news out of the vatican. the former pope emeritus benedict has died at the age of 95. with sorrow, we inform you that the pope emeritus benedict xvi passed away, today, this morning, at 9:34 in the mater echess yamon tia mona stare. he was the first pope to resign, rather than stay in office for life. he was a controversial at times member of church. let s go to barbie nadeau in st. peter s square right now. barbie, i m curious, there were a lot of people already in the square and then the news breaks. so what s the reaction? what are people talking about there? reporter: yeah, you know, it s a mixed reaction, because a lot some people didn t know. some people here in rome enjoying a day. the square is empty behind us right now, they re doing a security check because pope francis is going to be coming out here in the next hour or so to visit the nativity scene there. we ve got a lot of pilgrims pushed off the square. they re coming back. but the mood is very solemn.
anchor of a news program in 1976, and her journalism career spanned more than five decades. walters passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by family. but there is also joy and celebrations around the world as countries are starting to ring in the new year. we re counting down until 2023. but it s worth noting, the biggest bash, new york city, always, of course. new york city, come on. it s happening in new york city. gloria is in new york city, is in times square, has been watching people walk in to get ready for tonight. 13 hours, 14 hours, 15 hours early. tell me everything you re seeing right now and why these people have this level of enthusiasm. there s nothing like new york city on new year s eve, and there s no place like times square. i know it sounds like a hard sell, but these folks were here, they re committed. look at them. they re sitting down, taking it easy. i even spotted a couple of people napping. they have several hours to go until the party star
blamed ukraine for that blast, calling it a terror attack. ukraine s president has also accused moscow of terrorism after a string of russian strikes in zaporizhzhia. hours ago a new attack reportedly destroyed an apartment block, leading to several casualties. before that attack, ukraine s president said the strikes this week killed 43 civilians including 14 at this building. cnn s fred pleitgen is live in kyiv with the latest. reporter: just now, ten seconds ago, there were two very big explosions we re hearing right now. i can hear them very clearly from where we are right now. it s unclear whether or not that is incoming russian rockets or any other attack, whether or not that might be outgoing air defense rockets, unclear from our position. certainly it sort of americans with what we ve been seeing the entire morning which appears to be, to us, the ukrainian capital under full-on, massive rocket attack by there s another explosion right now. it seems as though there
those attacks in kyiv. friday, explosions in kyiv and elsewhere this morning two days after putin s bridge to crimea was damaged. reporter: yeah, certainly was a rude awakening for us here in kyiv early in the morning. a little past 8 when the first explosion happened. i ll get out of your way so you can see what s going on here, rescue recovery crews have been working this whole time. right now they re taking away some of the cars that were absolutely mangled by the explosion. we believe the impact crater is where those people are standing around there. you can see that water coming out as well. seems as though the water lines underneath were damaged, the explosions were that strong. there s also one person at least was killed here. we have seen the recovery crews remove at least one body from the scene as we ve been working here throughout the entire morning. in total, the authorities have said that at least five people have been killed, but of course, christine, as you c