Joyous start

From Sydney to Mumbai to Paris to Rio de Janeiro, communities around the world welcomed 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and ice plunges.

The New Year's Eve ball dropped in soggy Times Square in New York City, where thousands of revelers stuck it out in heavy rain.

Countries in the South Pacific Ocean were the first to ring in the New Year - with midnight in New Zealand striking 18 hours before Times Square. Auckland was the first major city to celebrate, with thousands thronging downtown or climbing the city's ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point.

A few hours after Auckland, fireworks blasted off Australia's Sydney Harbour Bridge and across the bay. More than a million people gathered at the iconic harbor for the celebration.

Much of Japan shut down ahead of the nation's biggest holiday, as temples and homes underwent cleaning.

In South Korea, celebrations were cut back or canceled following Sunday's crash of a Jeju Air flight in Muan that killed 179 people.

Chinese state media covered an exchange of New Year's greetings between leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a reminder of growing closeness between two leaders.

In India, thousands of revelers in Mumbai flocked to the bustling promenade facing the Arabian Sea. In Sri Lanka, people gathered at Buddhist temples to light oil lamps and incense sticks and pray.

In Dubai, thousands attended a fireworks show at the Burj Khalifa.

Rome's traditional New Year's Eve festivities have an additional draw: the start of Pope Francis' Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration projected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to the Eternal City in 2025.

Paris capped a momentous 2024 with its traditional countdown and fireworks extravaganza on the Champs-Elysees. The Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games hosted by the French capital from July to September had transformed the city into a site of joy, fraternity and astonishing sporting achievements.

London rang in the New Year with a pyrotechnic display along the River Thames. With a storm bringing bitter weather, festivities in Edinburgh, Scotland, were canceled.

But in Switzerland and some other places, people embraced the cold, stripping and plunging into the water in freezing temperatures.

Rio de Janeiro threw Brazil's main New Year's Eve bash on Copacabana Beach, with barges shooting off 12 straight minutes of fireworks.

ASSOCIATED PRESS