NEW YORK: Revelers erupted in cheers amid a confetti-filled celebration in New York's Times Square to welcome in the new year, part of star-studded festivities and glittering fireworks displays around the world to usher in 2012.

From New Zealand to New York, the world eagerly welcomed a new year on Sunday and hoped for a better future, saying goodbye to a year of hurricanes, tsunamis and economic turmoil that many would rather forget.

In New York, hundreds of thousands gathered at the crossroads of the world to witness a crystal ball with more than 30,000 lights that descended at midnight. Lady Gaga and mayor Michael Bloomberg led the crowd in the final-minute countdown of the famed crystal-paneled ball drop.

Matheus Campos, a law student from Brazil, threw both arms in the air as the new year began in Times Square. "It's awesome," he said.

Revelers in Australia, Asia, Europe and the South Pacific island nation of Samoa , which jumped across the international dateline to be first to celebrate, welcomed 2012 with booming pyrotechnic displays.

Fireworks soared and sparked over Moscow's Red Square, crowds on Paris' Champs-Elysees boulevard popped Champagne corks at midnight. Russian PM Putin used crude sexual innuendo to wish well-being and prosperity "to all our citizens regardless of their political persuasion, including those who sympathize with leftist forces and those situated on the right, below, above, however you like" . In Russian, the sexual innuendo was clear.

But many approached the new year with more relief than joy, as people battered by weather disasters, joblessness and economic uncertainty hoped the stroke of midnight would change their fortunes.

Firecrackers, gunfire injure 500 in Phillipines

Despite a government scare campaign, firecrackers and gunfire injured nearly 500 people in the Philippines as revelers welcomed the new year in one of the world's most raucous and dangerous celebrations.

About a dozen plane flights were diverted or cancelled early on Sunday after dark smog caused by firecracker explosions obscured visibility at Manila's airport, officials said. Health secretary said the number of injuries was lower than last year but remained alarming.