Sydney first major city to mark Earth Hour 2009 SYDNEY - The floodlit cream shells of the famed Opera House dimmed Saturday as Sydney became the world's first major city to plunge itself into darkness for the second worldwide Earth Hour, a global campaign to highlight the threat of climate change. US offering to help China in fight against viral infection The United States is offering to help China in its fight against a viral infection that has killed 34 children, including two reported Friday, and sickened thousands of others. China says chemical spill will not affect Russia China has said a chemical spill into a tributary of the Songhua River had been controlled and would not affect neighbouring Russia, state media reported.
Festival brings rock's bad boys to conservative China Some of the most subversive and hard-hitting rock and rap acts ever to play in China will headline the Beijing Pop Festival opening Saturday amid signs Communist censors may be loosening up.