Lights dim for Earth Hour

Lights dim for Earth Hour

CHICAGO — From the Eiffel Tower in Paris, above, and the Great Pyramids of Egypt to the Empire State Building in New York, illuminated patches of the globe went dark Saturday for Earth Hour, a campaign to highlight the threat of climate change.

Time zone by time zone, nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries joined the event sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund to dim nonessential lights from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. The campaign began in Australia in 2007 and last year grew to 400 cities worldwide.

Organizers initially worried that enthusiasm this year would wane with the world focused on the global economic crisis, said Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley. But he said it apparently had the opposite effect.

Spanish court considers trying former U.S. officials

MADRID — A Spanish court has agreed to consider opening a criminal case against six former Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, over allegations they gave legal cover for torture at Guantanamo Bay, a lawyer in the case said Saturday.

Human rights lawyers brought the case before leading anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon, who agreed to send it on to prosecutors to decide whether it had merit, Gonzalo Boye, one of the lawyers who brought the charges, told The Associated Press.

The ex-Bush officials are Gonzales; former undersecretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith; former Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington; Justice Department officials John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee; and Pentagon lawyer William Haynes.

Shuttle returns to Earth

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven returned to Earth on Saturday and successfully wrapped up a construction mission that left the international space station with all its solar wings and extra electrical power.

Discovery swooped through a cloudy sky and landed at NASA’s spaceport in midafternoon, a little later than initially planned.

“Welcome home, Discovery, after a great mission,” Mission Control radioed.

“It’s good to be back home,” said Discovery’s commander, Lee Archambault.

Mission Control delayed Discovery’s homecoming by about 90 minutes, or one orbit, because of windy, cloudy weather. But the wind shifted and conditions improved enough for the second and final landing opportunity of the day.

N. Korean rocket launch could go before the U.N.

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea, the United States and Japan warned that North Korea’s planned rocket launch would violate a U.N. resolution and said they would take the issue to the Security Council if the North goes ahead with it, a news report said Saturday.

North Korea says it will send a communications satellite into orbit between Saturday and April 8 as part of a peaceful bid to develop its space program.

Choson Sinbo, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Tokyo, acknowledged that rocket technology could be used for military purposes but said the North was pushing ahead with its peaceful use as part of an economic development project.

Cyber spies break into government computers

TORONTO — A cyber spy network based mainly in China has tapped into classified documents from government and private organizations in 103 countries, including the computers of Tibetan exiles, Canadian researchers said Saturday.

The work of the Information Warfare Monitor initially focused on allegations of Chinese cyber espionage against the Tibetan community in exile, and eventually led to a much wider network of compromised machines, the Internet-based research group said.

Associated Press