Updated January 01, 2017 10:14:53
As 2016 draws to a close, revellers around the world are bidding a weary adieu to a year filled with political surprises, prolonged conflicts and deaths of legendary celebrities.
New Zealand was one of the first countries to usher in 2017.
It did so with a New Year laser light show over Auckland Sky Tower at midnight.
In Dubai, hundreds of thousands turned out to watch fireworks shoot from the sides of the world's tallest building, the 828-metre-tall Burj Khalifa.
Private security guards stood every 50 metres as metal barriers blocked off sidewalks to keep the streets around the building clear for roaming emergency vehicles.
In Germany, tens of thousands of revellers celebrated with spectacular fireworks in Cologne and Berlin near the Brandenburg Gate, amid tight security.
However, the mood was reportedly more sombre than celebratory, following the attack at the Berlin Christmas Market earlier in December.
German police said they arrested a man who shouted "bomb, bomb, bomb" at Berlin's massive open-air New Year's party.
Using the hashtag "#nichtlustig" — meaning "not funny" — Berlin police tweeted that the unnamed man "is now celebrating #Welcome2017 with us".
New Year's Eve is Russia's major gift-giving holiday and big Russian cities were awash in festive lights and decorations.
The Moscow subway offered a special holiday train, festooned with lights and artificial greenery.
President Vladimir Putin invoked a bit of seasonal enchantment in his New Year's Eve remarks to the nation.
"Each of us may become something of a magician on the night of the New Year," he said.
In South Korea, crowds gathered in the capital Seoul for another rally demanding the removal of their impeached President Park Geun-hye.
The evening rally was planned to overlap with Seoul's traditional bell-tolling ceremony at the Bosingak pavilion at midnight, which was also expected to be a political statement against Ms Park.
Protesters later set off fireworks during a candlelight vigil near the Presidential house.
The protests against Ms Park have been the largest in the country's history.
Brazil's city of Sao Paolo celebrated the New Year with its annual 15-kilometre St Silvester road race, which has been held every year since 1925.
The winner was Kenya's Jemima Sumgong, who set a new record at 48 minutes, 35 seconds. She also won a marathon gold at the Olympic Games in Rio earlier this year.
The Philippines' notorious tradition of dangerous New Year's Eve celebrations persisted after President Rodrigo Duterte delayed to next year his ban on the use of powerful firecrackers, often worsened by celebratory gunfire.
Powerful firecrackers and gunfire have maimed hundreds of people and killed some each year across the Philippines despite Government crackdowns, an annual Government scare campaign and efforts by officials to set up centralized fireworks displays.
However, more traditional fireworks displays and entertainment performances occurred in the major cities, such as Manila, to usher in the New Year.
Singapore brought in the New Year with a spectacular fireworks show.
Fireworks lit up the skies beside Malaysia's landmark Petronas Twin Towers as celebrations kicked off in Kuala Lumpur.
Hong Kong also celebrated the New Year with fireworks and lights on the city's skyline.
Residents in Beijing and Shanghai, China's two largest cities, were passing New Year's Eve quietly in a relative state of security lockdown, according to Chinese media reports citing police.
The Bund waterfront in Shanghai had no celebrations, authorities announced this week, while the sale, use and transportation of fireworks in central Shanghai was prohibited altogether.
Large buildings that often display light shows also stayed dark. More than 30 people died two years ago in a deadly stampede on Shanghai's waterfront, where 300,000 people had gathered to watch a planned light show.
Revellers in Japan released white balloons to mark the coming of the New Year, with temple bells echoing at midnight.
Meanwhile families gathered around noodles and revellers flock to shrines for the biggest holiday in Japan.
"I feel this sense of duality," said Kami Miyamoto, an economics student at Meiji University in Tokyo.
Mr Miyamoto's mother is preparing soba noodles, a standard New Year's Eve dish in Japan except in their home it will be filled with green onions and shrimp.
As the new year rolls in, the entire family, including her younger brother and sister, will drive to a nearby shrine, which will be filled with those praying for good fortune in the Year of the Rooster.
For most people in India, New Year's Eve is a time for family.
In New Delhi and many other cities, newspapers are full of big advertisements for lavish parties at upscale hotels and restaurants.
The big draws at the hotel parties are song and dance performances from Bollywood and television stars.
Buddhists in Sri Lanka flocked to temples bringing offerings on New Year's Eve.
New Year is the biggest party of the year in Romania, and thousands flock to the mountains to ski, hike and celebrate.
Early Saturday young Romanians roamed streets and trains, wearing peasant costumes and singing traditional songs about goats — a New Year symbol — while waving wands made of dried flowers.
In the United States, more than 300,000 visitors are expected to descend on Las Vegas for an extravagant New Year's Eve celebration.
Nightclubs are pulling out all the stops with performances from DJ Calvin Harris, rappers T-Pain and Kendrick Lamar and artists Drake and Bruno Mars.
An eight-minute fireworks show will kick off at the stroke of midnight, with rockets launching from the tops of half a dozen casinos.
Federal officials have ranked the celebration just below the Super Bowl and on par with the festivities in Times Square.
FBI and Secret Service agents will work alongside local police departments that are putting all hands on deck for the big night.
In France, tourists and French revellers swarmed along Paris' illuminated Champs Elysees Avenue on a frosty night, admiring the laser display from the Arc de Triomphe and lines of trees sparkling with lights.
"It's so magical to be here in Paris, on what people say is the world's most beautiful avenue," said Maureen O'Reilly, 42, a visitor from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Police were out in force with over 10,000 deployed in the French capital alone, and authorities said that "the passage to the New Year will take place in the context of a persistent and very high terrorist threat".
In Vatican City, Pope Francis has called on the faithful to help young people find a place in society, noting the paradox of "a culture that idolizes youth" and yet has made no place for the young.
The Pope said during vespers marking New Year's Eve that young people have been "pushed to the margins of public life, forcing them to migrate or to beg for jobs that no longer exist, or fail to promise them a future".
More than responsibility, the Pope said the world owed young people a debt, saying it has deprived them of "dignified and genuine work" that would allow them to take part in society, instead condemning them "to knock on doors that for the most part remain closed".
AP
First posted December 31, 2016 22:47:57
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