Revelers started ringing in the New Year across the globe with spectacular fireworks displays and massive parties hosted by world capitals against a backdrop of tightened security.
A Bali terror warning and a deadly shooting in Finland stoked security jitters, already high after a failed U.S. bomb plot.
Police were on alert in many world cities after the thwarted Christmas Day attack on a U.S.-bound plane, as party-goers from Tonga to Tijuana prepared to raise a glass to 2010 and close the door on a decade scarred by wars, terror attacks, natural disasters and financial turmoil.
But the party spirit was alive and well in New Zealand where fireworks burst into the night sky as the clock struck midnight in Auckland, the first major city to see in the New Year.
The U.S. embassy in Indonesia said it received a warning of a possible attack on the resort island of Bali, the scene of multiple bombings targeting Westerners, but local authorities denied any knowledge of such an alert.
In Helsinki, four people were killed after a lone gunman dressed in black opened fire at a shopping centre, the third major shooting in Finland in the past two years.
For international troops in Afghanistan, it was to be business as usual, with soldiers maintaining their normal schedule of operations, after two deadly Taliban attacks claimed the lives of eight Americans and five Canadians.
In Australia, around 1.5 million people were expected to crowd the harbor foreshore for a high-tech fireworks display on the iconic Sydney Harbor Bridge.
Paris's Eiffel Tower was to be transformed into a multicolored light show while in Berlin, more than one million revelers were expected on the boulevard leading to the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of German unity.
Celebrations in Britain centre on the London Eye, the giant wheel across the river Thames from the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, the world's most famous clock.
Terrorist target
We assume here that New York is the number one terrorist target in America
A downpour of confetti was to mark the moment at New York's traditional mass celebration in Times Square in the heart of Manhattan, where undercover police, surveillance cameras, uniformed teams and radiation and biological detection equipment will be monitoring the crowds.
"It will be a full fledged deployment of resources," city police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. "We assume here that New York is the number one terrorist target in America."
Highlighting security jitters rekindled by the bomb plot against a Detroit-bound passenger jet claimed by Al-Qaeda, Times Square was briefly evacuated Wednesday after a false alarm caused by what police thought was a suspicious vehicle.
Responsible drinking
If you're one of these fools that can't handle their grog and likes to go out and ruin other people's nights, make yourself a new year's resolution to grow up and behave yourself and start practicing that on New Year's Eve
In Sydney, as thousands of people gathered for celebrations, police minister Michael Daley urged revelers to keep a lid on their drinking.
"If you're one of these fools that can't handle their grog and likes to go out and ruin other people's nights, make yourself a new year's resolution to grow up and behave yourself and start practicing that on New Year's Eve," he said.
Around half a million revelers were expected to crowd Hong Kong's harborfront to watch 9,000 fireworks set off from the tops of 10 city skyscrapers in a formation resembling a dragon.
But in Thailand, police have banned fireworks after a New Year's Eve blaze at a Bangkok nightclub a year ago killed 65 revelers.
Multiple bomb blasts in the Thai capital on New Year's Eve 2006 killed three people and left 42 injured, and this year there was expected to be a heavy police presence across the city with bomb disposal teams on standby.
Security was already tight in Afghanistan and Pakistan after a year of bloodshed for both countries, which are fighting growing insurgencies from Al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants.
In Pakistan, hardliners who consider New Year festivities anti-Islamic have in the past gate-crashed luxury hotels and broken up parties.
In Karachi, the young usually welcome in the New Year with gunfire and crackers, but a deadly suicide attack during a holy Shiite Muslim ceremony this week has dampened enthusiasm.
"It is hard to celebrate when our city and country is passing through such deep trouble," said Zohaib Memon, 23, a business management graduate.
In Indian Kashmir, locals were set to enjoy some of the first major New Year celebrations since an insurgency broke out 20 years ago, despite protests from Islamic hardliners who object to the "anti-Islamic" partying.
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