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Betty White, whose saucy, up-for-anything charm made her a television mainstay for more than 60 years, whether as a man-crazy TV hostess on The Mary Tyler Moore Show or the loopy housemate on The Golden Girls, has died. She was 99.

White's death was confirmed by her longtime agent Jeff Witjas in a phone call Friday with publicist Pam Golum. White would have turned 100 on January 17, 2022.

She launched her TV career in daytime talk shows when the medium was still in its infancy and endured well into the age of cable and streaming. Her combination of sweetness and edginess gave life to a roster of quirky characters in shows from the sitcom Life With Elizabeth in the early 1950s to oddball Rose Nylund in The Golden Girls in the '80s to Boston Legal, which ran from 2004 to 2008.

But it was in 2010 that White's stardom erupted as never before.

READ MORE: Remembering Betty White

In a Snickers commercial that premiered during that year's Super Bowl telecast, she impersonated an energy-sapped dude getting tackled during a backlot football game.

"Mike, you're playing like Betty White out there," jeered one of his chums. White, flat on the ground and covered in mud, fired back, "That's not what your girlfriend said!"

The instantly-viral video helped spark a Facebook campaign called "Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!," whose half-million fans led to her co-hosting Saturday Night Live in a much-watched, watch-hailed edition that Mother's Day weekend.

The appearance won her a seventh Emmy award.

A month later, cable's TV Land premiered Hot In Cleveland, the network's first original scripted series, which starred Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick as three past-their-prime show-biz veterans who move to Cleveland to escape the youth obsession of Hollywood.

They move into a home being looked after by an elderly Polish widow — a character, played by White, who was meant to appear only in the pilot episode.

But White stole the show, and the salty Elka Ostrovsky became a key part of the series, an immediate hit. She was voted the Entertainer of the Year by members of The Associated Press.

"It's ridiculous," White said of the honour.

"They haven't caught on to me, and I hope they never do."

By then, White had not only become the hippest star around, but also a role model for how to grow old joyously.

"Don't try to be young," she told The AP.

"Just open your mind. Stay interested in stuff. There are so many things I won't live long enough to find out about, but I'm still curious about them."

Such was her popularity that even White's birthday became a national event: In January 2012, NBC aired "Betty White's 90th Birthday Party" as a star-studded prime-time special. She would later appear in such series as Bones and Fireside Chat With Esther and in 2019 gave voice to one of the toys, "Bitey White," in Toy Story 4.

White remained youthful in part through her skill at playing bawdy or naughty while radiating niceness. The horror spoof "Lake Placid" and the comedy The Proposal were marked by her characters' surprisingly salty language. And her character Catherine Piper killed a man with a skillet on Boston Legal.

But she almost wasn't cast as "Happy Homemaker" Sue Ann Nivens in The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1973.

She and her husband, Allen Ludden, were close friends of Moore and Moore's then-husband, producer Grant Tinker.

It was feared that if White failed on the show, which already was a huge hit, it would be embarrassing for all four. But CBS casting head Ethel Winant declared White the logical choice. Originally planned as a one-shot appearance, the role of Sue Ann (which humorously foreshadowed Martha Stewart) lasted until Moore ended the series in 1977.

"While she's icky-sweet on her cooking show, Sue is really a piranha type," White once said. The role brought her two Emmys as supporting actress in a comedy series.

In 1985, White starred on NBC with Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty in The Golden Girls.

Its cast of mature actresses, playing single women in Miami retirement, presented a gamble in a youth-conscious industry. But it proved a solid hit and lasted until 1992.

White played Rose, a gentle, dim widow who managed to misinterpret most situations. She drove her roommates crazy with off-the-wall tales of childhood in fictional St. Olaf, Minnesota, an off-kilter version of Lake Wobegon.

The role won her another Emmy, and she reprised it in a short-lived spinoff, The Golden Palace.

After her co-star Arthur died in 2009, White told Entertainment Tonight: "She showed me how to be very brave in playing comedy. I'll miss that courage."

White's other TV series included "Mama's Family," as Vicki Lawrence's irascible mother; Just Men, a game show in which women tried to predict answers to questions directed to male celebrities; and "Ladies Man," as the catty mother of Alfred Molina.

Just Men brought her a daytime Emmy, while she won a fourth prime time Emmy in 1996 for a guest shot on The John Larroquette Show.

She also appeared in numerous miniseries and TV movies and made her film debut as a female U.S. senator in Otto Preminger's 1962 Capitol Hill drama Advise and Consent.

