Celebration as world sees in 2013

From teeming Times Square to a once-isolated Asian country celebrating its first public New Year's Eve countdown in decades, the world looked to 2013 with hope for renewal after a year of economic turmoil, searing violence and natural disasters. Fireworks, concerts and celebrations unfolded around the globe to ring in the new year and, for some, to wring out the old. Hundreds of thousands of revellers crowded into New York City's Times Square to watch the crystal-covered ball make its annual descent. The US festivities joined fireworks in Sydney and Hong Kong to the first public countdown in years in Burma. New York City's countdown was the first in decades without television host Dick Clark, who died in April. One of the crystal panels on the ball was engraved with his name. "With all the sadness in the country, we're looking for some good changes in 2013," Laura Concannon, of Hingham, Massachusetts, said as she, her husband Kevin and his parents joined Times Square revellers. Matias Dellanno, 37, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, stood in the middle of the square with his wife and three-year-old son, beaming with joy as his eyes caught the multicoloured lighting illuminating the...