Global fireworks party welcomes 2014

Times Square has erupted in a shower of multi-coloured confetti as New York City's famed glass ball eased down to mark the final seconds ushering in 2014.

An estimated million people, braving freezing temperatures and some having camped out since morning for a good spot, joined in a chorus to boom out the final countdown to the new year.

US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor - a New Yorker - activated the mechanism that sent the Big Apple's famed 550 kilogram multi-colour ball on its way down a pole to signal the start of a new year.

Three astronauts from the International Space Station appeared on a giant screen TV to wish the crowd a happy new year.

The crowd withstood the sub-freezing cold thanks in part to live entertainment including Melissa Etheridge singing the John Lennon song Imagine.

"It's really cold but there's a lot of entertainment. It's fun," said Sara, a New Jersey woman who arrived at the square at 7am to get a front-row spot.

Elsewhere around the world, fireworks boomed and lit up the skies.

Some 2.3 million thronged Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach for a raucous celebration with 24 tonnes of fireworks.

Dubai attempted to break the record for the biggest-ever fireworks show and Sydney started the ball rolling ahead of Asia with a dazzling display.

In London, cheers went up as parliament's clock tower chimed in 2014, as people packed the banks of the Thames to watch the pyrotechnics.

About 50,000 took part as peach snow, edible banana confetti and orange-scented bubbles descended on a section of the crowd.

In Dubai, more than 400,000 fireworks were set off.

The glittering display lasted about six minutes and spanned 100 kilometres of the coast, focusing on the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower at 830 metres high.

"It's amazing," said May Hinnawi, a 35-year-old Syrian. "I will tell my children and grandchildren I was here to see this event."

Kuwait set the record in 2011 with an hour-long blast of 77,282 fireworks.

In Europe, Berliners partied at the Brandenburg Gate, while hundreds of thousands in Paris thronged the Champs-Elysees.

"Paris is wonderful tonight," said Hu Lichu, a Chinese woman in her 60s who came with her husband.

Thousands of Spaniards in Madrid saw in 2014 by gobbling down 12 grapes - one with each clock chime - in a New Year tradition.

One man was killed by fireworks in the Netherlands and another in France.

Kiribati and Samoa in the Pacific were the first to see in the new year and the United States' remote Howland and Baker islands were the last.

In Japan, millions visited temples and shrines to greet the new year with contemplation and to pray for peace for relatives.

For areas ravaged by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, celebrations were muted.

In the ruined farming village of San Isidro, residents are still grappling with the stench of death as 1400 corpses stacked in black body bags lay in a field, more than seven weeks after the tragedy.

Seoul rang the city's 15th-century bronze bell 33 times, reflecting an ancient new-year custom.

In Indonesia's Banda Aceh, New Year's Eve celebrations were banned for the first time with Islamic police seizing firecrackers and cardboard trumpets.

South Africa farewelled 2013 with a 3D video send-off of the country's beloved icon Nelson Mandela, mapped onto Cape Town's city hall where in 1990 he gave his first speech after 27 years in incarceration.