Celebrations kicked off in the Pacific and continued in a non-stop, globe-girdling chain of street parties and fireworks.

Times Square was one of the last big bashes, following joyful gatherings at world landmarks including the London Eye, Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, the Champs-Elysees in Paris and Red Square in Moscow.

New York crowds, monitored by a heavy police presence, watched the famous slow drop of a six ton ball comprising 32,256 LED lights and 2,688 Waterford crystals to signal the end of 2010 and start of the new year.

In Los Angeles, a traditional electronic music festival attracted more than 26,000 revelers to the local sports arena, authorities said.

Two million people, most dressed in white, ushered in the New Year on Rio de Janeiro's famed Copacabana beach -- with the partying amped up by the unveiling of the logo for the city's hosting of the 2016 Olympics.

Brazilians also had another reason to party: on Saturday they were to welcome their first female president, Dilma Rousseff, who was taking over from outgoing leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

But in Argentina, a strong earthquake measuring 6.9 hit an area 151 kilometers (94 miles) northeast of the city of Santiago del Estero, according to the US Geological Survey. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

And the party mood was spoiled in Egypt by a deadly church bombing. There were also fatal bomb attacks in Nigeria, Black Africa's most populous nation, and in Burundi.

In the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria, at least 21 people were killed in an attack on a church as worshippers left a service at around half an hour after midnight. Witnesses reported a burnt-out car outside.

And in Nigeria a bomb killed four and wounded 26 at a crowded market on the fringes of a military barracks in the capital Abuja on New Year's Eve. Three people died in a grenade blast in Burundi.

There was also a sour note in Russia, where President Dmitry Medvedev promised an "open and friendly" country, but police marked the night by arresting some 120 Kremlin opponents at rallies in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

In Europe, the London Eye wheel was lit up by a colorful firework salvo as an expected 250,000 people lined the River Thames embankments.

In Paris, an estimated 350,000 people, including many tourists, were on the Champs-Elysees with a further 50,000 around the Eiffel Tower.

In Madrid, thousands crammed Puerta del Sol square as green lights spelt out "Feliz 2011." Revelers followed Spanish tradition and ate 12 grapes, one for each chime of the clock, to ensure good luck in the coming year.

Nearly 700,000 people braved the freezing streets of Vienna with some taking a chartered jet to witness the palatial city celebrate from above.

In the Middle East, Dubai stole the show on the Arabian peninsula with an unprecedented spectacle at the world's tallest building.

The Burj Khalifa was the centre of attention with a spectacular laser, lights, fountains and fireworks show which marked the 828-metre (2,717-foot) tower's first anniversary.

Then the party in the Americas got off with Rio de Janeiro, which staged a music and fireworks spectacular on the beach.

But honors for first party went to the 6,000 residents of the tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati, while New Zealand's Auckland was the first to party with a major fireworks extravaganza.

Australia then rung in 2011 with a fiery waterfall plunging from Sydney's landmark Harbor Bridge as seven tons of fireworks ignited in the night sky, thrilling 1.5 million people crammed on the city's foreshore.

In Asia hundreds of thousands of people gathered to watch a glittering fireworks-and-laser display along neon-lit Hong Kong's harbour. Dozens of boats also moored in Victoria Harbor for the intense five-minute display.

In Japan millions of people visited Shinto shrines to "purify" themselves.

Although Lunar New Year is a much bigger event in the continent, thousands braved Beijing's cold for the countdown at an up-market shopping centre, while an expected 7,000 people watched a kite-flying event in central Shanghai.

In Myanmar, democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi, released this year after more than seven years of house arrest, called on the country's people "to struggle together with new strengths, new force and new words in the auspicious New Year".

Revelers in India's financial and entertainment capital Mumbai -- scene of a 2008 attack that killed 166 people -- were given the go-ahead to party through the night despite intelligence about a possible militant strike.

Police were on high alert for attacks in major cities in Pakistan, where New Year celebrations are traditionally quiet, private affairs.

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