White began her television career as $50-a-week sidekick to a local Los Angeles TV personality in 1949. She was hired for a local daytime show starring Al Jarvis, the best-known disc jockey in Los Angeles.

It was then she got a tip to start lying about her age.

"We are so age-conscious in this country," she said in a 2011 interview with The Associated Press. "It's silly, but that's the way we are. So I was told, 'Knock four years off right now. You'll be blessing yourself down the road.'

"I was born in 1922. So I thought, 'I must always remember that I was born in 1926.' But then I would have to do the math. Finally, I decided to heck with it."

White proved to be a natural for the new medium. She was bright, pretty and likable, with a dimpled, eye-crinkling smile. A 1951 Los Angeles Times headline said: "Betty White Hailed as TV's Busiest Gal."

"I did that show 5½ hours a day, six days a week, for 4½ years," she recalled in 1975. Jarvis was replaced by actor Eddie Albert, and when he went to Europe for the film Roman Holiday, she headed the show.

A sketch she had done with Jarvis turned into a syndicated series, Life With Elizabeth, which won her first Emmy. For a time she did interviews on The Betty White Show in the daytime, filmed the series at night and often turned up on a late-night talk show. She also appeared on commercials and every New Year's narrated the Pasadena Rose Parade.

With the glib tongue and quick responses nurtured in the Jarvis years, she was a welcome guest on I've Got a Secret, To Tell the Truth, What's My Line and other game shows — all the way up to the 2008 Million Dollar Password, which revived the game once hosted by Ludden, whom she had met when a contestant on his original "Password."

That was in 1961, and the next year, while touring in summer theatre during television's off season, she starred with Ludden — by then a widower with three children — in the comedy Critic's Choice.

White, who had claimed to be "militantly single" since a 1947-1949 marriage, weakened in her resolve.

"I had always said on The Tonight Show and everywhere else that I would never get married again," she told a reporter in 1963.

"But Allen outnumbered me. He started in and even the children got in the act. And I surrendered — willingly."

The marriage lasted from 1963 until his death from cancer in 1981.

Off-screen, White tirelessly raised money for animal causes such as the Morris Animal Foundation and the Los Angeles Zoo. In 1970-1971, she wrote, produced and hosted a syndicated TV show, The Pet Set, to which celebrities brought their dogs and cats.

She wrote a 1983 book titled "Betty White's Pet Love: How Pets Take Care of Us," and, in 2011, published "Betty & Friends: My Life at the Zoo."

Her devotion to pets was such that she declined a plum role in the hit 1997 movie As Good As It Gets. She objected to a scene in which Jack Nicholson drops a small dog down a laundry chute.

In her 2011 book "If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't)," White explained the origins of her love for dogs.

During the Depression, her dad made radios to sell to make extra money. But since few people had money to buy the radios, he willingly traded them for dogs, which, housed in kennels in the backyard, at times numbered as many as 15 and made White's happy childhood even happier.

Are there any critters she doesn't like?

"No," White told the AP. "Anything with a leg on each corner."

Then what about snakes?

"Ohhh, I LOVE snakes!"

She was born Betty Marion White in Oak Park, Illinois, and the family moved to Los Angeles when she was a toddler.

"I'm an only child, and I had a mother and dad who never drew a straight line: They just thought funny," she told The Associated Press in 2015.

"We'd sit around the breakfast table and then we'd start kicking it around. My dad was a salesman and he would come home with jokes. He'd say, `Sweetheart, you can take THAT one to school. But I wouldn't take THIS one.′ We had such a wonderful time."

Her early ambition was to be a writer, and she wrote her grammar school graduation play, giving herself the leading role.

At Beverly Hills High School, her ambition turned to acting, and she appeared in several school plays. Her parents hoped she'd go to college, but instead she took roles in a small theater and played bit parts in radio dramas.

Explaining in 2011 how she kept up her frantic pace even as an octogenarian, she explained that she only needed four hours of sleep each night.

And when asked how she had managed to be universally beloved during her decades-spanning career, she summed up with a dimpled smile: "I just make it my business to get along with people so I can have fun. It's that simple."

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A tropical cyclone has formed off the Queensland coast in the Coral Sea in the dying hours of 2021.

The storm system, dubbed Cyclone Seth, is swirling northeast of Mackay and is not expected to make landfall.

However, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has warned Cyclone Seth will generate large waves along much of the coastline.

READ MORE: Sydney Harbour lights up to farewell rollercoaster 2021

https://twitter.com/BOM_au/status/1476772110366388228

"Deteriorating conditions over southeast coastal waters over New Year long weekend. Strong winds continuing and large surf developing thanks to a tropical low over the Coral Sea," the BoM tweeted.

