New Year's Eve Around the World Pics

New Years Celebrations

Customers leave a fireworks shop in Berlin December 29, 2008, after buying fireworks ahead of New Years Eve celebrations. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (GERMANY)

Reuters

Customers buy fireworks in a fireworks shop in Berlin December 29, 2008, ahead of New Years Eve celebrations. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (GERMANY)

Reuters

Pyrotechnician Joe Rizzotto, front, loads a large shell ash he prepares fireworks for New Year's Eve celebrates in Sydney, Australia, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008. Twelve computers will control 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects that will entertain 1.5 million people expected to gather on Sydney's harbor side to bring in the new year. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

AP

Pyrotechnician Chris Gray prepares fireworks for New Year's Eve celebrates in Sydney, Australia, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008. Twelve computers will control 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects that will entertain 1.5 million people expected to gather on Sydney's harbor side to bring in the new year. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

AP

Pyrotechnicians Joe Rizzotto, left, and Chris Gray prepare fireworks for New Year's Eve celebrates in Sydney, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008. Twelve computers will control 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects that will entertain 1.5 million people expected to gather on Sydney's harbor side to bring in the new year. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

AP

RNPS IMAGES OF THE YEAR 2008 A combination picture shows fireworks exploding during New Year celebrations around the world January 1, 2008. The photos were taken in (clockwise starting from top left) Sydney, Singapore, London, Hong Kong, Moscow and Athens. REUTERS/Staff

Reuters

A group of Chinese men set off fireworks along a street in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning province on February 20 2008, as the Lunar New Year will come to an end February 21 and the ban on fireworks will resume. Chinese all over the world observe the Lantern Festival, or 'Yuanxiao Festival', which takes place on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the first night of the new year where there is a full moon. CHINA OUT GETTY OUT AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images)

AFP/Getty Images

Fireworks erupt over Beijing on February 7, 2008 on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Explosions of colour can be seen in the skies of Beijing and across China in a centuries-old tradition of setting off fireworks to celebrate that is meant to scare off evil spirits. AFP PHOTO/Frederic J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

AFP/Getty Images

Photographers take pictures of hanging icicles in Guiyang on the second day of the Lunar New Year on Februay 8, 2008 in southwest China's Guizhou province. China welcomed in the Year of the Rat February 8 with a bonanza of fireworks and festivals, but the celebrations for many were subdued due to ferocious cold weather that kept them from their families as the most important national holiday for China's more than 1.3 billion people followed three weeks of ice and snow storms that crippled transport and power supplies in many cities. AFP PHOTO CHINA OUT GETTY OUT (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images)

AFP/Getty Images

Performers dressed in traditional costume parade on the streets of Yongchuan on the first day of the Lunar New Year on February 7, 2008 in southwest China's Chongqing municipality. China welcomed in the Year of the Rat with a bonanza of fireworks and festivals, but the celebrations for many were subdued due to ferocious cold weather that kept them from their families. AFP PHOTO CHINA OUT GETTY OUT (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images)

AFP/Getty Images