Brooke Bellah (Make up)

International:

Earth Hour--scheduled to take place tonight at 8 is a attempt to raise awareness for the need to conserve energy.  It was first started by World Wildlife Fund in 2007 in Australia.  For one hour the city of Sydney turned off its lights to participate in the historic event.  One year later, 200 international cities have signed up (including Phoenix) to participate in this year's event.  People are encourage to turn off their lights for one hour to support the cause. Hospitals and other important facilities will keep their lights on, for obvious reasons.

Opinion:

I think this is a wonderful idea.  It's not demanding too much to limit your use of electricity for one hour to raise awareness for a good cause.  It allows everyone to join in and help, not just those who can donate a lot of money.  Hopefully this day catches on and even more cities will participate next year.

Nepalese police broke up a protest by Tibetan exiles and monks Saturday in front of the Chinese Embassy visa office in Katmandu, and arrested 80 demonstrators. The protesters, were shouting slogans such as "stop killing in Tibet," but were quickly rounded up and driven away in vans and trucks.  Nepal has been criticized for not allowing peaceful demonstrations against China's recent crackdown in Tibet. Nepalese officials have said they cannot allow protests against friendly nations ( including China) and have ordered all protesters arrested.Beijing says 22 people died in protests that spread earlier this month to dozens of Tibetan communities across western China. Tibetan exiles say almost 140 are dead.

Opinion:

This story makes me extremely grateful to live in America, where we can protest against whatever we want to as long as it is a peaceful demonstration.  These people were being peaceful, but they were still arrested.  If this happened in the US there would be a large amount of backlash.