Surge of attacks kills 6 US troops, 12 Afghans

Jul 10, 7:46 PM EDT



By KAY JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer

Surge of attacks kills 6 US troops, 12 Afghans

Australian soldier killed by blast in Afghanistan

NATO blames communications error for Afghan deaths

In complex Afghan battle, bombs just one threat

US to spend $3B to combat Afghan homemade bombs

Interactives
Afghanistan War's 1,000 U.S. Troop Casualties
AP Photographer Caught in GunFire
WIlling to fight, unable to read
AP journalists wounded in Afghanistan
U.S. troops under attack
Marine allegedly faked injuries to get freebies
Buy AP Photo Reprints
Multimedia
US troops spending Christmas

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A wave of attacks killed six U.S. troops and at least a dozen civilians Saturday in Afghanistan's volatile south and east, as American reinforcements moving into Taliban-dominated areas face up to the fierce resistance they expected.

Increased U.S.-led military operations in the southern province of Kandahar are aimed at trying to break the Taliban's grip where they are strongest by delivering security and government services to win over Afghan people.

The hope is that once the tide begins to turn, more control can be handed to Afghan forces without fear that the Taliban might again seize power, bring back its harsh interpretation of Islamic law and resume sheltering al-Qaida terrorist leaders. Then U.S. troops could begin withdrawing in July 2011, in line with a timeline set by President Barack Obama.

Senior U.S. military officers have warned, however, that the fight in the Taliban's spiritual birthplace would lead to a rise in casualties for troops. June was the deadliest month of the nearly 9-year-old war, and July has kept pace.

On Saturday, two of the U.S. troops killed died in the south in separate roadside bombings. In Kandahar city, a remote-controlled bomb on a motorcycle exploded, setting cars ablaze and shattering windows at a popular shopping center. The provincial government said one passer-by was killed.

The other American service members died in the east: One as a result of small-arms fire, another by a roadside bomb, a third during an insurgent attack and the last in an accidental explosion. Their deaths raised to 23 the number of American troops killed so far this month. Last month, 103 international troops were killed, 60 of them Americans.

In the spring, as NATO began stepping up patrols in the south, Adm. Mike Mullen, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned reporters again that such a rise casualties would be inevitable. "I think we've been very clear for months now that this was going to be a very difficult fight in the south, and tried to set expectations, as tragic as it is, for these losses," said Mullen, who is Obama's top military adviser.

Progress has indeed proved slow, and the Afghan government is struggling to build trust, with many authorities seen as corrupt or unprofessional. Violence has also escalated as the insurgents work to sabotage Afghan authorities and kill foreign forces, sometimes with dramatic terrorist attacks, but most days with a steady flow of roadside bombs and small attacks.

In Saturday's deadliest attack, eastern border province of Paktia, unidentified gunmen killed 11 Pakistanis who had crossed into Afghanistan to buy supplies, according to Rohullah Samon, spokesman for the provincial governor.

Samon said 11 Shia minority Muslim tribesmen died and three people, including a child, were wounded in the ambush of their minibus in Chamkani district.

Elsewhere in Paktia, Afghan and international forces also said a combined commando unit killed a Taliban operative and captured eight others in an overnight raid, though local villagers later staged a small protest, saying the men were innocent civilians.

Another, larger protest in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif involved another night raid that killed two security guards near a market earlier in the week.

A crowd of more than 1,000 crowd chanted "Death to America! Long live Islam!" Protesters said the security guards were unjustly killed when combined Afghan and international forces landed by helicopter at the bazaar before dawn Wednesday.

NATO spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said the two guards were shot when they raised their weapons at the commandos and refused orders to put them down. He said the raid succeeded in capturing a Taliban-allied operative who supplied bomb-making material.

The international coalition has been aggressively stepping up such raids, trying to break up Taliban leadership and operations capability in a renewed push as 30,000 more American troops arrive to try to turn around the war.

The coalition say commando units have captured more than 100 senior and midlevel Taliban figures since April and killed dozens more. But the success rate has not made much of a dent in insurgent attacks.

On Saturday, an explosion tore through a NATO convoy traveling in the eastern province of Khost, though no one was killed. The German army later said two of its soldiers were slightly wounded by a roadside bomb in the northern province of Kunduz - the second homemade explosive attack on German troops in the area that day.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force has been in Afghanistan since shortly after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, when U.S.-backed forces toppled the regime that sheltered the al-Qaida terrorist leadership following the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

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Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez in Kabul and Mirwais Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.

