NEW YORK (AP) — From New York's teeming Times Square to an Asian capital hosting its first public New Year's Eve countdown in decades, the world is looking to 2013 with hope for renewal.
Fireworks, concerts and celebrations have unfolded around the globe to say goodbye to a year of economic turmoil, violence and natural disasters.
Security is tight in Times Square, where 1 million people are expected to see the dropping of the crystal ball at midnight Monday. The Newtown, Conn., school shooting and Superstorm Sandy are on people's minds.
Hours earlier, lavish fireworks displays lit skylines in Sydney, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Moscow.
Organizers say 90,000 people gathered in a field in Yangon, Myanmar, for their first chance to watch a countdown in decades. A reformist government took office last year after long military rule.
In austerity-hit Europe, the mood has been restrained.
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Associated Press writers Sylvia Hui in London; Rod McGuirk in Sydney; Aye Aye Win in Yangon, Myanmar; Jean Lee in Pyongyang, North Korea; Chris Brummitt in Jakarta, Indonesia; Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong; Ashok Sharma in New Delhi; Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines; Nicholas Paphitis in Athens; Raphael Satter in London; Harold Heckle in Madrid, Spain; and Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, contributed to this report.
