Happy New Year! The Celebrations Begin

It's 2014 in Australia, New Zealand and other places on the "other side" of the international date line.
So we want to wish everyone a happy new year.
We'll add photos and news nuggets as the new day and new year dawn around the world. One thing to watch for: Dubai's attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for biggest fireworks display. :

"If all goes to plan, more than 400,000 individual fireworks will light up over the Persian Gulf at midnight, beating a Guinness record of 77,000 set by Kuwait last year."

Sounds of the New Year's celebration in Auckland, New Zealand

The Dubai display is (though the site's "countdown clock" appears to be wrong at this time). The makes it look like it will be quite a show. Local time in Dubai is nine hours ahead of the U.S. east coast.