World/Nation Briefs August 1, 2012
<p>An Indian barber holding a candle, has a haircut for a customer at his shop in Kolkata, India, Tuesday, July 31, 2012. India's energy crisis cascaded over half the country Tuesday when three of its regional grids collapsed, leaving 620 million people without government-supplied electricity for several hours in, by far, the world's biggest blackout. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)</p>
<p>A young Indian boy watches from a window of a stalled train as he waits for the train to resume its services following a power outage at a railway station in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, July 31, 2012. India's energy crisis cascaded over half the country Tuesday when three of its regional grids collapsed, leaving 620 million people without government-supplied electricity for several hours in, by far, the world's biggest blackout. Hundreds of trains stalled across the country and traffic lights went out, causing widespread traffic jams in New Delhi. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)</p>
India blackout affects 620 million
NEW DELHI - Electric crematoria were snuffed out with bodies inside, New Delhi's Metro shut down and hundreds of coal miners were trapped underground after three Indian electric grids collapsed in a cascade Tuesday, cutting power to 620 million people in the world's biggest blackout.
While Indians were furious and embarrassed, many took the crisis in stride, inured by the constant - though far less widespread - outages triggered by the huge electricity deficit stymieing the development of this would-be Asian power.
Hospitals, factories and the airports switched automatically to their diesel generators during the hours-long cut across half of India. Many homes relied on backup systems powered by truck batteries. And hundreds of millions of India's poorest had no electricity to lose.
"The blackout might have been huge, but it wasn't unbearably long," said Satish, the owner of a coffee and juice shop in central Delhi who uses only one name. "It was just as bad as any other five-hour power cut. We just used a generator while the light was out, and it was work as usual."
The crisis was the second record-breaking outage in two days. India's northern grid failed Monday, leaving 370 million people powerless for much of the day, in a collapse blamed on states that drew more than their allotment of power.
Romney to make
VP choice soon?
WASHINGTON - Wrapping up a stumble-marred overseas trip, Mitt Romney pivoted quickly into a three-month stretch to the election on Tuesday with a new feel-good television ad. Aides simultaneously stoked speculation about his vice presidential pick.
The economy was Romney's primary text abroad as well as at home. "We could probably learn something from what's happening right here," the former Massachusetts governor said of Polish policies shortly before boarding his chartered jet for the flight back to the U.S. He arrived in Boston early Tuesday evening.
Advisers accompanying him said he would resume direct criticism of President Barack Obama's record soon enough, after observing a mini-moratorium while on foreign soil. Yet a new television commercial suggested another immediate priority was to close a likeability gap in the polls.
Shorn of any criticism of Obama, the ad appears designed to introduce Romney to voters in battleground states who know little or nothing about his personal background except what they've seen and heard in unflattering commercials aired by Democrats.
Besieged Syrian city running low on food
BEIRUT - Food and cooking gas were in short supply and power cuts plunged homes into darkness as soldiers and rebels battled Tuesday to tip the scales in the fight for Aleppo, Syria's largest city and the current focus of its civil war.
Life for Aleppo's 3 million residents was becoming increasingly unbearable as a military siege entered its 11th day. While rebels seized two police stations, Syrian ground forces pummeled the opposition strongholds of Salaheddine and Seif al-Dawla in the city's southwest, activists said. Government helicopters also pounded those neighborhoods.
"The regime couldn't enter the neighborhoods so they were shelling from a distance with helicopters and artillery," said Mohammed Nabehan, who fled Aleppo for the Kilis refugee camp just across the Turkish border some 30 miles away.
Crop circles appear by Grand Coulee dam
SEATTLE - Mysterious crop circles have appeared in an eastern Washington wheat field - not far from the nation's largest hydropower producer - but area farmers preparing for the summer's harvest find the distraction more amusing than alarming.
"You can't do anything other than laugh about it," said Cindy Geib, who owns the field along with her husband, Greg. "You just kind of roll with the theory it's aliens and you're special because aliens chose your spot."
Friends called the Geibs on July 24 when the pattern of flattened wheat was spotted off Highway 174, about five miles north of the town of Wilbur. The field is about 10 miles south of the Grand Coulee dam, which the Bureau of Reclamation says is the largest hydropower producer in the United States.
The circles resemble a four-leaf clover and remind Cindy Geib of Mickey Mouse ears. The design knocked down about an acre of their wheat. Some of it could be salvaged by combines when the harvest starts in a week or two, she said, but some will be lost.
- The Associated Press