Sydney fireworks get new year off to cracking start

UNDER explosive bursts of fireworks more than a million New Year revellers in Sydney got one of the world’s biggest parties started yesterday – bidding farewell to the tough year that was 2009.

As the family-friendly, pre-midnight show illuminated Australia’s largest city, preparations were under way across the world for pyrotechnics, parties and prayers in the final countdown to herald the end of “the Noughties.”

The mood of celebrations was tempered in some places by the effects of the financial downturn, which bit hard in 2009, sending economies into recession, causing millions to lose their jobs and home foreclosures to rise dramatically in some countries.