New Year fireworks, smoke and tear gas as decade begins with a bang

Billions around the world cheered in 2020 after a tumultuous year dominated by demonstrations calling for political upheaval and action on climate change.

Strike-hit Paris welcomed the New Year with a huge fireworks display while London's Big Ben rang out after a long restoration, as crisis clouded celebrations elsewhere at the end of a year of upheaval around the world.

In the French capital, tens of thousands gathered on the Champs-Elysees, despite a gruelling transport strike that has spelt weeks of misery for commuters.

They came on foot, by bike, taxi -- and a few by metro -- to ring in the new decade as a dazzling light show lit up the Arc de Triomphe.

In the British capital, thousands of revellers lined the Thames to watch fireworks fired from the London Eye for the last new year before Brexit.

Big Ben rang out 12 times after the bell fell mostly silent this year while renovation work was carried out.

It followed a year of political wrangling that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Theresa May and culminated in Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledging to leave the European Union on January 31.

Smoke-choked Sydney ushered in the New Year with an enormous pyrotechnics display, but celebrations were overshadowed by calls to cancel the fireworks as devastating bushfires raged across the country.

Toxic smoke haze has shrouded Sydney for weeks and a petition to cancel the event out of respect for fire victims attracted more than 280,000 signatures.

But the show did go on and more than 100,000 fireworks lit up the skyline for the hundreds of thousands of spectators thronging the city centre.

In Hong Kong, after more than six months of near-daily demonstrations,...