New York (Profile Facts) -- An estimated 1 million people marked the passing of one year and the beginning of another in New York's Times Square with the descent of an iconic ball.
With the help of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Medal of Honor recipient Staff Sgt. Salvatore A. Giunta, the dazzling crystal ball began its 70-foot drop at 11:59 p.m. Friday to the harmonious chants of New Year's Eve revelers counting down the final seconds of 2010.
More than one ton of confetti was released at midnight, with personal individual wishes written in more than 25 languages, a tradition from the past three years.
Weighing in at 11,875 pounds with a diameter of 12 feet, the sparkling sphere is covered with 2,668 triangular crystals and is powered by 32,256 LED lights. By mixing red, blue, green and white light elements, the ball's lighting system is capable of producing a kaleidoscopic array of 16 million hues and colors, and billions of patterns, the event's website says.
Each giant New Year's numeral making up "2-0-1-1" will stand seven feet high and the numerals will use a total 453 9-watt LED bulbs. As in the past three years, the numerals were designed to be more energy efficient, as Duracell Batteries set up a lab in which visitors rode stationary bikes to provide the stored battery power that will light the numbers on the ball Friday night.
More than one ton of confetti will be released at midnight, with personal individual wishes written in more than 25 languages, a tradition from the past three years.
Times Square has served as one of the most popular sites of New Year's festivities since 1904, though the New Year's Eve ball made its inaugural drop down the flagpole at One Times Square in 1907. That first ball, built with iron and wood, featured one hundred light bulbs and was designed by Jacob Starr, a young immigrant metalworker.
The New Year's Eve ball has beamed and dropped every year since with the exceptions of 1942 and 1943, when the United States was embroiled in World War II and New York City observed a city-wide "dim-out" to cut energy costs.
According to New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, this New Year's Eve celebration, like years in the past, is a product of a lot of hard work and planning by many people.
"We don't ever take it for granted," Kelly said. "The situation changes somewhat, we have sort of a core plan but we always add to it or change it -- we don't want to get stuck in a rut where we simply take a plan off the shelf."
As in previous years, security will be tight. Times Square will be closed to traffic at approximately 3 p.m. on Friday. Backpacks and alcohol are prohibited at the event and party-goers can expect a beefed-up police presence, according to the statement from the New York Police Department.
"It is a big complex operation and you know you always breathe a sigh of relief when it's over," Kelly said.
HUNDREDS of thousands of revelers, many dressed in bulky coats and hats, descended on Broadway and Seventh Avenue to celebrate the year's end and watch the ball drop from a flagpole atop One Times Square.
Carrie Graham, 33, of Texas came with her husband, James, 34, a banker, and son Alden, 6, to celebrate their daughter Ashley's 16th birthday. Ashley opened up the plane tickets for a present on Christmas-morning and cried, Carrie Graham said.
"She always wanted to come here, or own a horse," James Graham said.
Of her first trip to New York City, Ashley said, "I love it."
The family arrived in midtown at 3 p.m. and were standing right next to the stage in Times Square until the crowd grew too overwhelming and then moved further back.
"I feel like the security is safe," James Graham. "I feel good about that."
The police department deployed a "counterterrorism overlay" in Times Square, including thousands of uniformed and undercover officers, hand-held and vehicle-mounted radiation detectors, helicopters and observation towers, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
"Anyone who comes will have to go through magnetometers, perhaps as many as three times," to get to viewing areas, Kelly said Friday.
He said officers also were deployed to other events in the city, including a concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, fireworks in Brooklyn and fireworks at the Statue of Liberty.
"We always do things a little bit differently," Kelly said. "We don't want to get stuck in a rut, so some of our deployments will change."
The celebration will be the first since Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad attempted to detonate a car bomb in Times Square on the evening of May 1. Shahzad pleaded guilty to the bombing attempt in June and was sentenced to life in prison.
Backpacks, large bags and alcohol were prohibited in Times Square and pocketbooks were inspected as revelers entered fenced-in viewing zones.
Just before 5 p.m., the closest many onlookers could get to the action was 49th Street.
Dawn Borchardt, 34, a registered nurse from St. Louis, came with her daughter Cassie Miller, 16, and Dawn's friend Jamie Seitz, 29, a labor and delivery surgical technician. They were far back in the crowd on Seventh Avenue between 49th and 50th streets.
