* Cities across the globe are welcoming 2023 with large crowds gathering for fireworks and light displays
* In the London, Big Ben fired the starting gun for a spectacular display that included a tribute to the late Queen
* 11 hours earlier, Sydney put on a spectacular display as ever, with fireworks launched from its Harbour Bridge and Opera House
* Revellers in China made the most of recently-lifted Covid restrictions and were able to gather in large crowds
* Russia and Ukraine have marked the start of 2023 - Putin by raising a glass surrounded by soldiers, and Zelensky by thanking Ukrainians for the war effort
* Later, the traditional Times Square event in New York will return to full capacity after two years of reduced festivities
The world's eight billion people Saturday ushered in 2023, bidding farewell to a turbulent 12 months marked by war in Europe, stinging price rises, Lionel Messi's World Cup glory and the deaths of Queen Elizabeth, Pele and former pope Benedict.
Many were ready to set aside pinched budgets and a virus that is increasingly forgotten but not gone, and embrace a party atmosphere on New Year's Eve after a few pandemic-dampened years.
Parisians – and a "normal" amount of tourists, comparable to 2018 or 2019, according to officials – took the opportunity to crowd together shoulder-to-shoulder for a fireworks show along the Champs-Elysee.
Police said about a million people showed up for the celebration, where children in pushchairs and partiers with champagne were equally visible.
A group of 10 students sat around playing games while they waited for midnight, spending their first New Year's Eve on the avenue.
London fireworks
There seemed to be a dulled appetite for grand celebrations in Vladimir Putin's Russia. Moscow cancelled its traditional fireworks show after Mayor Sergei Sobyanin asked residents to vote on how to mark the occasion.
Muscovites such as Irina Shapovalova, a 51-year-old nursery worker, said their main wish for 2023 was for "a peaceful sky above our heads".
Putin said in a New Year's address that "moral, historical rightness" is on Russia's side as the country faces international condemnation over the war.
London was meanwhile welcoming crowds to its official New Year's Eve fireworks display for the first time since the pandemic with around 100,000 ticket holders expected to attend the spectacle.
Thousands of people gathered in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square to listen to the twelve chimes that accompanied the last twelve seconds of 2023 and eat a grape to the rhythm of each one, fulfilling a rite that most Spaniards copied at home from the television.
The new year will kick off with a new leader in Brazil, where Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva takes the reins on Sunday following his razor-thin win in October polls.
Shadow of Covid
The Middle East region welcomed 2023 with a traditional fireworks show from the world's tallest building, the 830-metre (2,723 feet) Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Laser lights added to the spectacle at the landmark which carried messages including, "Hugging again," an apparent reference to the end of Covid restrictions.
However, China begins 2023 battling a surge in Covid infections after unwinding restrictions to contain the virus.
Hospitals in the world's most populous nation have been overwhelmed by an explosion of cases following the decision to lift strict "zero-Covid" rules.
New Year Eve's parties are still planned, though authorities in Shanghai said there were no formal activities on the city's famed Bund waterfront.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told the country in a televised New Year's Eve address that, despite the outbreak, "the light of hope is right in front of us".
(Compiled)
