The World in Brief

A man, right, talks to another driver as they wait in line for fuel at a gas station, one of the businesses affected by a power outage in Giza, Cairo's neighboring city, Egypt, Thursday, Sept. 4 2014. The man said he's been in line since six in the morning. He was there for three hours. Egypt suffered a massive power outage that halted parts of the Cairo subway, took TV stations off the air and ground much of the country to a halt for several hours Thursday, as officials offered no clear explanation for how the country suddenly lost 50 percent of its power generation. (AP Photo/Eman Helal)
A man, right, talks to another driver as they wait in line for fuel at a gas station, one of the businesses affected by a power outage in Giza, Cairo's neighboring city, Egypt, Thursday, Sept. 4 2014. The man said he's been in line since six in the morning. He was there for three hours. Egypt suffered a massive power outage that halted parts of the Cairo subway, took TV stations off the air and ground much of the country to a halt for several hours Thursday, as officials offered no clear explanation for how the country suddenly lost 50 percent of its power generation. (AP Photo/Eman Helal)

Widespread power failure besets Egypt

CAIRO -- Egypt suffered a power failure that halted parts of the Cairo subway, took TV stations off the air and ground much of the country to a halt for several hours Thursday.

The government's inability to pay for enough imported fuel, debts to foreign oil companies, and old and poorly maintained equipment have all contributed to a months-long power crisis in which rolling blackouts have plunged entire neighborhoods into darkness for several hours a day.

The government had promised recently to restore electricity by the end of the year, partially blaming the power failures on saboteurs. Over the past week there had been a noticeable reduction in the power cuts, coinciding with slightly cooler weather after a scorching August.

The wide failure Thursday, when the country suddenly lost 50 percent of its power generation, was far more severe and wide-ranging than any of the previous cuts.

Two senior security and electricity officials said one of the country's main power generating stations, el-Kuraymat in southern Cairo, went out of service either because of human error or technical failure. That led to the collapse of the rest of the main power stations, since Egypt's stations are all connected in one network.

U.N.: 250,000 displaced by Libya strife

CAIRO -- A United Nations report on Thursday said four months of fighting by militias in Libya's two biggest cities, Tripoli and Benghazi, has forced some 250,000 people to flee, including 100,000 who have been internally displaced.

The report released by the U.N. Support Mission in Libya and the U.N. Human Rights Office estimated that some 150,000 people, including migrant workers, have fled the country. The report said a "climate of fear" has made citizens reluctant to speak about militia abuses.

A renegade general has been battling Islamic militants for the past four months in Benghazi -- the cradle of the 2011 uprising that toppled Moammar Gadhafi -- and regional militias fight for control of the international airport in Tripoli. Islamist-allied militias have seized virtually all of the capital.

According to the U.N. report, warring militias have abducted members of rival groups as well as civilians, and have engaged in torture and unlawful killings.

The fighting also has disrupted greatly daily life in the two cities, which now suffer from widespread power cuts and shortages of water, fuel and other basic goods.

U.S. to start security program in Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria -- The United States is preparing to launch a "major" border security program to help Nigeria and its neighbors combat the increasing number and scope of attacks by Islamic extremists, a senior U.S. official for Africa said Thursday.

Nigerian insurgents have begun attacking villages in neighboring Cameroon and have been seizing land in northeast Nigeria where they proclaimed an Islamic caliphate, or state ruled by Islamic law.

Assistant Secretary of State Linda Thomas-Greenfield said at a meeting of U.S. and Nigerian officials in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, that "despite our collective efforts, the situation on the ground is worsening."

The government has denied that Boko Haram this week overran Bama, the second largest city in Borno state, but Thomas-Greenfield said, "We are very troubled by the apparent capture of Bama and the prospects for an attack on and in Maiduguri."

Bama, a city of about 200,000 people is 45 miles from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital that is the headquarters of the military campaign against Boko Haram.

Greece seeks EU aid in migration crisis

PIRAEUS, Greece -- Greece requested emergency European Union funding Thursday to protect its borders, with the financially troubled country warning that fighting in Syria and Iraq has triggered a migration crisis.

Coast guard officials said they expect a threefold increase in the number of foreigners apprehended this year, compared with 2013, with more than half of people entering Greece now coming from Syria.

Marine Affairs Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said ministry experts estimated that more than 100,000 people are waiting to try and cross from Turkey's coast into the European Union through Greece.

More than 17,500 foreigners were detained in Greece before Sept. 1 this year, with authorities expecting the number to top 31,000 by year's end, compared with 10,500 in 2013.

The number of migrant deaths this year reached 50, after police on Thursday said they had found two bodies near a river that divides Greece and Turkey.

-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS

A Section on 09/05/2014

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