Off the wire
Survey shows women are equally qualified for top jobs, but barriers persist  • Greek landmarks to mark Earth Hour by switching off lights  • Urgent: At least 25 killed in election day attack by Boko Haram in Nigeria: official  • Major int'l amber exhibition ends in Poland  • Two Czech women kidnapped in Pakistan freed  • 2nd LD: Warplanes raid Yemen's capital as airstrike enters fourth day  • Singaporean Deputy PM meets with Chinese VP  • UNICEF continues to offer vital aid to children in Yemen  • Denmark applies to join AIIB as founding member  • Yemeni FM says door to talks to settle crisis still open  
You are here:   Home

Earth Hour campaign observed in Moscow

Xinhua, March 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

Several landmarks in the Russian capital city of Moscow plunged into darkness Saturday night in commemoration of the Earth Hour 2015 celebration.

At the iconic Red Square, the outside lighting on the Moscow Kremlin (the Presidential residence), the National History Museum nearby, GUM Department Store and Saint Basil's Cathedral was switched off at 8:30 p.m., local time, as part of the global event designed to improve awareness of climate change and environmental protection.

Lights also went out with more than 300 other buildings in the city.

Earth Hour, a symbolic global initiative organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), encourages people all over the world to turn off nonessential lights for one hour on the last Saturday in March. It started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007.

Russia has observed the event annually since 2008. In 2013, following President Vladimir Putin's decision, the Moscow Kremlin took part in the event for the first time.

More than 2 billion people from 162 countries participated in the initiative last year, believed to be the biggest ever in human history. Endite