Countries around the world are holding celebratory events to welcome in 2010.

New Year arrived first in the South Pacific. At midnight local time (1100 GMT) fireworks were set off over Auckland’s Sky Tower in New Zealand.

Spectacular displays were also enjoyed in London and Paris and other capital cities across Europe.

Further west, Brazil has marked the New Year, and an estimated one million people are expected in New York’s Times Square for the countdown to midnight.

Las Vegas is also preparing to welcome 2010 with an estimated 315,000 revellers and fireworks from casino rooftops.

World leaders have spoken of their hope for 2010 compared to the difficulties many countries faced in 2009.

North Korea has called for an end to hostile relations with the US in a New Year message, while French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: “The year that is ending has been difficult for everybody.

“No continent, no country, no sector has been spared.”

A massive fireworks display, attended by an estimated 1.5 million people, took place in Sydney, Australia, with some 5,000kg of explosives sent up around the famous harbour bridge.

Fireworks were launched from the bridge, from boats in the harbour and from buildings around the waterfront.

The Japanese capital, Tokyo, greeted the new year in traditional style, with bells rung in temples at midnight.

The city’s Sensoji Temple has been draped with banners wishing visitors a happy new year.

Thousands of people in Beijing gathered in a shopping centre to mark the change of the Lunar New Year.

And in Hong Kong, about half a million revellers crowded the harbour front to watch fireworks set off from the top of city skyscrapers.

In the Philippines, new year celebrations were marred as hundreds of people were injured by firecrackers and celebratory gunfire.

‘Magical’ display

Despite heavy snowfall and temperatures down to -10C (14F), more than 120,000 Russians were on Red Square in Moscow to see fireworks and hear President Dmitry Medvedev congratulate them on “bearing up” the past year.

“The past year was not a very easy one for our country, and I want to thank you all for bearing up together,” he said.

At the Vatican, the Pope – apparently unaffected by the Christmas Eve assault where he was knocked to the ground – returned to St Peter’s Basilica to lead a year-end service.

In the French capital Paris, the Eiffel Tower was illuminated by a pulsating, multi-colour display, described by city officials as “a giant Christmas tree with tinsel”.

London’s spectacular firework display – which began on the final chimes of Big Ben – centred on the huge London Eye wheel on the banks of the River Thames.

In Venice, revellers rang in 2010 with wet feet because of a high tide at midnight.

As the US prepared to celebrate, security is tight in New York’s Times Square, with partygoers banned from taking rucksacks or large bags into the area.

“We assume here that New York is the No 1 terrorist target in America,” the city’s Police Commissioner Raymond W Kelly was quoted as saying by the New York Times.

The US embassy in Indonesia also warned of a potential attack on Bali but local authorities said they had no knowledge of any threats.

Revellers in some parts of the world will be treated to what is known as a “blue moon”. This has nothing to do with the colour and is simply the second full moon in a month, which falls on New Year’s Eve every 19 years.

Source: BBC