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First Posted: 1/1/2013 ac08e37efb244547b942938a5e8461b6.jpg 



 (AP) Hundreds of thousands of revelers crowded into New York City's Times Square to watch the crystal-covered ball make its annual descent, ringing in the start of 2013.
The festivities joined a slew of others around the globe, from fireworks in Sydney and Hong Kong to the first public countdown in years in Myanmar.
New York City's countdown was the first in decades without television host Dick Clark, who died in April. One of the crystal panels on the ball was engraved with his name.
Yvonne Gomez, a 53-year-old physician from Grand Forks, N.D., beamed with pleasure as the ball descended.
I couldn't begin the new year in a more beautiful way, she said pointing to her husband, Greg Halverson, a 63-year-old potato farmer. I married him two weeks ago and here we are in the middle of Times Square celebrating the new year.
<a title=Associated Press href=http://www.ap.org class=url org fn>Associated Press</a>

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