March 2010 - tz - lists.iana.org

files with only current info
by Daniel J. Pinter March 19, 2010

March 19, 2010

Thanks for creating and maintaing zoneinfo. I'm working on a mobile app that needs the DST transitions for timezones around the world. Are there zoneinfo files without the historical DST rules? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Daniel J. Pinter 390 A Fourth Street Beaver, PA 15009 724 775 1470 - Home 724 494 6745 - Cell djpinter(a)verizon.net daniel.pinter(a)gmail.com The information contained in this e-mail may be confidential and is intended solely for the use of the named addressee. Access, copying or re-use of this e-mail or any information contained therein by any other person is not authorized. If you are not the intended recipient please notify us immediately by returning the e-mail to the originator.

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FW: Problems with timezone & altzone values
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] March 18, 2010

March 18, 2010

I'm forwarding this message from Madhusudanan Kandasamy, who is not on the time zone mailing list. Those of you who are on the list, please direct replies appropriately. --ado From: Madhusudanan Kandasamy [mailto:madhusudanan@in.ibm.com] Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 6:05 To: tz(a)lecserver.nci.nih.gov Subject: Problems with timezone & altzone values Hi Olson, As per POSIX standard timezone variable should be updated by tzset(), but its obvious that timezone values depends on what is the current time and during tzset() we won't be knowing the current time. So, for many countries, we are getting a wrong values for timezone and altzone for the current time. Hence is it possible to update the timezone and altzone values in localtime(), so atleast after calling the localtime we would be getting the correct values for both of these variables? The other solution would be to call time() in tzset(), and update the altzone, timezone variables in tzset itself. This will have little performance overhead, but we would be having a accurate values w.r.t current system time. This new feature could be under a #ifdef macros, so it can be enabled only for the people who are wants these variables to be updated in tzset itself but with a performance penalty. Also, is there any way available to get accurate values for these variables with the current version of the code? Thanks, Madhu. _________________________________ Madhusudanan Kandasamy AIX BOS Development, IBM Bangalore, EGL D block 6th Floor.

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Feedback from Java - JSR-310
by Stephen Colebourne March 18, 2010

March 18, 2010

I am the spec lead for JSR-310, the project to enhance time handling in the Java JDK. I'd like to give some feedback/information to this project. Naming JSR-310 supports the possiblity of multiple sources of time zone information. The data here is considered to be the default. I've referred to this group as "TZDB" (rather than "Olson" as in some sources). Let me know if you're unhappy with the "TZDB" name. File format The format of the time zone data files (zic.8.txt) could do with some clarifications/simplifications. (ie. can the document be updated?) Rule - FROM - "The word minimum (or an abbreviation)" should be changed to "The word minimum or min". Similarly with maximum. At the moment, the spec is silent about what happens for the letter "m" which is a valid abbreviation of "minimum" and "maximum". The spec also allows oddities like "mini". Rule - TO - "the word only (or an abbreviation)" - please drop the abbreviation part. Only the full word is used in the data, never the abbreviation. Rule - IN - "Names the month in which the rule takes effect. Month names may be abbreviated.". This should specify that the month names are English. Currently, only the three letter abbreviation is used. The spec also allows oddities like "Januar" and ambiguities like "J". Can the spec be limited to just the 3 letter form? Rule ON - similar comment for day of week. Again the suppiled files only use the 3 letter abbreviated form. Can the spec be limited to just the 3 letter form? I didn't notice any specific comment about case - is the input case sensitive? thanks, Stephen

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Re: proposed time zone package change (tz-link.htm)
by Arthur David Olson March 17, 2010

March 17, 2010

Good point; here's an update to the proposed change. --ado ------- tz-link.htm ------- *** /tmp/geta28206 Wed Mar 17 12:14:53 2010 --- /tmp/getb28206 Wed Mar 17 12:14:53 2010 *************** *** 18,24 **** <body> <h1>Sources for Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Data</h1> <address> ! @(#)tz-link.htm 8.24 </address> <p> This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of --- 18,24 ---- <body> <h1>Sources for Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Data</h1> <address> ! @(#)tz-link.htm 8.26 </address> <p> This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of *************** *** 40,47 **** title="Coordinated Universal Time">UTC</abbr></a> offsets, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving">daylight-saving</a> rules. ! This database (often called <code>tz</code> or <a ! href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoneinfo"><code>zoneinfo</code></a>) is used by several implementations, including <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/">the --- 40,47 ---- title="Coordinated Universal Time">UTC</abbr></a> offsets, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving">daylight-saving</a> rules. ! This database (often called <code>zoneinfo</code> or <a ! href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TZ_database"><code>tz</code></a>) is used by several implementations, including <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/">the -----Original Message----- From: Philip Newton [mailto:philip.newton@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 10:56 To: tz Subject: Re: proposed time zone package change (tz-link.htm) Wouldn't it be better to have "tz" be the link to the Wikipedia article, rather than "zoneinfo", now that the name of the article has changed?

