World to trip the lights fantastic

A glance around the globe shows many places will greet the new greeting the new century in stunning style.

TONGA

The kingdom, which claims its islands will be among the first and last to see the sun, plans to greet the new millennium with 10,000 voices singing hymns at midnight.

SAMOA

Cultural festivities to farewell this millennium include tattooing and a wedding ceremony. The village of Falealupo on the western island of Savai'i will be the last spot to enjoy daylight in the 20th century.

HONG KONG

At the Millennium Cup horse race meeting, a series of pyrotechnic balls placed at 50m intervals, and stretching what is billed as a world-record 1400m around the track, will ignite what organisers say will be a dragon image lasting five minutes.

JERUSALEM

No light shows here, just tight security to deter terrorist acts as up to three million foreign pilgrims converge on the Holy Land to mark the anniversary of the birth of Jesus.

CAIRO

French musician Jean-Michel Jarre will lay on a sunset-to-sunrise electronic opera at the pyramids, drawing global television audiences as networks dip in and out of millennium events. It can be accessed on the Internet at www.virtuetv.com.

BERLIN

Police expect up to 1.5 million people to throng around the Brandenburg Gate. The climax will be a spectacular light show at the Victory Column, where organisers hope to create the world's biggest pyramid of light.

PARIS

The Eiffel Tower, covered with lights, will be the centrepiece of France's celebrations, while 11 Ferris wheels will spin in unison along the Champs Elysees to simulate a train moving forward into the next century.

LONDON

The River Thames will be ablaze in a huge fireworks display set to music and coordinated by Sir Bob Geldof below the giant new Ferris wheel, while the Millennium Dome will host a party for 10,000 people.

NEW YORK

Officials promise a 26-hour "electrifying extravaganza." In Times Square, a new ball covered with Waterford crystal triangles will be lit by multicoloured halogen and strobe lights.

RIO DE JANEIRO

Upwards of three million people dressed in white will greet the new millennium on Copacabana Beach, sending flowers and floating candles into the Atlantic as offerings to Iemanja, the Afro-Brazilian goddess of the sea and fertility. At the stroke of midnight, the seashore will be lit up with fireworks in what the city is calling the world's biggest beach bash.

LAS VEGAS

Barbra Streisand will sing in front of an audience for the first time since 1996, and a bottle of wine from third US President Thomas Jefferson will be opened 200 years on.