Electricity was restored to most of the island of Oahu several hours after a massive power outage snarled traffic and trapped scores of people in elevators, but most of the city's 800,000 residents and thousands of tourists apparently took it all in stride.
Police spokeswoman Jean Motoyama said the blackout struck at 8:34 a.m. local time Tuesday and affected the entire island, including the scores of hotels that line the shoreline.By 8:30 p.m., power had been restored to most of the island, including most of metropolitan Honolulu and much of Waikiki, said a Honolulu police dispatcher.
The exact cause of the outage was unknown, Harrington said, but it followed a domino-like scenario as one line shut down, then another cut out and finally the main generators turned off.Afghan diplomat has been jailed in India
NEW DELHI, India (UPI) - An Afghan diplomat accused in the coup attempt against Afghan President Najibullah last year has been jailed in India for the past 10 months after his passport and visa were seized by the Afghan Embassy, the Times of India reported Wednesday.
Assadullah Sarwari, a former Afghan deputy premier, was serving as his country's ambassador to Yemen and was traveling back to Kabul via New Delhi last year when an Afghan Embassy official confiscated his passport and visa, the newspaper said.
The Times of India said Sarwari entered India Jan. 16, 1990, and spent about two weeks in the country before trying to board a plane to Kabul Feb. 2. Sarwari told the Times his documents were confiscated moments before his flight was to leave.
The former Afghan deputy premier said the seizure of his passport was politically motivated because Najibullah views him as one of his main challengers for the leadership of the country.Asian gangs risk deportation, Aussie says SYDNEY, Australia (UPI) - Warnings to Asian gangs that they risk deportation if convicted of violent crimes have been placed in many local Asian newspapers, politican John Newman said Wednesday.
Newman, whose electorate at Cabramatta, 12 miles west of Sydney, includes Australia's largest Asian community, wants to crack down on increasing urban terrorism.
There are about 52,000 Asians in the electorate, Newman said.
100 die as rebels, Sri Lankan troops clash COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (UPI) - Special forces overran a Tamil guerrilla base in a surprise attack, and regular troops wrested a road junction from rebel control in a series of battles that left more than 100 people dead, a military official said Wednesday.
Soldiers from the Sri Lankan special forces conducted the surprise attack Tuesday, raiding a camp of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam near the eastern city of Batticaloa, 100 miles northeast of the capital, the official said.
At least 30 Tiger rebels were killed in Tuesday's fighting while another 15 were slain as the military pressed its advantage Wednesday morning, he said. Four soldiers were killed and another 12 critically wounded in the clashes, the official said.In other news . . . RESCUERS EVACUATED more than 100 people trapped by floodwaters from northern Maine's ice-jammed St. John River early Wednesday, but up to two dozen remained trapped, police said. . . . UNDERSECRETARY OF COMMERCE Dennis Kloske faces dismissal for telling Congress the Bush administration ignored warnings to limit high-technology exports to Iraq last year, The New York Times reported.