New Year celebrations around world

Other cities around the world are also gearing up for New Year's celebrations. From partying in the street, to dancing on the beach...this is a time for fun. Tom Fearon brings us more about how people around the world are welcoming the new year.

For more than a century, New Yorkers have ushered in the new year by lighting and lowering a giant ball at Times Square.

The ball displays more than 16 million colors and will be lowered down a flagpole during the 60-second countdown to midnight.

As the moment draws nearer, the city is making its final preparations for the event. A million people are expected to converge in Times Square for the celebrations.

Many people in Germany will welcome in the new year with a bang. Hundreds of people have taken advantage of the once-in-a-year opportunity to stock up on fireworks ahead of the celebrations.

In Eitorf, a small town near Cologne in the northwest of the country, up to 2-thousand people queued all day to buy cheap fireworks. Most fireworks came directly from a production plant and were only on sale for two and a half days.

In Brazil, Rio de Janeiro revellers are attending a party on the city's iconic Copacabana beach.

Four stages on the beach have been set up to host performances by popular bands and samba schools. The famous party has attracted scores of tourists and booked out nearly all of the city's 28-thousand hotel rooms for the big event.