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proposed time zone package change (tz-link.htm)
by Arthur David Olson March 17, 2010

March 17, 2010

One more proposed change, this to "tz-link.htm" to update a Wikipedia URL (with thanks to Tobias Conrad). This will also appear on the ftp site on 2010-03-22 barring problems. --ado ------- tz-link.htm ------- *** /tmp/geta27643 Wed Mar 17 11:50:36 2010 --- /tmp/getb27643 Wed Mar 17 11:50:36 2010 *************** *** 18,24 **** <body> <h1>Sources for Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Data</h1> <address> ! @(#)tz-link.htm 8.24 </address> <p> This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of --- 18,24 ---- <body> <h1>Sources for Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Data</h1> <address> ! @(#)tz-link.htm 8.25 </address> <p> This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of *************** *** 41,47 **** <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving">daylight-saving</a> rules. This database (often called <code>tz</code> or <a ! href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoneinfo"><code>zoneinfo</code></a>) is used by several implementations, including <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/">the --- 41,47 ---- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving">daylight-saving</a> rules. This database (often called <code>tz</code> or <a ! href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TZ_database"><code>zoneinfo</code></a>) is used by several implementations, including <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/">the

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proposed time zone package changes (Antarctica, Syria, Samoa et al.)
by Arthur David Olson March 17, 2010

