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Italians believe terrorists cut power (Filed: 29/09/2003) Almost half of Italians believe terrorists caused the power outage that left most of the country paralysed yesterday. A fast food van provides the only light at the Colosseum The national grid company, GRTN, blamed the blackout on problems in the Swiss and French networks. The Swiss power firm ATEL said a tree had been uprooted by strong winds and knocked out a line carrying power to Italy over the Alps. It agreed that that alone could not block power to the whole country and blamed Italy's power grid for not reacting quickly...

Blackout blamed on a tree cripples Italy; at least three people dead ROME (AP) - Italy's power grid collapsed Sunday and caused chaos across the country that left at least three people dead. Thousands of other Italians were stuck on trains, cars zoomed by unlit traffic lights, and hospitals relied on emergency generators to run crucial equipment. All but a few of Italy's 57 million people were affected by what experts said was probably the worst outage here since the Second World War. Amazingly, the havoc may have been sparked by little more than a tree that damaged a power...

ROME (AP) - Italy's power grid collapsed Sunday and caused chaos across the country that left at least three people dead. Thousands of other Italians were stuck on trains, cars zoomed by unlit traffic lights, and hospitals relied on emergency generators to run crucial equipment. All but a few of Italy's 57 million people were affected by what experts said was probably the worst outage here since the Second World War. Amazingly, the havoc may have been sparked by little more than a tree that damaged a power line in Switzerland supplying Italy via France. The outage also highlighted how...

Who put the lights out? Italy plunged into chaos by black-out By Robin Gedye, Bruce Johnston in Rome and Henry Samuel in Paris (Filed: 29/09/2003) A tree uprooted by storms in Switzerland was blamed yesterday for paralysing electricity supplies across Italy when it cut a vital power line over the Alps. All of Italy, except for the islands of Sardinia and Capri and small pockets of the mainland, along with areas of Switzerland and Austria, were hit by the 3.25am black-out. Car headlights pierce the pre-dawn darkness in Rome after electricity supplies across Italy were knocked out by a falling...

ROME, Sept. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Power supply is progressively getting back to normal in northern Italy after a huge blackout hit most parts of the country early Sunday. Most of the country was affected by the blackout shortly after3.30 am (0130 GMT), the ANSA news agency reported. The blackout disrupted civil aviation, railway transportation and normal life of residents. In Rome, the power outage brought an early close to an all-night party. The sudden power outage was caused by an interruption in electricity supply from France, a spokesman for the Italian electricity company ENEL was quoted by Italian media as...

Italy Blackout Cuts Power to Millions46 minutes agoBy TOM RACHMAN, Associated Press Writer ROME - A massive blackout struck almost all of Italy early Sunday, leaving millions of people without power, stranding planes and trains, and leading to traffic accidents as drivers sped through darkened streets Most of Italy's 57 million people were affected — more than in North America's biggest blackout which left 50 million people without power in Canada and the United States on Aug. 14. As in the North American blackout, the early hours of Italy's power outage were filled with confusion as to the cause and...

Entire Italian power supply cut From correspondents in Rome September 28, 2003 POWER went out across Italy before dawn, police and news reports said, plunging the nation into darkness. Authorities did not immediately know the cause. Reports of power outages started to come in around 4am local time (11am AEST) in Rome, where the city was celebrating an all-night party, with museums and restaurants open around the clock. Later, the national electricity company ACEA said power was out across the nation, the ANSA news agency said. "As far as we know it's all across Italy," police official Franca Sesti Miraglia...

Tuesday March 19, 10:39 am Eastern Time Associated Press Power company employees ask for full investigation of electricity pylon explosion ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- The union representing Public Power Company employees on Tuesday demanded a full investigation into a powerful explosion that damaged a high voltage electricity pylon connecting Greece with Italy. The blast late Sunday near Greece's border with Albania toppled an electricity pylon connected to an undersea power cable which runs to Italy. Police said they are investigating the blast, caused by a large amount of dynamite, but have no leads in the case. "If the explosion is...

The civil protection agency in Italy says a power cut has left large parts of the country in darkness. A spokesman said that as yet it was not possible to say how many areas were affected, or what the cause of the blackout was. The BBC's David Willey in Rome said he woke to find that there was no power at all, and only battery-powered appliances were working. He says that Rome, the Vatican and Naples are among the areas affected.