+102 killed, 111 injured in Mohmand suicide attack

Death toll from Pakistan bomb attack reaches 102



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Villagers search through the rubble of their destroyed shops hit by a suicide bomb attack a day earlier, in Pakistan's northwestern Mohmand region July 10, 2010. The death toll from a suicide attack in a volatile Pashtun region on the Afghan border reached 102 on Saturday, showing militants continued ability to stage deadly strikes despite losing ground to troops in military offensives. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, claimed responsibility for Friday's attack.

Credit: Reuters/Fayaz Aziz

By Izaz Mohmand

PESHAWAR | Sat Jul 10, 2010 6:34am EDT

PESHAWAR Pakistan (Reuters) - The death toll from a suicide attack in a volatile border region of Pakistan climbed to 102 on Saturday, showing the militants' continued ability to stage deadly strikes despite losing ground in army offensives.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, claimed responsibility for Friday's attack in Mohmand, a Pashtun region on the northwestern border with Afghanistan, where security forces have stepped up operations against militants in recent months.

Friday's attack is the deadliest Pakistan has suffered since an attack on a market in Peshawar in October last year that killed 105.

Five children, aged 5 to 10, and several women were among the dead, and the toll rose on Saturday as rescuers working throughout the night found more bodies in the rubble.

"We have recovered more bodies from the debris of dozens of shops that were razed to the ground by the blast and the number of dead has increased" to 102, said Rasool Khan, assistant political agent of Mohmand.

The bomber blew himself up outside Khan's office. There were mixed reports that a car bomb was the source of a possible second blast.

Late on Friday, a TTP spokesman in Mohmand who identified himself as Ikramullah Mohmand, said anti-Taliban tribal elders from various peace committees who had come to Khan's office were the target.

A senior elder and two others were killed in the attack.

Among nearly 80 wounded were several people displaced by fighting between security forces and militants, who were collecting relief goods near the blast side.

The latest militant attack underscored multiple security challenges facing nuclear-armed U.S. ally Pakistan, whose support is vital in attempts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan, where U.S.-led NATO troops are fighting a raging Taliban insurgency.

The military has made progress over the past year when they pushed militants out of the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad. In October the army began an offensive in the militants' South Waziristan bastion on the Afghan border.

The offensive was extended to Orakzai in March as many of the militants who fled the South Waziristan operation took refuge there and in Mohmand. Hundreds of militants have since been killed in air strikes in the two regions.

Troops killed 20 militants in an overnight clash in South Waziristan after insurgents attacked a military checkpost in their previous stronghold of Makeen, intelligence officials said. There was no independent confirmation of the casualties.

Despite losing ground in military offensives, militants have proven their ability to bounce back, responding with a barrage of bomb attacks in towns and cities, killing hundreds of people.

Two suicide bombers killed at least 42 people in an attack on Pakistan's most important Sufi shrine in the eastern city of Lahore last week.

While praising Pakistan's efforts to fight homegrown militants, the unabated violence is a source of worry for the United States, which also wants Islamabad to go after Afghan militants who cross the border to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

In a separate incident in Afghanistan, suspected Taliban militants attacked a bus carrying Pakistani Shi'a tribesmen traveling from the Kurram tribal region and heading to Peshawar via Afghanistan, killing 11 and wounding one, residents and government officials said.

Pakistani tribesmen take a circuitous route through Afghanistan to travel between Kurram and Peshawar as the road linking the two regions is often closed because of militants and Pakistani Army operations.

(Writing by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Chris Allbritton and Jeremy Laurence)

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Updated at: 2355 PST, Friday, July 09, 2010 ShareThis story

PESHAWAR: The suicide attack in Yaka Ghand area of Mohmand Agency Friday killed 70 people and injured 111 others.

Outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have claimed the responsibility of the attack. TTP spokesman Ikramullah Mohmand telephoned Geo News from unknown location and claimed the responsibility of the attack, saying the target were members of the Ambar Aman Committee who were present in Assistant Political Agent’s office at the time of the attack.

Sources said a suicide bomber blew up himself outside political agent’s office in Tehsil Yeka Ghand at 9:30 am on Friday. The high intensity blast, heard across a wide radius, completely destroyed 30 shops in Yaka Ghand bazaar including two hotels while roof of a nearby house caved in.

Political Agent Amjad Ali Khan told media that 65 people were killed and 104 wounded in the incident.

Four personnel of Khasadar Force are also among the dead. According to sources, several inmates escaped after the blast that brought down Yaka Ghand jail building.

Most of the injured are in critical condition and more deaths are feared.

Funeral prayers of 7 dead have been performed in Government College Yaka Ghand.

