World welcomes 2013 with a bang

Lavish fireworks displays have ushered in 2013 across the Asia-Pacific region and Europe is holding scaled-back festivities in the hope of beginning a new year that will be kinder to its battered economies.

Asian cities kicked off New Year’s celebrations in style and an atmosphere of renewed optimism, despite the “fiscal cliff” impasse of spending cuts and tax increases threatening to reverberate globally from the United States.