Confetti fills the air over Times Square in New York as event organizers stage a confetti test Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005. The air above Times Square will be filled with an estimated 2,000 pounds of it on New Year's Eve.
Times Square Alliance President Tim Tompkins, left, and Countdown Entertainment President Jeffrey Straus conduct a confetti test by tossing the stuff out of their eighth-floor office window, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005.
Confetti fills the air over Times Square in New York as event organizers test the confetti, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005. Workers from city agencies that joined in the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, along with New Orleans jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, will serve as guests of honor at the annual New Year's Eve bash in Times Square.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, front left, and musician Wynton Marsalis are backed by city workers who will join the mayor in pushing the button to start lowering the New Year's Eve ball, at a news conference in New York, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005. Bloomberg said the workers represent all New Yorkers who pitched in to help the people of New Orleans.
Latvia's Mariss Jansons conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra during the first rehearsal for the traditional New Year's concert Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005, at Vienna's Musikverein.
A New Year tree is seen through an ice sculpture on the central square of Khabarovsk, about 6,100 kilometers (3,800 miles) southeast of Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005. The temperature is -23 Celsius (-9.4 Fahrenheit) . The ice sculpture was made to mark the coming of the New Year. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Children caper around the ice sculpture on the central square in Khabarovsk, about 3,800 miles southeast of Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005. New Year's is the biggest holiday of the year in Russia, and is followed by the Orthodox Christmas celebration on Jan. 7.
Philippine Police Superintendent Eduardo Lorenzo, right, wraps the nozzle of a policewoman's pistol with paper tape at San Juan police headquarters east of Manila on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005. The Philippine National Police is working to thwart the traditional celebratory gunfire during New Year's revelry that injures or kills several Filipinos each year.
A worker piles up firecrackers in a makeshift factory in the middle of a field Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005 in Bocaue, a town north of Manila. Employees work double time to meet the demand for firecrackers and other pyrotechnics for the celebration of the New Year.
A boy is reflected in a Christmas ball outside Zappeion conference hall in central Athens on Friday, Dec. 23, 2005. The city of Athens has planned a series of festivities for the Christmas and New Year's Eve holidays, including the launching of 2006 fireworks over the ancient Acropolis.