Here's what the weather is doing around the capital cities.

Brisbane

It will be a wet and cloudy start to the year in Brisbane. The BoM forecasts a 95 chance of showers, and the chance of a thunderstorm in the west during this afternoon and evening.

A low of 20C and a high of 27C degrees are predicted.

Winds will tend southeasterly with a strength of 15 to 20 km/h before blowing southerly in the late evening.

Sydney

After a dazzling display of fireworks, Sydneysiders will wake to a mostly sunny day with a high of 29C predicted.

There is a slight chance of a shower in the early morning and a possible thunderstorm in the west this afternoon and early evening.

Melbourne

Melburnians will sweat through another hot day, with a high of 37C forecast.

Conditions will be hot and sunny in the morning with a slight chance of a thunderstorm with little or no rainfall during this afternoon and early evening with gusty winds up to 25 to 35 km/h throughout the day.

A three-day heatwave was issued for Victoria; Avalon yesterday recorded the state's highest temperature of 40.2C.

https://twitter.com/BOM_Vic/status/1476789551821692928

ACT

It will also be hot and sunny in the nation's capital. Temperatures will climb to 31C, with a low of just 13C.

Winds will become northerly and measure up to 15 to 20 km/h in the early afternoon then become light in the late afternoon.

Hobart

It will be sunny in Hobart with temperatures ranging from 14C to 26C.

The BoM predicts a slight chance of a shower during this afternoon and evening.

Winds of 15 to 20 km/h will blow northwest to northeasterly before tending east to southeasterly early in the morning then tending south to southeasterly 20 to 30 km/h in the morning.

Adelaide

Another hot and partly cloudy day is on the cards in Adelaide with temperatures ranging from 22C to 34C.

Darwin

There's a slight chance of an inland afternoon storm in Darwin as temperatures move between a low of 28C and a high of 33C.

Westerly winds of 15 to 20 km/h will also blow through the city before becoming light in the evening.

Perth

It will be clear, hot, windy and sunny in Perth with a high of 30C and a low of 17C forecast.

Winds of 25 to 40 km/h will tend south to southwesterly through much of the day.

Ikea says its customers will pay more when they shop at its stores in 2022.

Like many companies with tight profit margins, the world's biggest furniture seller is struggling to absorb higher costs because of ongoing global supply chain problems.

Ikea said prices at its stores would increase by an average of 9 per cent around the world to help offset significant transportation and raw material costs incurred by Ingka Group, which owns and operates most of Ikea stores worldwide.

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With its do-it-yourself philosophy embodied from its virtually staff-free showrooms to its flat-packed furniture, Ikea has become synonymous with low prices and value.

Despite surging costs during the pandemic, Ikea stores had largely kept prices stable.

But, as commodity and shipping prices continued to surge, the company said it was no longer able to absorb that damage to its bottom line.

"Unfortunately, now, for the first time since higher costs have begun to affect the global economy, we have to pass parts of those increased costs onto our customers," Tolga Öncü, retail operations manager at IKEA Retail, said in a statement.

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Mr Öncü said this move would ensure IKEA's "competitiveness and the resilience," but adds that "affordability will always be a cornerstone for us".

The retailer said it had seen unprecedented demand for home-related products, such as furniture, storage products and home office-related items during the pandemic, so much so that it has not always been able to meet all the needs of its customers.

The company said it was trying to mitigate the ongoing impact from supply chain issues such as shipping delays by using charting extra ships and loaders.

"Our intention is to give back to the customer any decrease in purchase prices we get," Mr Öncü said.

Good riddance to 2021. Let 2022 bring fresh hope.

That was a common sentiment on Friday as people around the world got ready to welcome in the new year.

In many places, plans for New Year's Eve celebrations were muted or cancelled for the second straight year due to a surge of coronavirus infections, this time driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant.

READ MORE: How Aussies are spending New Year's Eve around the country

Even before Omicron hit, many people were happy to say goodbye to a second grinding year of the pandemic.

But so far, at least, the Omicron surge hasn't resulted in the same levels of hospitalisations and deaths as previous outbreaks — especially among vaccinated people — offering a glimmer of hope for 2022.

In Japan, writer Naoki Matsuzawa said he would spend the next few days cooking and delivering food to the elderly because some stores would be closed. He said vaccinations had made people less anxious about the pandemic, despite the new variant.

"A numbness has set in, and we are no longer overly afraid," said Matsuzawa, who lives in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo. "Some of us are starting to take for granted that it won't happen to me."