Najam Sethi as next President of United Shattered Pakistan-Jugnu Mohsin

Najam Sethi (Urdu: نجم سیٹھی) is an award winning Pakistani journalist, editor, and media personality, is the editor-in-chief of The Friday Times, a Lahore based political weekly, and previously the editor of Daily Times and Daily Aajkal newspapers. He has been awarded the 2009 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers.[1]

Sethi and his publications have been in conflict with Pakistani governments on several occasions. In May 1999 he was imprisoned for one month without trial and released after an international outcry. Sethi had hoped that Musharraf would reform state and society as pledged and became critical when he didn't.

His wife, Jugnu Mohsin, edits the fashion fortnightly Good Times and is the managing editor and publisher of The Friday Times. Sethi was educated at Clare College, Cambridge. Mohsin was educated at New Hall Cambridge. Together, Najam and Jugnu have a son, Ali, a graduate of Harvard College, and a daughter, Mira, who is a junior at Wellesley College.

Sethi served in President Farooq Leghari's interim cabinet as Adviser on Political Affairs and Accountability after the fall of Benazir Bhutto's second government.

Foreign Policy magazine describes Najam Sethi as “ one of the country’s most respected political analysts”.[2]

On November 25, 2009, in an email sent to Daily Times online edition subscribers, Sethi announced his resignation from The Daily Times. Sethi announced that in addition to himself, "Khaled Ahmed (Contributing Editor) and Ejaz Haider (Op-Ed Editor) along with other senior staff" have also resigned.

----------

Jugnu Mohsin is a Pakistani publisher and editor of the Lahore-based The Friday Times, Pakistan's first English-language independent newsweekly.
Background

Born of a wealthy family with shrewd business acumen – her brother and father run a family owned leading food company [1]; her highly successful maternal uncle was a businessman who helped start up LUMS, now Pakistan's most prestigious management sciences university, and is a first cousin of Syeda Abida Hussain and Syed Fakhar Imam – Jugnu Mohsin was inspired by husband Najam Sethi to combine her money and cutting wit for civic purposes. She regards herself as holding "the Establishment" accountable. In 1984 Najam had been arrested under martial law for releasing books with his book publishing firm Vanguard Books. [2] The press hardly took notice and the couple were determined to set up their own paper.

In May 1989 the Lahore-based couple did just that, thus establishing Pakistan’s first independent English newsweekly[3] The Friday Times which has since been criticising successive governments with its outspoken equal opportunity criticism. The Friday Times was first published on 25 May 1989.

This, allies would maintain, is what lead to one eventful May 1999 when Sethi was dragged from his bedroom in the middle of the night and imprisoned in jail, where he was held for 25 days. Sethi’s piercing criticism of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, it is alleged, what the root cause – making the matter a freedom of press issue.[4]

Jugnu Mohsin rallied up support from Western allies - Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, World Bank President James Wolfensohn, and US State Department spokesman, James Rubin – to exert pressure on Sharif’s regime for the immediate release of her husband. The sedition charges were finally dropped on June 2, but not without further government harassment, including calls for Sethi to be stripped of his status as a Muslim and have his name taken off voter lists.

In 1999 the couple were recognised for their bold contributions to journalism and both were recipients of the Committee to Protect Journalist’s International Press Freedom award. [5]

In addition to being the Managing Editor and Publisher of The Friday Times, Jugnu Mohsin launched GoodTimes [6] as its Publisher and Editor in January 2005.

Jugnu’s witty satirical pieces at the back page of The Friday Times in the form of spoofs of incumbent administration and opposition. Her current spoof columns "Ittefaq Nama" and "Mush and Bush" poke fun at ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Presidents George W. Bush and Pervez Musharraf.

Jugnu will be soon publishing a collection of the profiles of Pakistani luminaries that she wrote for The Friday Times’ features section in a book. Ever tireless, the husband-wife duo are also set to launch a television network broadcasted from Dubai to the Subcontinent.

Jugnu Mohsin received her LLB degree from Cambridge University. Before partnering her husband professionally, Jugnu was a practicing lawyer and member of the Women's Action Forum.

36 Iraqi Shi'ite pilgrims killed by bombers

07 Jul 2010 20:33:27 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Attack near bridge where '05 stampede killed 1,000

* Shi'ite pilgrimage under tight security

* Authorities ban motorcycles, bikes to protect pilgrims (Add roadside bomb kills six, paragraphs 1, 4)

By Muhanad Mohammed

BAGHDAD, July 7 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed at least 30 Iraqi Shi'ite pilgrims on Wednesday en route to a shrine and wounded 75, while a roadside bomb killed another six despite heavy security during a religious rite, security sources said.

