Millions celebrate New Year

Millions staged parties at iconic landmarks around the world to bid farewell to 2007 and ring in 2008, agencies say. In New York, hundreds of thousands of revelers crowded fabled Times Square, braving cold temperatures and stringent security measures to see Mayor Michael Bloomberg release the New Year's Eve ball on its 100th lowering, with a dazzling display of new environmentally friendly lights, AFP reports. Millions celebrate New Year Bloomberg released the ball at one minute to midnight, setting off the centerpiece of New Year celebrations in the United States on its 60-second slide down a 23.5-meter flagpole. The festivities were witnessed on television by some one billion people around the world. Revelers have been celebrating the arrival of 2008 with New year festivities across England. The largest celebrations saw an estimated 700,000 people take to the streets in the center of London. Many were gathered on the banks of the Thames to see the firework display at the London Eye and to hear Big Ben chime at midnight. Elsewhere there were more fireworks in Birmingham, a free concert in Liverpool and a New Year's Gala in Bristol. The firework display in London lasted 11 minutes and as it ended, the crowds, who had braved the drizzle to watch, cheered and sang Auld Lang Syne. Thousands of people also gathered in nearby Trafalgar Square, where a shaft of light was beamed on to Nelson's Column. In Canada, tens of thousands of people spilled onto the streets of Quebec to toast the start of 2008, which also marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of Francophone city by explorer Samuel de Champlain. Hours earlier, more than one million people lined Sydney harbor for fireworks which set off the global party. Hundreds of thousands packed Hong Kong streets and historic European venues such as the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and the Champs Elysees in Paris. But bombs planted by suspected separatist rebels at discos and other entertainment centers rocked Thailand's troubled south as revelry was at its peak, killing one person and injuring dozens, police said. Bombs in the Thai capital at the last New Year's party killed three people. In Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, police stopped thousands from attending a traditional gathering on a beach overlooking the Arabian Sea amid security fears after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Belgian authorities canceled a traditional fireworks show in Brussels as the country went on maximum alert over possible terror threats. French authorities put 13,000 police on the streets of Paris and its troubled suburbs to deter any repeat of riots last month. Youths still hurled cans at the car of Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie as she toured potential trouble spots. But an estimated 400,000 French and foreign visitors still turned the Champs Elysees into a mass of car-honking festivities. Even more people, around one million according to police, packed streets around Germany's Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. The giant steel archway of the Sydney Harbor Bridge was again the centerpiece of the traditional display in Australia's main city, with a giant neon hourglass illustrating the theme of time passing. Thousands in Hong Kong ignored unusually chilly temperatures to see the fireworks in Victoria Harbor. In the northern Chinese city of Harbin, tourists strolled through a display of ice structures and some toasted the New Year in a bar made from ice blocks. In Japan, thousands of people gathered at the Yasukuni shrine and other prayer sites to throw coins as midnight struck. Each addressed a small prayer to the country's ancestral gods by twice clapping their hands under a clear winter sky. In Iraq, crowds surged into the streets of strife-torn Baghdad, shooting firecrackers and weapons and dancing in a rare moment of freedom from daily violence that has recently eased encouraging inhabitants to be more daring. The London celebrations (FoNet)

Millions celebrate New Year

Bloomberg released the ball at one minute to midnight, setting off the centerpiece of New Year celebrations in the United States on its 60-second slide down a 23.5-meter flagpole. The festivities were witnessed on television by some one billion people around the world.

Revelers have been celebrating the arrival of 2008 with New year festivities across England.

The largest celebrations saw an estimated 700,000 people take to the streets in the center of London.

Many were gathered on the banks of the Thames to see the firework display at the London Eye and to hear Big Ben chime at midnight.

Elsewhere there were more fireworks in Birmingham, a free concert in Liverpool and a New Year's Gala in Bristol.

The firework display in London lasted 11 minutes and as it ended, the crowds, who had braved the drizzle to watch, cheered and sang Auld Lang Syne.

Thousands of people also gathered in nearby Trafalgar Square, where a shaft of light was beamed on to Nelson's Column.

In Canada, tens of thousands of people spilled onto the streets of Quebec to toast the start of 2008, which also marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of Francophone city by explorer Samuel de Champlain.

Hours earlier, more than one million people lined Sydney harbor for fireworks which set off the global party. Hundreds of thousands packed Hong Kong streets and historic European venues such as the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and the Champs Elysees in Paris.

But bombs planted by suspected separatist rebels at discos and other entertainment centers rocked Thailand's troubled south as revelry was at its peak, killing one person and injuring dozens, police said. Bombs in the Thai capital at the last New Year's party killed three people.

In Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, police stopped thousands from attending a traditional gathering on a beach overlooking the Arabian Sea amid security fears after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Belgian authorities canceled a traditional fireworks show in Brussels as the country went on maximum alert over possible terror threats.

French authorities put 13,000 police on the streets of Paris and its troubled suburbs to deter any repeat of riots last month. Youths still hurled cans at the car of Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie as she toured potential trouble spots.

But an estimated 400,000 French and foreign visitors still turned the Champs Elysees into a mass of car-honking festivities.

Even more people, around one million according to police, packed streets around Germany's Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

The giant steel archway of the Sydney Harbor Bridge was again the centerpiece of the traditional display in Australia's main city, with a giant neon hourglass illustrating the theme of time passing.

Thousands in Hong Kong ignored unusually chilly temperatures to see the fireworks in Victoria Harbor. In the northern Chinese city of Harbin, tourists strolled through a display of ice structures and some toasted the New Year in a bar made from ice blocks.

In Japan, thousands of people gathered at the Yasukuni shrine and other prayer sites to throw coins as midnight struck. Each addressed a small prayer to the country's ancestral gods by twice clapping their hands under a clear winter sky.

In Iraq, crowds surged into the streets of strife-torn Baghdad, shooting firecrackers and weapons and dancing in a rare moment of freedom from daily violence that has recently eased encouraging inhabitants to be more daring.