Warm-up fireworks light up the sky at 9pm, three hours ahead of of the annual New Year's Eve fireworks display, over Sydney Harbour on December 31, 2010. Billions of New Year revellers will welcome 2011 in a global blaze of fireworks and parties, temporarily banishing the misery of extreme weather which has struck countries across the world. Some 1.5 million people will cram Sydney's foreshore for fireworks on the iconic Harbour Bridge, while further north in Australia hundreds of thousands battle devastating floods which have left vast swathes of land under water. AFP PHOTO / DRINA THURSTON