Australia Celebrates With a Ring of Fire
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SYDNEY, Australia — This island nation was briefly ringed by a band of fire overnight in a celebration of 200 years of European settlement.
Governor General Ninian Stephen lit the first of more than 500 bonfires and beacons around the country’s 9,300-mile perimeter at dusk Saturday night.
By dawn Sunday, the ring was complete as a bonfire 30 miles to the north of Stephen’s starting point in Sydney’s Botany Bay burst into flame.
The display’s sponsor, a major Australian bank, hopes the exercise will make it into the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s longest chain-of-fire communications link.
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