March 17, 2010

Below find proposed changes to time zone package files; the executive summary: antarctica Changes to Australian stations asia Change Syria DST start from last Friday in March to first Friday in April in 2010 and forward australasia Correct 2010 Samoa DST start date tz-art.htm Add "Inherit the Wind" quote (thanks to Mark Brader) zone.tab Add Antarctica/Macquarie zic.8 Add material on case, abbreviations, and use of English If no problems are found, these are to appear on the ftp site on 2010-03-22. --ado diff -r -c old/antarctica new/antarctica *** old/antarctica Wed Jan 6 10:21:32 2010 --- new/antarctica Wed Mar 17 11:37:42 2010 *************** *** 1,5 **** # <pre> ! # @(#)antarctica 8.7 # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. --- 1,5 ---- # <pre> ! # @(#)antarctica 8.8 # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. *************** *** 57,62 **** --- 57,89 ---- Rule ChileAQ 1999 max - Oct Sun>=9 4:00u 1:00 S Rule ChileAQ 2000 max - Mar Sun>=9 3:00u 0 - + # These rules are stolen from the `australasia' file. + Rule AusAQ 1917 only - Jan 1 0:01 1:00 - + Rule AusAQ 1917 only - Mar 25 2:00 0 - + Rule AusAQ 1942 only - Jan 1 2:00 1:00 - + Rule AusAQ 1942 only - Mar 29 2:00 0 - + Rule AusAQ 1942 only - Sep 27 2:00 1:00 - + Rule AusAQ 1943 1944 - Mar lastSun 2:00 0 - + Rule AusAQ 1943 only - Oct 3 2:00 1:00 - + Rule ATAQ 1967 only - Oct Sun>=1 2:00s 1:00 - + Rule ATAQ 1968 only - Mar lastSun 2:00s 0 - + Rule ATAQ 1968 1985 - Oct lastSun 2:00s 1:00 - + Rule ATAQ 1969 1971 - Mar Sun>=8 2:00s 0 - + Rule ATAQ 1972 only - Feb lastSun 2:00s 0 - + Rule ATAQ 1973 1981 - Mar Sun>=1 2:00s 0 - + Rule ATAQ 1982 1983 - Mar lastSun 2:00s 0 - + Rule ATAQ 1984 1986 - Mar Sun>=1 2:00s 0 - + Rule ATAQ 1986 only - Oct Sun>=15 2:00s 1:00 - + Rule ATAQ 1987 1990 - Mar Sun>=15 2:00s 0 - + Rule ATAQ 1987 only - Oct Sun>=22 2:00s 1:00 - + Rule ATAQ 1988 1990 - Oct lastSun 2:00s 1:00 - + Rule ATAQ 1991 1999 - Oct Sun>=1 2:00s 1:00 - + Rule ATAQ 1991 2005 - Mar lastSun 2:00s 0 - + Rule ATAQ 2000 only - Aug lastSun 2:00s 1:00 - + Rule ATAQ 2001 max - Oct Sun>=1 2:00s 1:00 - + Rule ATAQ 2006 only - Apr Sun>=1 2:00s 0 - + Rule ATAQ 2007 only - Mar lastSun 2:00s 0 - + Rule ATAQ 2008 max - Apr Sun>=1 2:00s 0 - # Argentina - year-round bases # Belgrano II, Confin Coast, -770227-0343737, since 1972-02-05 *************** *** 98,117 **** # http://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/antarctica-new-times.html # </a> # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Antarctica/Casey 0 - zzz 1969 8:00 - WST 2009 Oct 18 2:00 # Western (Aus) Standard Time ! 11:00 - CAST # Casey Time Zone Antarctica/Davis 0 - zzz 1957 Jan 13 7:00 - DAVT 1964 Nov # Davis Time 0 - zzz 1969 Feb 7:00 - DAVT 2009 Oct 18 2:00 ! 5:00 - DAVT Zone Antarctica/Mawson 0 - zzz 1954 Feb 13 6:00 - MAWT 2009 Oct 18 2:00 # Mawson Time 5:00 - MAWT # References: # <a href="http://www.antdiv.gov.au/aad/exop/sfo/casey/casey_aws.html"> # Casey Weather (1998-02-26) --- 125,176 ---- # http://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/antarctica-new-times.html # </a> + # From Steffen Thorsen (2010-03-10): + # We got these changes from the Australian Antarctic Division: + # - Macquarie Island will stay on UTC+11 for winter and therefore not + # switch back from daylight savings time when other parts of Australia do + # on 4 April. + # + # - Casey station reverted to its normal time of UTC+8 on 5 March 2010. + # The change to UTC+11 is being considered as a regular summer thing but + # has not been decided yet. + # + # - Davis station will revert to its normal time of UTC+7 at 10 March 2010 + # 20:00 UTC. + # + # - Mawson station stays on UTC+5. + # + # In addition to the Rule changes for Casey/Davis, it means that Macquarie + # will no longer be like Hobart and will have to have its own Zone created. + # + # Background: + # <a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/antartica-time-changes-2010.html"> + # http://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/antartica-time-changes-2010.html + # </a> + # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Antarctica/Casey 0 - zzz 1969 8:00 - WST 2009 Oct 18 2:00 # Western (Aus) Standard Time ! 11:00 - CAST 2010 Mar 5 2:00 ! # Casey Time ! 8:00 - WST Zone Antarctica/Davis 0 - zzz 1957 Jan 13 7:00 - DAVT 1964 Nov # Davis Time 0 - zzz 1969 Feb 7:00 - DAVT 2009 Oct 18 2:00 ! 5:00 - DAVT 2010 Mar 10 20:00u ! 