NEW YORK -- The crystal ball has dropped and confetti has showered the crowd of hundreds of thousands of revelers in Times Square who are greeting 2010 with cheers.
With hugs and kisses, partygoers tried to look forward to a more hopeful decade after 10 years marred by war, an uncertain economy, terrorism and the threat of environmental catastrophe.
But 50-year-old reveler Gail Guay of New Hampshire had this advice: "Don't look back."
Organizers had mixed handwritten wishes with about 3,000 pounds of confetti. The messages include appeals for the safe return of troops fighting overseas, continued employment and a cure for diabetes.
The crowds brought out heightened security. Hundreds of officers were scattered around Times Square. Snipers were at various locations.
Paris jazzed up the Eiffel Tower with a multicolored, disco-style light display as the world basked in festivities with hopes that 2010 and beyond will bring more peace and prosperity.
From fireworks over Sydney's famous bridge to balloons sent aloft in Tokyo, revelers across the globe at least temporarily shelved worries about the future to bid farewell to "The Noughties" -- a bitter-tinged nickname for the first decade of the 21st century playing on a term for "zero" and evoking the word naughty.
Las Vegas prepared to welcome some 315,000 revelers with fireworks from casino rooftops, a traffic-free Las Vegas Strip and toasts at nightclubs from celebrities including actress Eva Longoria and rapper 50 Cent.
Even as some major stock market indexes rose in 2009, the financial downturn hit hard, sending many industrial economies into recession, tossing millions out of work and out of their homes as foreclosures rose dramatically in some countries.
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