It's already 2014 in some parts of the world

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Exploding fireworks sprayed from the sails of the Sydney Opera House and the Australian city's harbor bridge at midnight Tuesday as the world ushered in a new year.

More than 1 million people crammed the Sydney Harbor foreshore on a warm summer night to watch the pyrotechnics show that appeared to live up to its billing as the most extravagant of Sydney's already renowned annual display.

Dubai will later try to create the world's largest fireworks show to ring in 2014. Revelers heading to New York City's Times Square could expect the annual ball drop, the hefty police presence but no mayor this year. The new year will instead be rung in by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Closer to the edge of the International Dateline, New Zealand bid farewell to 2013 with fireworks erupting from Auckland's Sky Tower as cheering revelers danced in the streets of the South Pacific island nation's largest city.

Dubai is known for glitz, glamor and over-the-top achievements like the world's tallest tower, and this year it plans to break another record by creating the largest fireworks show ever.

Organizers plan to light up the city's coastline with a flying falcon made out of fireworks that moves across a massive man-made palm-shaped island alongside a countdown in fireworks.