7:00 - DAVT Zone Antarctica/Mawson 0 - zzz 1954 Feb 13 6:00 - MAWT 2009 Oct 18 2:00 # Mawson Time 5:00 - MAWT + Zone Antarctica/Macquarie 0 - zzz 1911 + 10:00 - EST 1916 Oct 1 2:00 + 10:00 1:00 EST 1917 Feb + 10:00 AusAQ EST 1967 + 10:00 ATAQ EST 2010 Apr 4 3:00 + 11:00 - MIST # Macquarie Island Time # References: # <a href="http://www.antdiv.gov.au/aad/exop/sfo/casey/casey_aws.html"> # Casey Weather (1998-02-26) diff -r -c old/asia new/asia *** old/asia Mon Mar 8 14:24:27 2010 --- new/asia Wed Mar 17 10:33:04 2010 *************** *** 1,4 **** ! # @(#)asia 8.55 # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. --- 1,4 ---- ! # @(#)asia 8.56 # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. *************** *** 2438,2446 **** # Thursday of the month or the start of the last Friday of the month or # something else. For now, use the start of the last Friday. Rule Syria 2008 only - Apr Fri>=1 0:00 1:00 S Rule Syria 2008 only - Nov 1 0:00 0 - ! Rule Syria 2009 max - Mar lastFri 0:00 1:00 S Rule Syria 2009 max - Oct lastFri 0:00 0 - # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] --- 2438,2455 ---- # Thursday of the month or the start of the last Friday of the month or # something else. For now, use the start of the last Friday. + # From Steffen Thorsen (2010-03-17): + # The "Syrian News Station" reported on 2010-03-16 that the Council of + # Ministers has decided that Syria will start DST on midnight Thursday + # 2010-04-01: (midnight between Thursday and Friday): + # <a href="http://sns.sy/sns/?path=news/read/11421"> + # http://sns.sy/sns/?path=news/read/11421 (Arabic) + # </a> + Rule Syria 2008 only - Apr Fri>=1 0:00 1:00 S Rule Syria 2008 only - Nov 1 0:00 0 - ! Rule Syria 2009 only - Mar lastFri 0:00 1:00 S ! Rule Syria 2010 max - Apr Fri>=1 0:00 1:00 S Rule Syria 2009 max - Oct lastFri 0:00 0 - # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] diff -r -c old/australasia new/australasia *** old/australasia Wed Mar 3 17:56:19 2010 --- new/australasia Wed Mar 17 10:27:07 2010 *************** *** 1,5 **** # <pre> ! # @(#)australasia 8.16 # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. --- 1,5 ---- # <pre> ! # @(#)australasia 8.17 # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. *************** *** 490,496 **** Zone Pacific/Apia 12:33:04 - LMT 1879 Jul 5 -11:26:56 - LMT 1911 -11:30 - SAMT 1950 # Samoa Time ! -11:00 - WST 2010 Oct 24 -11:00 1:00 WSDT 2011 Apr 3 -11:00 - WST --- 490,496 ---- Zone Pacific/Apia 12:33:04 - LMT 1879 Jul 5 -11:26:56 - LMT 1911 -11:30 - SAMT 1950 # Samoa Time ! -11:00 - WST 2010 Sep 26 -11:00 1:00 WSDT 2011 Apr 3 -11:00 - WST diff -r -c old/tz-art.htm new/tz-art.htm *** old/tz-art.htm Thu Feb 11 21:50:04 2010 --- new/tz-art.htm Wed Mar 17 10:50:50 2010 *************** *** 9,15 **** <body> <h1>Time and the Arts</h1> <address> ! @(#)tz-art.htm 8.16 </address> <p> This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of --- 9,15 ---- <body> <h1>Time and the Arts</h1> <address> ! @(#)tz-art.htm 8.17 </address> <p> This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of *************** *** 417,422 **** --- 417,434 ---- as noted by Will Fitzerald) </li> <li> + Brady: "...[Bishop Usher] determined that the Lord began the Creation + on the 23rd of October in the Year 4004 B.C. at -- uh, at 9 A.M.!" + <br> + Drummond: "That Eastern Standard Time? (Laughter) Or Rocky Mountain + Time? (More laughter) It wasn't daylight-saving time, was it? Because + the Lord didn't make the sun until the fourth day!" + <br> + (From the play "Inherit the Wind" by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, + filmed in 1960 with Spencer Tracy as Drummond and Fredric March as + Brady, and several other times. Thanks to Mark Brader.) + </li> + <li> "Good news." "What did they do? Extend Daylight Saving Time year round?" (Professional tanner George Hamilton, in dialog from a diff -r -c old/zic.8 new/zic.8 *** old/zic.8 Wed Jan 6 10:21:34 2010 --- new/zic.8 Tue Mar 16 13:11:55 2010 *************** *** 109,114 **** --- 109,117 ---- Non-blank lines are expected to be of one of three types: rule lines, zone lines, and link lines. .PP + Names (such as month names) must be in English and are case insensitive. + Abbreviations, if used, must be unambiguous in context. + .PP A rule line has the form .nf .ti +.5i *************** *** 490,495 **** /usr/local/etc/zoneinfo standard directory used for created files .SH "SEE ALSO" newctime(3), tzfile(5), zdump(8) ! .\" @(#)zic.8 8.5 .\" This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of .\" 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. --- 493,498 ---- /usr/local/etc/zoneinfo standard directory used for created files .SH "SEE ALSO" newctime(3), tzfile(5), zdump(8) ! .\" @(#)zic.8 8.6 .\" This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of .\" 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. diff -r -c old/zone.tab new/zone.tab *** old/zone.tab Wed Jan 20 12:25:55 2010 --- new/zone.tab Wed Mar 17 11:01:07 2010 *************** *** 1,5 **** # <pre> ! # @(#)zone.tab 8.33 # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. # --- 1,5 ---- # <pre> ! # @(#)zone.tab 8.34 # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. # *************** *** 44,49 **** --- 44,50 ---- AQ -7824+10654 Antarctica/Vostok Vostok Station, S Magnetic Pole AQ -6640+14001 Antarctica/DumontDUrville Dumont-d'Urville Station, Terre Adelie AQ -690022+0393524 Antarctica/Syowa Syowa Station, E Ongul I + AQ -5430+15857 Antarctica/Macquarie Macquarie Island Station, Macquarie Island AR -3436-05827 America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires Buenos Aires (BA, CF) AR -3124-06411 America/Argentina/Cordoba most locations (CB, CC, CN, ER, FM, MN, SE, SF) AR -2447-06525 America/Argentina/Salta (SA, LP, NQ, RN)

