BERLIN (AP) —

On pins and needles for days as the votes were counted, the announcement that Joe Biden had won the U.S. presidential election on Saturday produced an burst of excitement around the world, as many people weary of an “America First” Washington breathed an emotional sigh of relief.

Connecticut native Marianne Hoenow waved an American flag outside Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate after the news was announced, while while a small group of women danced nearby in celebration.

In the hometown of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris's maternal grandfather in India and the surrounding region, overjoyed villagers set off firecrackers, carried placards and offered prayers after they awoke Sunday morning to the news.

Likewise, in the town of Balliina, Ireland, the ancestral home of President-elect Biden, resdients hung American flags in shop windows and atop buildings as they prepared for celebrations.

The American election was followed closely around the world and the final decision made front page headlines globally.

Britain's Sunday Times screamed “Sleepy Joe wakes up America” with a photo of a woman draped with an American flag celebrating. The Sunday Telegraph, meantime stated plainly “It's time for America to heal.” In Germany, a frequent target of Trump's, the Berliner Kurier newspaper made a pun on the German word for “nightmare” — albtraum — saying “The AlbTrump is over.”

A recruiting company got into the game quickly in Croatia with a new campaign advertising its job-placement services, putting up billboards in Zagreb with the slogan “Got Fired?” and a picture of Trump with a box in his hand labeled “Oval Office stuff.”