To prepare for the night they wore long underwear and brought handwarmers and snacks.
"It's kind of overwhelming at first, kind of easy to get turned around but exciting," Borchardt said.
National security officials in Washington, from the Department of Homeland Security to the FBI, focused their attention on New York City and Times Square, where local law enforcement finalized preparations for the annual New Year's Eve bash.
For now, however, there is no credible, specific terror threat timed to the celebration, federal and local intelligence and counterterror officials told ABC News.
"We have no specific threats against the city on New Year's Eve," New York City's Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. "Anytime large numbers of people come together, we put in our counterterrorism overlay. We have other events going on: We have a four-mile run in Central Park at midnight; a fireworks display at Prospect Park in Brooklyn; fireworks by the Statue of Liberty. ... So it's not just Times Square.
"But I can assure you we looked at all of these events closely. We will have several thousand police officers deployed. ... We have every indication that it will be a safe and happy event. "
The New York Police Department put the finishing touches Thursday on the "ring of steel" it uses to protect revelers: a security screen consisting of 17-plus miles of barricades; entrance point searches; video feeds; and uniformed officers spaced every few yards.
"I can tell you that we have more cameras focused on this area now, we're monitoring more cameras than we've ever done in the past," said Kelly as he showed an ABC News team around Times Square.
There will also be numerous security measures not quite so apparent to the untrained eye that include chemical sniffers, biological sensors and handheld radiation wands and pagers.
A few fun facts for revelers to contemplate as they stand with noisemakers, hats and masks, bodies pressed against barricades, huddled against the cold and in some cases perhaps with their knees held close together to prevent nature's urges from getting the best of them:
The ball weighs 6 tons and is 12 feet in diameter.
It begins its 60-second count to 2011 from a stanchion 400 feet above Times Square.
The ball consists of 32,000 lightbulbs.
90,690 feet of aluminum and wooden police horses have fenced the area in years past.
That 17.18 mile-protective fence weighed in, when last tallied by ABC News, at more than 355,000 pounds.
Times Square’s New Year’s Eve Ball Drop Countdown – Nothing can stop the New Year’s eve at Times Square.
One of the biggeset New Year’s eve celebration that will welcome the year 2011 will be held in Times Square in New York. Times Square has the center of the world’s New Year’s Eve celebration for 106 years, since the owners of One Times Square hosted rooftop celebration in 1904.
The Countdown will start at 6:00 PM ET on which the the lighting and raising of the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball at the top of One Times Square. Event organizers Tim Tompkins and Jeffrey Straus together with the representatives of the Philips Lighting Company will turn on the giant switch that will light the New Year’s Eve Ball
The Lighting Science Group, that is based in Brevard County, designs and manufactures LED lighting systems. Philips, Lighting Science and the city of New York help together to recreate the famous ball, and give it pizazz using light-emitting diode (LED) technology.
“There will be lots of special effects. The ball can do anything,” said Ed Crawford, CEO of Philips Lighting North America. Crawford lit the Times Square ball since the millennium celebration in 2000.
The Times Square ball’s lights are able to emit 16 million different colors. A dry run was held Thursday to ensure the safety and to prepare the 11,875-pound Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball.
Different performances will be showcase in the night. Ryan Seacrest and the singer Kesha were among the celebrities to appear on the nationally televised countdown to the ball drop at Times Square. Singer Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas will headline the Los Angeles portion of the show.
Free travel will be in place for certain periods for revellers keen to see in the new year in central London.
The scheme hopes to reduce delays and congestion as thousands gather to see in 2011 in the City.
Peter Hendy, London Transport Commissioner, said those travelling should expect delays and large crowds.
"The New Year's Eve fireworks display that takes place at the London Eye provides spectacular entertainment and is enormously popular, attracting large crowds that should be prepared for a long wait at the designated viewing areas along the Thames," he said.
"As a result people with young children may wish to consider celebrating nearer to home.
"For those wishing to brave the crowds and long waiting times, public transport will be the best way to get around the capital on New Year's Eve, and I'm pleased we can offer this for free, but I urge revellers to plan their journeys well in advance."
There will be free travel on all journeys between 11.45pm until 4.30am on the Tube, DLR, buses and trams.
Tube, DLR and tram services will run all night on New Year's Eve.
Some selected Tube stations will be closed completely or for periods at a time.