The suicide bombing took place just short of a bridge where 1,000 Shi'ite pilgrims died in a stampede during the same festival in 2005 after hearing rumours of a bomb.

The attacker was wearing a belt full of explosives, a police source said. Suicide bombings are often a hallmark of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, which regards Shi'ite Muslims as apostates.

The roadside bomb in the western district of Harithiya, a mainly Sunni area that the Shi'ite pilgrims walk through to get to the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine, killed six and wounded 30, an Interior Ministry source said. Protecting the festival is a key test for the Iraqi security forces during a political vacuum left by an election in March that produced no outright winner and as yet no new government, and ahead of the end of U.S. combat operations in August. Hundreds of thousands of Shi'ites have been streaming through the streets of Baghdad to commemorate the death of a medieval Shi'ite holy man. The festival peaks on Thursday.

Security officials assigned 200,000 police and soldiers to protect the pilgrims as they headed to the shrine in northern Baghdad. They imposed a city-wide ban on motorcycles and bicycles to help prevent attacks.

Iraqi military helicopters circled over the golden-domed shrine and snipers perched on nearby rooftops, using binoculars to scan the crowds below for signs of trouble.

In addition to the suicide bombing near the bridge, and the roadside bomb in Harithiya, bombs in east, southwest and southeast Baghdad killed two more people and wounded 33.

On Tuesday, mortar rounds and bombs killed six pilgrims.

Last year, the pilgrimage provided the first big test for Iraqi police and soldiers after U.S. troops withdrew from urban centres at the end of June. The U.S. military will end combat operations this Aug. 31 ahead of a full withdrawal next year.

'WE WILL FOIL THEIR VICIOUS ACTS'

"We expect the terrorist groups to launch terrorist attacks against pilgrims during the coming hours, but our contingency plans will foil their vicious acts," Major General Ahmed al-Saedi, commander of the Iraqi 6th Army Division in charge of the Kadhimiya district, said earlier in the day.

Barricades kept vehicles away from the shrine and security forces used police and military vehicles to transport pilgrims.

The Shi'ite pilgrims appeared undeterred.

"I'm a Shi'ite and I have to stay faithful to my sect and imams," said Layla Abbas, 63, who was pushed in a wheelchair by her daughter toward the shrine. "I'm disabled yes, but my loyalty to Shi'ite imams is not."

Overall violence has fallen sharply, but major bombings, often claimed by al Qaeda in Iraq, remain common.

Sectarian tensions have been running high since the inconclusive March 7 parliamentary election that Iraqis hoped would bring stable government to their nation more than seven years after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Kadhim Chillab, 54, had politics on his mind as he walked to the shrine in the heat, covering his head with a handkerchief.

"I'm walking to Imam Kadhim to show my loyalty as a Shi'ite and on this occasion I also ask God to enlighten politicians' minds to end our suffering and form the government," he said. (Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed, Waleed Ibrahim and Reuters Television, writing by Jim Loney and Michael Christie; editing by Matthew Jones)

Total solar eclipse on July 11 not to be seen in Pakistan

Eclipse Type = Total Eclipse Saros = 146 (animated GIF)
Greatest Eclipse = 19:33:31.6 UT Date = 2010 Jul 11 J.D. = 2455389.316
Greatest Eclipse Lat = 19.7S Lng = 121.9W Duration = 05m20s (320 s)
Sun Alt. = 47° Sun Azm. = 13° Path Width = 258 km
Magnitude = 1.05802 Gamma = -0.67877 ∆T = 66.3 s — σ = ±1s [±0.0°]
Eclipse Overview = 2010-07-11.gif Canon Plate = 477PDF Document Atlas = +2001—+2020

Polynomial Besselian elements for: 2010 Jul 11 20:00:00.0 TDT (=t0)

n x y d l1 l2 µ

0 0.0740680 -0.7170260 22.0356998 0.5344230 -0.0116560 118.6143189
1 0.5572516 -0.1366579 -0.0053410 -0.0000908 -0.0000904 15.0000696
2 -0.0000276 -0.0001121 -0.0000050 -0.0000124 -0.0000123 0.0000000
3 -0.0000090 0.0000024 0.0000000 0.0000000 0.0000000 0.0000000

tan f1 = 0.0045988 tan f2 = 0.0045759

At time t1 (decimal hours), each Besselian element is evaluated by:
a = a0 + a1*t + a2*t2 + a3*t3 (or a = ∑ [an*tn]; n = 0 to 3)
where: a = x, y, d, l1, l2, or µ
t = t1 - t0 (decimal hours) and t0 = 20.000 TDT



Updated at: 2045 PST, Tuesday, July 06, 2010

KARACHI: The total solar eclipse on Monday, July 11, 2010 would not be visible in Pakistan, says a release of Pakistan Meteorological Department here on Tuesday.

