World Rings in New Decade

As midnight rolled around across Asia and Europe, revelers said "good riddance" to 2009, which, as French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, "has been difficult for everybody." Sydney put on a fireworks display that was estimated to have been attended by more than a million people, while Hong Kong residents watched fireworks set off from the top of the city's skyscrapers. In Moscow, President Dimitry Medvedev thanked his constituents for "bearing up together" during the "not very easy" year that was ending; at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI performed the year-end service a week after being knocked down during a Christmas Eve Mass. Meanwhile in New York City, the NYPD prepared for the famous ball drop in Times Square, which as many as one million people are expected to attend.