrawn support for his presidency, singling out Jose Manuel de la Sota, who has made known his ambitions to run for the presidency (AP). Americans bombers were accused of killing 100 Afghan civilians in another case of controversial targeting that is certain to raise tensions between the new Afghan government and Washington. The Bonn pact stipulates that all factions should remove their forces from the capital.

However, senior defence sources revealed that yesterday’s accord says the Alliance will be able to keep sizeable numbers of soldiers and armour in Kabul.Villagers in Qalaye Niazi, four miles north of the eastern city of Gardez, said several US warplanes and helicopters took part in the pre-dawn strikes on Sunday. A villager, Janat Gul, who claimed 24 members of his family were killed, told Reuters: “People are very upset … There are no al-Qa’ida or Taliban people here.”Witnesses said at least 12 houses had been flattened and that the village was littered with scraps of flesh, pools of blood and clumps of what appeared to be human hair There were a number of large craters in the village. US forces were invited to examine the damage and to find out what happened.The US claims were also questioned by senior officials in the Afghan defence ministry. They said they had no information that al-Qa’ida members were near Qalaye Niazi.This latest incident is bound to add to the rising tension between Washington and the new interim Afghan government, leaders of which have called for an immediate end to US bombing. The Defence Minister, General Mohammad Fahim, has said he believes Osama bin Laden has fled and that the US should hunt for him elsewhere.Commander Dave Culler, spokesman for the US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, said yesterday that the strikes, involving one B-52 and two B-1 bombers had targeted a compound used by Taliban and al-Qa’ida leaders.