PHOTOS New Year 2015 begins around the world

As Floridians counted down to the New Year some folks on the other side of the world already rang in 2015.

Samoa and the Line Islands in the Pacific are among the first places on Earth to welcome the New Year. When the clock strikes midnight there (UTC 14) it's only 5 a.m. EST on the Florida Peninsula (UTC 5).

UTC stands for Universal Time Coordinated the world's current time standard said to be a more precise successor to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). At midnight UTC 0 on New Year's Eve it is 6 p.m. on the Florida Peninsula.

Interestingly 5 a.m. is also midnight in Hawaii (UTC 10) which is a full 24 hour day behind Samoa and the Line Islands. Like many time zone lines the International Date Line is not perfectly straight from north to south and cuts eastward around the latter two islands.

As folks gather to say goodbye to a trying year even festivities were not without tragedy.

Thirty five people have been killed in a stampede during New Year's celebrations in downtown Shanghai China's state run Xinhua News Agency reported.

The report early Thursday cites the Shanghai government in saying that another 42 people were injured amid the chaos about a half hour before midnight.

The deaths and injuries occurred at Shanghai's popular riverfront Bund area which can be jammed with spectators for major events.

Last week the English language Shanghai Daily reported that the annual New Year's Eve countdown on the Bund that normally attracts about 300 000 people had been cancelled apparently because of crowd control issues.

Here's a list of what time it is on the East Coast as other countries around the globe ring in the New Year

Local Time (EST) Midnight in places ringing in 2015 5 00 a.m. Samoa / Line Islands 5 15 a.m. Chatham Islands 6 00 a.m. Auckland New Zealand / Fiji / Tonga 7 00 a.m. Marshall Islands / Anadyr Russia / Tuvalu 7 30 a.m. Norfolk Island 8 00 a.m. Sydney Australia / Melbourne Australia 8 30 a.m. Adelaide Australia 9 00 a.m. Brisbane Australia / Guam / Papua New Guinea 9 30 a.m. Darwin Australia / Uluru Australia 10 00 a.m. Tokyo Japan / Seoul South Korea / Pyongyang North Korea 10 15 a.m. Eucla Western Australia 11 00 a.m. Beijing China / Hong Kong / Manila Philippines / Singapore 12 00 Noon Jakarta Indonesia / Bangkok Thailand / Hanoi Vietnam / Phnom Penh Cambodia 12 30 p.m. Yangon Myanmar 1 00 p.m. Dhaka Bangladesh / Almaty Kazakhstan 1 15 p.m. Kathmandu Nepal 1 30 p.m. New Delhi India / Sri Lanka 2 00 p.m. Islamabad Pakistan 2 30 p.m. Kabul Afghanistan 3 00 p.m. Dubai United Arab Emirates 3 30 p.m. Tehran Iran 4 00 p.m. Baghdad Iraq / Moscow Russia / Nairobi Kenya 5 00 p.m. Oslo Norway / Cairo Egypt / Athens Greece / Ankara Turkey / Bucharest Romania 6 00 p.m. Paris France / Rome Italy / Madrid Spain / Berlin Germany / Reykjav k Iceland 7 00 p.m. London U.K. / Dublin Ireland / Lisbon Portugal / Casablanca Morocco 8 00 p.m. Azores / Cape Verde Islands / Ittoqqortoormiit Greenland 9 00 p.m. Rio de Janeiro Brazil / Montevideo Uruguay 10 00 p.m. Buenos Aires Argentina / Santiago Chile / Asuncion Paraguay 10 30 p.m. St. John's Newfoundland and Labrador Canada 11 00 p.m. San Juan Puerto Rico / Santo Domingo Dominican Republic / Halifax Nova Scotia 11 30 p.m. Caracas Venezuela 12 00 Midnight Orlando Florida / Tampa Florida / New York City / Toronto Ontario / Havana Cuba 1 00 a.m. Chicago Illinois / Dallas Texas / Mexico City Mexico / Winnipeg Manitoba 2 00 a.m. Phoenix Arizona / Denver Colorado / Calgary Alberta 3 00 a.m. Los Angeles California / Seattle Washington / Vancouver British Columbia 4 00 a.m. Anchorage Alaska 4 30 a.m. Marquesas Islands French Polynesia 5 00 a.m. Honolulu Hawaii / Papeete Tahiti 6 00 a.m. Pago Pago American Samoa 7 00 a.m. Baker Island / Howland Island