A Saturday night service will operate on night buses and 24-hour routes, subject to road closures in central London.
More than 50 extra routes will be operating through the night to enhance the service.
Free travel will apply on London Overground trains running after 11.45pm until normal last train times between Watford Junction and Euston, and Dalston Junction and West Croydon/Crystal Palace/New Cross route, but services will not run all night.
London River Services will run a normal service however after 2.30pm, London Eye Millenium pier will not be served due to preparation for the fireworks display.
Some routes will operate on New Year's Day, but a normal service will not resume until January 2.
Some Barclays Cycle Hire docking stations will be temporarily suspended for safety reasons at various times on New Year's Eve.
For the latest information on docking station availability, users should check online.
There will be a reduced number of UK coaches departing from Victoria Coach Station with the last coaches leaving at around 10pm.
National Rail will operate modified timetables with additional departures between midnight and 2.45am.
MOSCOW — Russian police on Friday detained several opposition leaders among nearly 120 protesters during New Year's Eve rallies held in central Moscow and Saint Petersburg, news reports said.
Moscow authorities allowed the opposition to stage a traditional end-of-month demonstration to assert their right to gather under the Russian constitution.
The 300-strong crowd chanted slogans in support of the jailed Kremlin critic and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose jail term was extended by six years Thursday, and called for broader political freedoms, news reports said.
But several opposition leaders, including former first deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, broke through police lines, prompting their immediate arrest, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Nemtsov, a key leader of Russia's liberal opposition, was to be kept in police custody until Sunday, opposition activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva told the Interfax news agency.
Police also detained Eduard Limonov, an opposition writer and leader of the radical National Bolshevik Party, near his Moscow home about an hour before he and his supporters were to hold an unsanctioned rally alongside the authorised one.
Shortly after his arrest, a court sentenced Limonov to 15 days in prison for insulting police during his detention, a court spokesman, Pyotr Chenik, was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.
"They wrote in the police report that I made rude remarks and violated the public order law," Limonov told Moscow Echo radio, calling the allegation "a lie".
Ilya Yashin, the leader of the youth wing of the liberal Yabloko group, was also detained during the Moscow protest, news reports said.
Russian police said they detained 68 people in Moscow and 50 in Saint Peterburg during two unsanctioned rallies.
Opposition leaders call regular demonstrations on the 31st day of the month in honour of Article 31 of the constitution, granting Russians freedom of assembly.
Moscow authorities have until recent months refused to sanction such rallies, prompting frequent scuffles with the police.
There were no initial reports of violence during Friday's demonstrations.
Chicago - Once again the CTA will be offering penny rides on all trains and buses the night of New Year’s Eve.
Penny rides will start at 8 p.m. and end at 6 a.m. on Saturday.
Several bus and train routes will also have later service hours to accommodate for the holiday and offer a safe option for travelers.
If you’re still looking for some ideas for how to celebrate New Year's Eve, one of the best places to ring in the New Year will be the North State Street outpost Pops for Champagne. It's offering a light menu until 8:30 p.m., with the Jason Ellis Quartet on deck to play from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
If you're looking for a bit of music -- and emo-punk at that -- you might want to head down to Reggie's Rock Club on South State Street and catch the Smoking Popes.
For a campy way to bring in the New Year, there's the film being screened at the Music Box Theatre on Southport. Chicago personality Richard Knight, performing as his Dick O'Day sleazy lounge host character, will emcee a screening of The Poseidon Adventure, the water-logged film about an ocean liner sinking on New Year's Eve.
A much more traditional way to greet 2011 will be at Navy Pier to check out the annual fireworks display.
There will be two shows. One is at 8:30 p.m. for those not wanting to wait until midnight, plus a second fireworks extravaganza carefully scheduled to start at exactly 11:59 p.m.
It’s going to be a chilly start to 2011: 28 degrees in Las Vegas at midnight, if the National Weather Service’s prediction is correct.
Today’s high temperature will likely enter the record books as Las Vegas’ coldest New Year’s Eve with the mercury dropping to levels not seen in more than two years.
The National Weather Service said Las Vegas will see a high of 38 degrees today. That’s well below the coldest high temperature ever recorded on Dec. 31 in Las Vegas, which is 45 degrees set in 1975.
The last time the high temperature reached only the 30s was during a snowstorm on Dec. 17, 2008, when the high was 39 degrees.
