New year revellers welcoming 2013

Shanghai and Hong Kong welcomed 2013 with spectacular fireworks as well as music and dancing

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Celebrations are being held around the world to mark the new year, with the city of Auckland in New Zealand holding the first major event of 2013.

More than 1.5 million people gathered around Sydney harbour to watch that city's famous firework display.

Big shows are also taking place in many other cities globally.

Celebrations have also been held for the first time in Burma, where large public gatherings were banned by its previous military rulers.

Subdued celebrations

In Auckland, the largest city closest to the International Date Line, fireworks exploded over the city's 328m (1,076ft) Sky Tower as midnight struck (11:00 GMT).

Two hours later, the huge crowds around the harbour in the Australian city of Sydney were treated to a typically extravagant fireworks display.

Seven tonnes of fireworks lit up the famous landmarks of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House to a soundtrack co-written by Australian singer Kylie Minogue.

The display is expected to pump $160m (£98.5m) into the local economy, the BBC's Phil Mercer in Sydney said.

Fireworks lit up the skyline in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, while South Korea ushered in the new year with the traditional ringing 33 times of the 15th century Bosingak bell in the capital Seoul.

As many as 100,000 people were expected around Hong Kong's harbour for the city's biggest ever fireworks display, costing $1.6m (£980,000), the Associated Press reports.

Firework displays were also held in the Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai.

The Burmese city of Rangoon is gearing up for its first new year's festivities

Meanwhile, Burma has for the first time welcomed in New Year with a big public fireworks display in the former capital Rangoon.

Tens of thousands of people were expected to attend the event, which was held close to the country's most sacred site, the golden Shwedagon Pagoda, and saw many of the country's top entertainers perform.

The celebration is in stark contrast to previous years, when the only big new year celebrations took place inside luxury hotels, the BBC's South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head reports.

It will inevitably seen as another sign of Burma's normalisation, as it rejoins the global economy, he adds.

The $1m event was organised by a prominent Thai firm with ambitions to cash in on the untapped market for promotional events in Burma, our correspondent notes.

However, there is a subdued atmosphere in the Indian capital Delhi, following the death last week of a 23-year-old victim of a brutal gang rape.

The army has cancelled its celebrations across the country, as have the governments in the states of Punjab and Haryana.

Thousands of residents and clubs have also called off new year celebrations. Protests over the case continued on Monday.

Later on, festivities will be held in European cities including Moscow, Paris and London.

More than two million people are expected to be on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach.

New York will mark the new year with the traditional New Year's Eve countdown and ball drop over Times Square.