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FW: Inherit the Wind
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] March 17, 2010

March 17, 2010

I'm (belatedly) forwarding this message from Mark Brader, who is not on the time zone mailing list. Those of you who are on the list, please direct replies appropriately. --ado -----Original Message----- From: Mark Brader [mailto:msb@vex.net] Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2010 4:17 To: Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] Subject: Inherit the Wind Please forward this to the TZ list. I am not on the list; any replies should be directed accordingly. Here's an item for tz-art.htm: an exchange from the play "Inherit the Wind" by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (filmed in 1960 with Spencer Tracy as Drummond and Fredric March as Brady, and several other times): BRADY A fine biblical scholar, Bishop Usher, has determined for us the exact date and hour of the Creation. It occurred in the year 4004 B.C. DRUMMOND That's Bishop Usher's opinion. BRADY It's not an opinion. It is literal fact, which the good Bishop arrived at through careful computation of the ages of the prophets as set down in the Old Testament. In fact, he determined that the Lord began the Creation on the 23rd of October in the Year 4004 B.C. at -- uh, at 9 A.M.! DRUMMOND That Eastern Standard Time? (Laughter) Or Rocky Mountain Time? (More laughter) It wasn't daylight-saving time, was it? Because the Lord didn't make the sun until the fourth day! BRADY (Fidgeting) That is correct. DRUMMOND (Sharply) The first day. Was it a twenty-four-hour day? BRADY The Bible says it was a day. DRUMMOND There wasn't any sun. How do you know how long it was? BRADY (Determined) The Bible says it was a day. DRUMMOND A normal day, a literal day, a twenty-four-hour day? After a few more lines, Brady admits he doesn't know, and Drummond suggests that that "day" could have been 10 million years. -- Mark Brader, Toronto | In the affairs of this world men are saved, msb(a)vex.net | not by faith, but by the want of it. --Franklin

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FW: Windsor, Ontario, in 1955
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] March 17, 2010

March 17, 2010

I'm (belatedly) forwarding this message from Mark Brader, who is not on the time zone mailing list. Those of you who are on the list, please direct replies appropriately. --ado -----Original Message----- From: Mark Brader [mailto:msb@vex.net] Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2010 3:48 To: Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] Subject: Windsor, Ontario, in 1955 Please forward to the TZ list. I am not on the list, so replies should be directed accordingly, but really I don't think I need to see any anyway. Currently the database has: # Ontario # From Paul Eggert (2006-07-09): # Shanks & Pottenger write that since 1970 most of Ontario has been like # Toronto. # Thunder Bay skipped DST in 1973. # Many smaller locales did not observe peacetime DST until 1974; # Nipigon (EST) and Rainy River (CST) are the largest that we know of. In the (Toronto) Globe and Mail for Saturday, 1955-09-24, in the bottom right corner of page 1, it says that Toronto will return to standard time at 2 am Sunday morning (which agrees with the database), and that: The one-hour setback will go into effect throughout most of Ontario, except in areas like Windsor which remains on standard time all year. Windsor is, of course, a lot larger than Nipigon. I only came across this incidentally. I don't know if Windsor began observing DST when Detroit did, or in 1974, or on some other date. By the way, the article continues by noting that: Some cities in the United States have pushed the deadline back three weeks and will change over from daylight saving in October. -- Mark Brader | "Oh, especially if it's accurate. There's nothing worse Toronto | than *accurate*, ill-informed, irresponsible press msb(a)vex.net | speculation." -- Lynn & Jay: "Yes, Prime Minister"

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Syria DST starts one week later
by Steffen Thorsen March 17, 2010

March 17, 2010

More news: The "Syrian News Station" reported on 2010-03-16 that the Council of Ministers has decided that Syria will start DST on midnight Thursday 2010-04-01: (midnight between Thursday and Friday): http://sns.sy/sns/?path=news/read/11421 (Arabic) Best regards, Steffen Thorsen - timeanddate.com

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Russia may drop two time zones by end of March
by Steffen Thorsen March 17, 2010

March 17, 2010

According to the following article in RIA Novosti newswire, the Samara Region and the Republic of Udmurtia regions may be moved into the Moscow time zone and the Chukotka and Kamchatka regions may be moved into the Magadan time zone (Moscow+8) when DST starts on March 28. http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100317/158225148.html Best regards, Steffen Thorsen - timeanddate.com

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