Midday Roundup: New York prepared for New Year's Eve

Secure celebration. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says his city is ready for tonight’s New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square: “We are the best­prepared city in the country, the best­-prepared city to prevent terrorism and to deal with any event should it occur.” Authorities are prepared for 1 million people to pack the blocks around Times Square tonight. Among them, some 6,000 uniformed patrol officers. Revelers will see heavily armed counterterrorism teams and bomb-­sniffing dogs. Rooftop patrols and police helicopters will watch from above. From ground level, police will monitor a network of thousands of closed-­circuit security cameras. A unit specializing in chemical and biological threats will sweep hotels, theaters, construction sites, and parking garages.

Terror indictment. A federal grand jury indicted Enrique Marquez Jr. yesterday for conspiring with San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist Syed Farook to carry out attacks in 2011 and 2012. Prosecutors said that Marquez and Farook planned to use pipe bombs and guns to kill people at the college they attended and to gun down others stuck in rush-hour traffic on a California freeway. Neither attack was carried out. Marquez was also charged with falsifying documents related to the purchasing of weapons he gave to Farook, who with his wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 and wounded 22 others at a social services center on Dec. 2. Marquez called 911 after hearing about the Dec. 2 attacks and spent 10 days talking to authorities about his years of connections with Farook.

Tenth terrorist. Belgian authorities announced today the arrest of a 10th person in connection to the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris. Law enforcement officials have charged a Belgian national born in 1993 and identified only as Auoub B. with terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group. Authorities located the man in the Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels, where some of the Paris attackers lived, including suspected ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Belgium’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office also announced that six people were brought in for questioning today related to a suspected terror plot over the holidays on police, soldiers, and popular sites in Brussels.

Cosby arraigned. Bill Cosby yesterday answered sexual­-assault charges that could cost him a decade in prison. The comedian and actor appeared in a Montgomery County, Pa., court and was released on a $1 million bond. According to the charges, Cosby offered wine and the drug Benadryl to a female houseguest and then assaulted her as she drifted in and out of consciousness. In a decade­-old deposition, Cosby said the woman didn’t object. Prosecutors counter that the woman was in no condition to object. In a statement, Cosby’s attorney said the criminal charge is unjustified and that a trial will exonerate Cosby.

Mom jailed. Tonya Couch, the mother of a fugitive Texas teen known for using the “affluenza” defense in a fatal drunk-driving incident, was jailed early this morning in Los Angeles after being deported from Mexico. She will remain in LA until U.S. marshals take her to Texas to face charges for hindering an apprehension, a third-degree felony that carries a sentence of two to 10 years in prison. Her 18-year-old son, Ethan Couch, remains in a Mexican jail. A Mexican court delayed his deportation yesterday, giving a judge three days to decide whether he has grounds to challenge his deportation based on arguments that doing so would violate his rights.

River report. The Missouri, Meramec, and Mississippi rivers are cresting today, offering possible relief to people living in Missouri and Illinois. The swollen rivers have forced hundreds of evacuations, threatened dozens of levees, and brought transportation by car, boat, or train to a near standstill in the St. Louis area. More than 10 inches of rain fell this week in a wide swath from central Illinois through southwest Missouri. At least 20 deaths have been blamed on the flooding.

WORLD Radio’s Nick Eicher and the Associated Press contributed to this report.