This year many countries have restrictions in place to avoid mass gatherings amid COVID-19 pandemic DUBAI: The world is preparing for an unprecedented celebration of New Year’s Eve, previously marked with grand public events. This year many countries have put restrictions to avoid mass gatherings amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected over 80 million people worldwide, and killed around 1.8 million. Although 2020 has been a challenging year, the Middle East has seen major milestones including Saudi Arabia’s G20 presidency and the normalization of diplomatic ties between Israel and a number of Arab countries. Follow @arabnews on Twitter to get a glimpse of how countries across the world bid farewell to 2020. Here’s the highlights of the New Year celebrations as they happen (All times in GMT): 21:45 - A view of Athens" New Year"s Eve celebrations from the Acropolis...