Like many other people, Matsuzawa hopes that life will improve in 2022.

"I hope the restrictions can disappear," he said.

READ MORE: Vantage points near empty ahead of Sydney New Year's Eve fireworks

Across Japan, many people planned to take new year trips to spend time with their families. On New Year's Eve, people thronged temples and shrines, most of them wearing masks.

Some appeared to be shrugging off virus fears, however, by dining and drinking raucously in downtown Tokyo and flocking to shops, celebrating not only the holidays but a sense of exhilaration over being freed from recent virus restrictions.

Because of where the international date line sits, countries in Asia and the Pacific region are among the first to usher in each new year.

Australia was planning to go ahead with its celebrations despite an explosion in virus cases. The centrepiece of festivities is the renowned fireworks display from the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House.

Hours before the celebrations were due to begin, Australian health authorities reported a record 32,000 new virus cases, many of them in Sydney. Because of the surge, authorities were expecting far smaller crowds than in pre-pandemic years, when as many as 1 million revellers would crowd inner Sydney.

In neighbouring New Zealand, where there hasn't yet been any community spread of Omicron, authorities took a precautionary approach by canceling several fireworks displays, including a popular one from atop Auckland's Sky Tower. Auckland instead will mark the new year with a light display projected onto the tower and other city landmarks.

In South Korea's capital Seoul, the annual New Year's Eve bell-ringing ceremony was cancelled for the second straight year due to a surge in cases.

Officials said a pre-recorded video of this year's bell-ringing ceremony would instead be broadcast online and on television. The ceremony had previously drawn tens of thousands of people. Last year's cancellation was the first since the ceremony began in 1953.

South Korean authorities also planned to close many beaches and other tourist attractions along the east coast, which usually swarm with people hoping to catch the year's first sunrise on New Year's Day. On Friday, South Korea said it will extend tough distancing rules for another two weeks.

In India, millions of people were planning to ring in the new year from their homes, with nighttime curfews and other restrictions taking the fizz out of celebrations in large cities including New Delhi and Mumbai.

Authorities have imposed restrictions to keep revellers away from restaurants, hotels, beaches and bars amid a surge in cases fuelled by Omicron.

But some places, including Goa, a tourist paradise, and Hyderabad, an information technology hub, have been spared from night curfews thanks to smaller numbers of infections, although other restrictions still apply.

Many Indonesians were also forgoing their usual festivities for a quieter evening at home, after the government banned many New Year's Eve celebrations. In Jakarta, fireworks displays, parades and other large gatherings were prohibited, while restaurants and malls were allowed to remain open but with curfews imposed.

In Hong Kong, about 3000 people planned to attend a New Year's Eve concert featuring local celebrities including boy band Mirror. The concert will be the first big New Year's Eve event held since 2018, after events were cancelled in 2019 due to political strife and last year because of the pandemic.

In China, the Shanghai government canceled events including an annual light show along the Huangpu River in the city centre that usually draws hundreds of thousands of spectators.

There were no plans for public festivities in Beijing, where popular temples have been closed or had limited access since mid-December. The government has called on people to avoid leaving the Chinese capital if possible and requires tests for travellers arriving from areas with infections.

Popular temples in the eastern Chinese cities of Nanjing, Hangzhou and other major cities canceled traditional New Year's Eve "lucky bell-ringing" ceremonies and asked the public to stay away.

But in Thailand, authorities were allowing New Year's Eve parties and firework displays to continue, albeit with strict safety measures imposed. They were hoping to slow the spread of the Omicron variant while also softening the blow to the country's battered tourism sector. New Year's Eve prayers, which are usually held in Buddhist temples around Thailand, will be held online instead.

In the Philippines, a powerful typhoon two weeks ago wiped out basic necessities for tens of thousands of people ahead of New Year's Eve. More than 400 were killed by Typhoon Rai and at least 82 remain missing. Half a million homes were damaged or destroyed.

Leahmer Singson, a 17-year-old mother of one, lost her home to a fire last month, and then the typhoon blew away her temporary wooden shack in Cebu city. She will welcome the new year with her husband, who works in a glass and aluminium factory, and her 1-year-old baby in a ramshackle tent in a coastal clearing where hundreds of other families erected small tents from debris, rice sacks and tarpaulin to shield themselves from the rain and sun.

Asked what she wants for the new year, Singson had a simple wish: "I hope we won't get sick."

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Sunny skies and above 30C temperatures across the board are bringing Aussies out in droves, and despite rising COVID-19 numbers, partygoers are determined to ring in the new year in style.