Source Timeanddate.com

_____________________________ New Year's parties around the world

Across the globe revelers looking for a respite from 2014 will converge on the beaches of Brazil the shores of Sydney harbor and the potentially snowy streets of Las Vegas (yes really) to welcome 2015. Here's a look at the world is celebrating

FIRST UP DOWN UNDER

Sydney takes pride in being one of the first major cities in the world to welcome each new year and it plans to greet 2015 in its trademark glittery fashion with a tropical style fireworks display featuring shimmering gold and silver palm tree pyrotechnic effects.

More than 1.5 million revelers are expected to crowd along the shores of the city's famed harbor to watch the vivid eruption of light over the Harbour Bridge Opera House and other points along the water.

The festivities however come just two weeks after an Iranian born self styled cleric took 18 people hostage inside a downtown cafe. A tribute to two hostages killed in the siege will be displayed on the pylons of the Harbour Bridge during the fireworks display and an extra 3 000 police officers will be patrolling the city. Still Sydneysiders are being encouraged to celebrate as usual.

In New Zealand a giant clock on Auckland's landmark Sky Tower structure will count down the minutes until the New Year with a huge fireworks display launching from the tower at midnight. The capital Wellington will host a family friendly celebration in a park featuring orchestra music and iconic movie clips culminating in a fireworks display.

AT THE COPA ... COPACABANA

More than 1 million people are expected to flock to the golden sands of Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach where two dozen artists and DJs will perform on three stages. Tourists and locals routinely party until dawn on the beach staying awake to watch the tropical sun rise for the first time in 2015.

A massive fireworks display blasted from boats in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean will light the sky over the crowd which traditionally dresses in all white a Brazilian New Year tradition to bring purification and a peaceful year. Another tradition calls for partygoers to enter the sea up to their knees and jump over seven waves shortly after the New Year begins for luck.

WATCHING THE BALL OR WHATEVER DROP

New York will drop its Waterford crystal ball at midnight in a tradition being increasingly copied across the United States with twists celebrating local icons. Las Cruces New Mexico is spicing up New Year's Eve with its first chili drop. In Miami a 10 meter (35 foot) neon orange will light up while Atlanta and Nashville Tennessee will drop a peach and a musical note respectively.

Flagstaff Arizona celebrates with a 2 meter (6 foot) pine cone that drops from a downtown hotel. Nearby Prescott drops a 2 meter (6 foot) spurred cowboy boot in a nod to its western culture.

On Lake Erie in Port Clinton Ohio the community will carry on its tradition of dropping a 270 kilogram (600 pound) walleye made of wood and fiberglass. Michigan's Upper Peninsula will ring in 2015 with a nod to its mining history with a replica of a pasty (pronounced PAS' tee) a baked pastry filled with meat and potatoes to drop in Escanaba one of the remote region's largest cities. The meal was popular by miners who immigrated to Michigan decades ago.

Amid the celebration some cities are on alert for New Year's Eve protests related to recent police killings of unarmed black men. Boston's mayor and police commissioner urged activists to hold off on a planned die in. No plans for major protests were announced in New York where the police department is still mourning two officers shot to death in a patrol car. But security will be tight with more personnel than usual.

SNOW IN SIN CITY WHAT ARE THE ODDS

Las Vegas isn't a place that expects snow no less on New Year's Eve. So with meteorologists at the National Weather Service saying there's a chance that flurries might fall on the gambling capital's Strip and the hundreds of thousands of revelers ringing in the New Year the agency warned visitors dress warmly and wear comfortable shoes it's going to be a cold night.

Organizers of the fireworks display say the show will go on with or without snow. Forecasts in Las Vegas pin the area's chances for New Year's Eve snow at 70 percent along with a 0 degree Celsius (32 degree Fahrenheit) low. But for that to happen meteorologist Chris Stachelski says there needs to be moisture in the air and that's far from a certainty for the Strip.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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