Changing Times

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INDIA

The state of Assam wants to create its own time zone one hour ahead of Indian Standard Time to match its unofficial “Tea Garden Time,” which allows tea harvesters to end work by sundown.

CRIMEA

On March 30 last year, Crimea moved its clocks forward two hours to synchronize with Moscow, forgoing daylight saving time and reflecting the region’s annexation by Russia.

VENEZUELA

In 2007, President Hugo Chávez moved the clocks back 30 minutes, creating a fairer “distribution of the sunrise” to improve health. Now Venezuela is the only country 4½ hours behind GMT.

SAMOA

The Pacific island completely skipped the day of Dec. 30, 2011, jumping across the international date line to be closer to New Zealand and Australia, its biggest trading partners.