Extravagant firework displays lit up the skies from Sydney to New York in a global New Year's party as revelers set aside economic gloom, divisions and other worries to usher in 2012 in style.
Turning the page on a year of financial turmoil in Europe and the United States, uprisings across the Arab world, devastation in Japan, and the dramatic killing of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in his Pakistani hideout, partygoers danced to pop stars, drank champagne, and cheered out the final seconds of 2011.
In New York, pop diva Lady Gaga and Mayor Michael Bloomberg hit the switch sending the city's famous crystal ball on its countdown drop. Confetti poured out over Times Square as fireworks erupted over the Manhattan skyscrapers.
But the atmosphere was tense in Los Angeles, which celebrated the New Year under the cloud of a string of 40 deliberately set fires, mostly targeting cars either outside homes or in garages under buildings.
Seven new fires were reported overnight, including one in an underground parking lot in the heart of Tinseltown near Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where tourists flock to see celebrity handprints and the Walk of Fame stars.
Remote Pacific islands were the first places to welcome 2012, including Samoa, which wiped Friday off its calendar by jumping west across the international dateline. Sydney and Hong Kong set the standard for partying in Asia with glittering extravaganzas.
Japanese celebrations were rocked when a powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake swayed tall buildings in the capital of a nation still traumatized and rebuilding after last March's quake-tsunami disaster.
Dubai led the way in the Middle East and, despite the financial crisis, Europe spared no expense on the pyrotechnics.
London hosts the 2012 Olympics and its firework display kicked off with a recording of the moment the capital learned it would host the Games.
An estimated 250,000 people lined the banks of the River Thames, watching rings of fireworks in the Olympic colors flash in the sky, while the famous clock tower in the parliament building lit up with fireworks at every chime of the Big Ben bell.
There was no avoiding the euro-zone crisis in other European capitals with German Chancellor Angela Merkel warning in her New Year's message that "the path to overcome it remains long and will not be without setbacks."
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano delivered a stark message calling on the nation to make sacrifices to "prevent the financial collapse of Italy."
In Berlin, another spectacular display lit up the night sky with partying at the Brandenburg Gate, while in Paris, some 360,000 people flocked to the Champs-Elysees.
In the heart of Vienna, 2012 was rung in by the great bell of Saint Stephen's Cathedral, followed by the strains of the Blue Danube Waltz.
In Amsterdam, revelers watched the first "kiss" between two giant inflatable puppets representing a Dutch boy and girl, which "walked" towards each other as the seconds ticked down to 2012.
Some 10,000 hardy swimmers took a bracing plunge into icy North Sea waters off the Netherlands coast for the traditional New Year's dip.
"Not a bad way to start the year, don't you think?" said 38-year-old Tjerk Drouen, his cheeks reddened by the cold.
Thousands of Egyptians packed Cairo's Tahrir Square under a blaze of fireworks to ring in the New Year, capping a roller-coaster year of political upheaval and deadly clashes, but also the first steps towards democratic rule.
"We're here to welcome the New Year together, Christians and Muslims," said one woman holding an Egyptian flag.
In Pakistan, three people were killed and at least 60 wounded by stray bullets in the port city of Karachi as revelers fired guns into the air.
Five Kenyans were killed on New Year's Eve in a blast in a bar in the eastern town of Garissa, close to the border with Somalia.
Across the Atlantic in Rio de Janeiro, huge crowds of white-clad party-goers -- Brazilians and foreign tourists -- brought in the New Year on Copacabana beach, watching a spectacular "green" fireworks extravaganza.
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