The average low temperature for New Year’s Day in Las Vegas is 36 degrees and the record low was 18 degrees in 1990. The average high for the day is 56 degrees; the record high was 74 degrees in 1995.
Forecasters expect temperatures in 2011 to remain below 50 degrees until at least Tuesday, with a high of 42 degrees Saturday, 45 on Sunday and 48 on Monday.
Skies should be clear to watch fireworks tonight, but a storm system is expected to move toward the area Sunday and bring a 20 percent chance of rain Monday.
In the meantime, weather officials recommend residents prepare their homes for freezing by wrapping pipes and keeping plants and pets indoors.
Visitors and locals who plan to ring in the new year outdoors should wear warm layers of clothing and limit alcoholic beverages, the weather service said.
Fireworks light up the sky near the landmark Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpa as the world celebrates the start of 2011. Auckland, New Zealand, was the first major city to celebrate the New Year before Australia, Singapore and China followed suit later today. The iconic towers in Kuala Kumpa were lit up as fireworks went off at midnight - temporarily banishing the misery of extreme weather which has struck countries across the world.
Roads were due to be cordoned off in London as the capital prepared itself for its own fireworks display tonight. Australia has welcomed 2011 with a spectacular fireworks display over Sydney Harbour. Despite losing the Ashes this week, thousands of party-loving Aussies had camped out for hours at parks alongside the Sydney Harbour Bridge to win the best view of today's spectacular New Year's Eve fireworks. As the clock ticked closer to 2011, Europeans were looking forward to celebrations that could help them forget their economic worries. Japan and South Korea both celebrated New Year at 3pm GMT - and India was readying itself for it's celebrations in the next few hours. In New York City, nearly a million revellers were expected to cram into the streets around Times Square to watch the traditional midnight ball drop several hours after the UK has marked the start of 2011. The 20-inch snowstorm that blanketed the city will be just a memory thanks to work crews and warmer temperatures. At least 1.5 million people lined the harbour in Sydney, the first major city where the new year arrives after 2011 hit New Zealand. Celebrations begin with aerial displays by vintage aircraft and a parade of boats around the harbour.
In Christchurch, New Zealand, two minor earthquakes Friday did not shake plans for all-night celebrations. 'There is more reason than ever for people to get together and celebrate the beginning of a New Year,' Christchurch's acting mayor Ngaire Button said, urging residents to celebrate in the central Cathedral Square, where workers were removing loose masonry after the quakes. A powerful 7.1-magnitude quake wrecked thousand of buildings in Christchurch on September 4, but nobody was killed.
This year marks the first time Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, officially celebrates the new year with a countdown blow out, complete with a light show and foreign DJs in front of the city's elegant French colonial-style opera house. Vietnamese in the past paid little attention to the changing of the calendar, instead holding massive celebrations during Tet, the lunar new year that begins on Feb. 3. But in recent years, the Western influence has started seeping into Vietnamese culture with teens, who have no memory of war or poverty and are eager to find a new reason to party in the Communist country. In South Korea, up to 100,000 people went to a bell-ringing ceremony in central Seoul, with officials and citizens striking the large bronze bell hung in the Bosingak bell pavilion 33 times at midnight. Some South Koreans also go to the mountains or beaches on early Saturday to watch the first sunrise of the new year. At midnight in Taipei, Taiwan, fireworks will form a spiraling dragon climbing up the city's tallest skyscraper. Some 50 dancers will beat drums in the freezing cold river in a dance to underscore how people should live with nature in harmony.
In Japan, New Year's Eve is generally spent at home with family but those who venture out go to temples to pray for good luck in the new year. At Zojoji, a 600-year-old Buddhist temple in central Tokyo, thousands were expected to release balloons at midnight carrying notes with their hopes for 2011. In Beijing, about 500 people were expected to gather at the Ancient Bell Museum for the chance to ring in the new year on the 46-ton bell. The city is also trying to start a new tradition, with an orchestra playing a 'Hymn to China' at the China Century Monument just two minutes before midnight. While many Asian countries famed for their firework displays were planning to light up the night skies, Myanmar's military government banned all fireworks for New Year's Eve and said severe action would be taken against anyone selling or using them.
