Revellers converged on the beaches of Brazil, the skyscrapers of Dubai, and New York’s Times Square to say good riddance to a turbulent 2014 marred by terror woes, ebola, and airline disasters.

Revellers converged on the beaches of Brazil, the skyscrapers of Dubai and New York's Times Square to welcome the new year.

The United Arab Emirates has pardoned a Norwegian woman sentenced to jail for illicit sex after she reported being raped by a colleague while on a visit to Dubai.

An Irish man and a British woman accused of engaging in sexual activities in a Dubai taxi have pleaded not guilty, in the latest case of Westerners falling foul of the Gulf Arab emirate’s decency laws.