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New York City skyline on August 14.

Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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Blackout

The largest power blackout in US history cascaded across northern United States as well as southern Canada on August 15, driving millions of people outdoors. At least 50 million people in eight US states and parts of Canada were without power for more than a day, causing panic, confusion and hardship.

Most of the grid was restored the next day. While Canada claimed a fire at a plant in Niagara sparked off the outage, former US energy secretary Bill Richardson said the problem was lack of transmission capacity, and described the US as a 'superpower with a Third World electricity grid.'

Text: Ramananda Sengupta

US, Canadian cities plunged into darkness
Al Qaeda claims credit for blackout

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