A local news journal, Modern, noted that last year 62 people were given 6 to 12 month prison terms for violating this ruling. The government gave no reason for the ban but in the past has said that it feared "unscrupulous persons" might take advantage of the fireworks to create disturbances. In Europe, many people will be partying simply to forget their economic woes after a year that saw Greece and Ireland needing financial bailouts and others, such as Spain and Portugal, battling speculation that they will need similar aid. If not at home or at private parties, Spaniards traditionally gather in their main town squares to eat 12 grapes one by one as the bell in the square marks the countdown to 2011. In the Irish capital of Dublin, people will flock to the Christchurch cathedral to listen as the bells chime in the new year. In London, thousands will witness a musical and firework display at the 135-meter high London Eye, located on the southern banks of the Thames River. The Eye, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, lies almost opposite the Big Ben clock tower at Parliament that will chime in 2011. In Paris, tens of thousands are expected to pack the Champs Elysees and the area around the Eiffel Tower for dazzling light and firework displays. Fireworks light up the sky near the landmark Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpa as the world celebrates the start of 2011
Spectacular: Fireworks light up the sky near the landmark Petronas Twin Towers during new year celebrations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Singapore: Fireworks explode over Marina Bay in front of the Marina Bay Sands casino and resort during a pyrotechnic show
2011: Hong Kong joins in the celebrations - eight hours before the UK
Ready for 12: Revellers in Hong Kong, China, prepare for the New Year
Kicking off the world's celebrations: A curtain of fireworks cascades over the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the display that began at 9pm
Fireworks: The sky above tall Sydney city buildings light up as the country prepares to take the rest of the world into 2011
Happy New Year! Sydney Bridge is lit up as Australia becomes the first country to welcome 2011
Enthusiastic: Crowds gathered early at the naval base on Garden Island in anticipation of the annual New Year's Eve fireworks display over Sydney Harbour
Fireworks light up the sky near the landmark Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpa as the world celebrates the start of 2011
Spectacular: Fireworks light up the sky near the landmark Petronas Twin Towers during new year celebrations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Singapore: Fireworks explode over Marina Bay in front of the Marina Bay Sands casino and resort during a pyrotechnic show
2011: Hong Kong joins in the celebrations - eight hours before the UK
Ready for 12: Revellers in Hong Kong, China, prepare for the New Year
Kicking off the world's celebrations: A curtain of fireworks cascades over the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the display that began at 9pm
Fireworks: The sky above tall Sydney city buildings light up as the country prepares to take the rest of the world into 2011
Happy New Year! Sydney Bridge is lit up as Australia becomes the first country to welcome 2011
Enthusiastic: Crowds gathered early at the naval base on Garden Island in anticipation of the annual New Year's Eve fireworks display over Sydney Harbour
In Paris, tens of thousands are expected to pack the Champs Elysees and the area around the Eiffel Tower for dazzling light and firework displays.
LANSING, Mich. — Some Michigan bar owners plan to protest the state's 8-month-old smoking ban by allowing partygoers to light up after 9 p.m. Friday.
Organizers won't reveal the names of participating bars.
"They're not necessarily promoting it, but rather they're not going to prevent people from smoking," said Steve Mace, spokesman for the protest being organized by Bloomfield Hills-based Protect Private Property Rights in Michigan.
The ban went into effect May 1. It prohibits smoking in workplaces, public buildings, bars and restaurants.
Mace said each bar will handle the protest as it sees fit. Some may simply put out ash trays for the first time since May; others may go further to encourage smoking.
The goal: to let lawmakers know that banning smoking is bad for business, according to some industry advocates.
"Of the calls I'm getting, 60% are from businesses saying it has hurt their business and ... they're barely able to survive now," said Ed Deeb, president of the Michigan Food and Beverage Association. "I don't know if the protest will be effective, but maybe it will draw some attention and cause legislators to change the law."
State officials say their own studies show the ban has had no major effect on bar sales.
A report released Dec. 21 by the state Department of Treasury showed a slight increase in sales taxes collected at bars, taverns, nightclubs and restaurants in the past year.
State health officials say they don't plan to monitor the protest but will investigate all complaints, said James McCurtis, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Community Health.
Bars that violate the ban face a $100 fine for the first offense and a $500 fine for subsequent violations, McCurtis said.
"Businesses that willfully break the law and allow smoking in their establishment are risking fines and potentially being shut down," he said.
Individual smokers or customers cannot be cited for violating the ban.
