Quiet start to 2019 in Pacific nation

Fireworks are set to ring in the New Year in the Samoan capital of Apia, the first city that will welcome 2019.

Revellers around the world are preparing to ring in the New Year with festivities and fireworks.

The Pacific island nation of Samoa will be first to celebrate the arrival of 2019 after it shifted its time zone west of the international date line seven years ago.

The decision moved Samoan time forward by 24 hours - wiping December 30, 2011 off the Samoan calendar and jumping straight to December 31.

Fireworks to welcome in the New Year will explode over the Samoan capital Apia for locals and tourists who have timed their visit so as to be ahead of everyone else on the planet to enter the New Year.

Samoa will be followed into 2019 by Auckland, which will have a fireworks display from Sky Tower, and then Melbourne and Sydney.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to take part in Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations, while tickets to London's fireworks display, the largest display in Europe, were sold out.

In New York, security will be tight as the Big Apple expects up to 2 million people on Times Square for New Year's Eve celebrations culminating with the drop of a crystal ball in the final seconds of 2018.

Los Angeles and Honolulu round out the US reverie, while Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro are among the top New Year's Eve party locations in Latin America.

The celebrations will end more or less where they started - in American Samoa, next door to Samoa.