Happy New Year! The Celebrations Begin

[Luke Skywalker]

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hide captionThe new year has begun in Australia, where fireworks exploded near Sydney's Harbor Bridge and the Opera House.

Rob Griffith/AP
The new year has begun in Australia, where fireworks exploded near Sydney's Harbor Bridge and the Opera House.
Rob Griffith/AP

It's 2014 in Australia, New Zealand and other places on the "other side" of the international date line.
So we want to wish everyone a happy new year.
We'll add photos and news nuggets as the new day and new year dawn around the world. One thing to watch for: Dubai's attempt to set a new Guiness World World record for biggest fireworks display. According to The Wall Street Journal:

"If all goes to plan, more than 400,000 individual fireworks will light up over the Persian Gulf at midnight, beating a Guinness record of 77,000 set by Kuwait last year."

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The Dubai display is set to be streamed here (though the site's "countdown clock" appears to be wrong at this time). The "teaser video" makes it look like it will be quite a show. Dubai is nine hours ahead of the U.S. east coast.