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01-01-2011 - Happy 2011! London sees in the New Year with Eye-catching display on the Thames
Hundreds of thousands of revellers took to the streets last night to say goodbye to 2010 and hello to 2011.
Masses of people gathered in London to see in the New Year in front of the London Eye where up to 250,000 people enjoyed the carnival atmosphere.
And festive organisers in Edinburgh hosted around 80,000 partygoers at the Hogmanay street party and festival, which began last night with a torchlight procession along the Royal Mile.
Thousands of people gathered at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to welcome in the New Year with a dazzling light show.
And while revellers lapped up the atmosphere in the German capital, crowds gathered in Moscow's Red Square as Russia celebrated the arrival of 2011.
The chilly night sky was a sea of red and green as the fireworks complemented the colourful domes of St Basil's Cathedral.
Meanwhile, Dubai held a stunning fireworks display at the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building - the 2,717ft structure seeing pyrotechnics seemingly shoot from every storey.
And earlier in the evening, Malaysia celebrated New Year's Eve with a light show by the Petronas Twin Towers in the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Auckland, New Zealand, was the first major city to celebrate the New Year before Australia, Singapore and China followed suit later today.
Roads were cordoned off in London as the capital prepared itself for its own fireworks display.
Australia welcomed 2011 with a spectacular fireworks display over Sydney Harbour. Despite losing the Ashes this week, thousands of party-loving Aussies had camped out for hours at parks alongside the Sydney Harbour Bridge to win the best view of today's spectacular New Year's Eve fireworks.
As the clock ticked closer to 2011, Europeans were looking forward to celebrations that could help them forget their economic worries.
Japan and South Korea both celebrated New Year at 3pm GMT - and India held its celebrations a few hours later.
In New York City, nearly a million revellers crammed into the streets around Times Square to watch the traditional midnight ball drop several hours after the UK marked the start of 2011. The 20-inch snowstorm that blanketed the city will be just a memory thanks to work crews and warmer temperatures.
At least 1.5 million people lined the harbour in Sydney, the first major city where the new year arrives after 2011 hit New Zealand. Celebrations began with aerial displays by vintage aircraft and a parade of boats around the harbour.
In Christchurch, New Zealand, two minor earthquakes on Friday did not shake plans for all-night celebrations.
'There is more reason than ever for people to get together and celebrate the beginning of a New Year,' Christchurch's acting mayor Ngaire Button said, urging residents to celebrate in the central Cathedral Square, where workers were removing loose masonry after the quakes.
A powerful 7.1-magnitude quake wrecked thousand of buildings in Christchurch on September 4, but nobody was killed.
This year marks the first time Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, officially celebrated the new year with a countdown blowout, complete with a light show and foreign DJs in front of the city's elegant French colonial-style opera house.
Vietnamese in the past paid little attention to the changing of the calendar, instead holding massive celebrations during Tet, the lunar new year that begins on February 3. But in recent years, the Western influence has started seeping into Vietnamese culture with teens, who have no memory of war or poverty and are eager to find a new reason to party in the Communist country.
In South Korea, up to 100,000 people went to a bell-ringing ceremony in central Seoul, with officials and citizens striking the large bronze bell hung in the Bosingak bell pavilion 33 times at midnight.
Some South Koreans also go to the mountains or beaches on early Saturday to watch the first sunrise of the new year.
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