The total eclipse will be visible from South Pacific Ocean, Chile and Argentine. While, partial eclipse will be visible from South Pacific and South America.

Eclipse beings 22:10 (11th July) PST
Total begins 22:16 (11th July) PST
Total ends 01:51 (12th July) PST
Eclipse ends 02:57 (12th July) PST
http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2010_GoogleMapFull.html
---



Ultimate eclipse photo: Easter Island, here I come
11:00 1 July 2010
Art
Events

In a series of illustrated blog entries for Culture Lab, journalist and photographer Dan Falk will be describing his attempt to capture the "ultimate solar eclipse photograph" this July. This is the first in the series.

It's one of the most compelling spectacles in all of nature: a total eclipse of the sun, a surreal event in which the sun disappears behind the moon and a small part of the Earth is plunged into midday darkness.

I've seen three solar eclipses so far, and each has been a unique experience, but the one coming up on 11 July 2010 promises to be like nothing else I've ever witnessed. It's all about location: this summer's total eclipse can be seen only from the South Pacific Ocean, the extreme southern tip of South America and a few tiny, remote islands - including the most isolated inhabited spot on Earth, Easter Island.

Easter Island is famous for its remoteness as well as the remnants of its intriguing ancient culture, including those giant carved stone heads, known as moai. We've all seen photographs of those enigmatic moai, but never with a total solar eclipse as a backdrop. My visit to the island will be a chance to capture - if I may be permitted to indulge in a hopeful, boastful superlative - the "ultimate solar eclipse photograph".

A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes exactly between the sun and the Earth, with the moon's shadow falling on our planet. As the Earth turns, the shadow traces out a long but quite narrow path, known as the "path of totality". If you're willing to travel, you can see a total eclipse from somewhere roughly once every 18 months. But from any one specific location, solar eclipses are incredibly rare, occurring about once every 300 years.

Needless to say, this is the only opportunity anyone alive today will have of seeing a total eclipse from Easter Island. According to Xavier Jubier's handy eclipse calculator, the last time a total solar eclipse was visible from Easter Island was more than 13 centuries ago, in 656 AD, and the next time islanders get to see one will be 314 years from now, in 2324. Incidentally, anthropologists believe the island was only settled in about 900 AD, which means no one has ever seen a total solar eclipse from the island.

A solar eclipse can last anywhere from mere seconds to a maximum of just over seven-and-a-half minutes. My first solar eclipse, which I witnessed from Baja California, Mexico, in 1991, was one of the longest of the 20th century, with a duration (as viewed from that location) of about six minutes and 50 seconds. This summer's eclipse, as seen from Easter Island, will last about 4 minutes and 50 seconds. That may sound like a good length of time, but when you're trying to operate a couple of cameras and fiddling with tripods and exposure settings, it goes by very quickly.

Of course, I won't be alone there. A number of passionate "eclipse chasers," along with tourists eager to witness this remarkable event, will have the island's few hotels filled to capacity. (I booked several moths ago, with a California-based agency called A Classic Tours.) A number of professional astronomers will be there as well, including a team led by Jay Pasachoff of Williams College. I'm told that a documentary crew from National Geographic Television will also be on hand.

Luckily, I've had some practice photographing eclipses, having shot the three I mentioned. I had some trouble with clouds at the Mexico eclipse in 1991, but got lucky with clear skies in Curacao, in the Netherlands Antilles, in 1998, and again in Salzburg, Austria in 1999. In Curacao, I managed to get a reasonably good telephoto image of the eclipsed sun itself (below).

eclipse1.jpg

But that is not the kind of image I'm hoping to obtain this time around. Instead, I'm looking for something analogous to the wide-angle view of the total solar eclipse above Salzburg that I captured in 1999 (below).

The reason is simple. That first photo, though pleasant enough, looks exactly like everyone else's photos of that eclipse - indeed, like any photo of any eclipse. In contrast, the Salzburg photo, which includes the distinctive foreground landscape, is unique (or nearly so). This time - if all goes well - instead of Salzburg's castle and cathedral, I'll have Easter Island's moai sculptures as the dramatic foreground scene.

eclipse2.jpg

Perhaps I should add: I intend to pull this off without any kind of digital manipulation. Obviously, with Photoshop, one could pretend to have witnessed a total eclipse over the Eiffel Tower, or from inside your local Starbucks for that matter. But where's the challenge in that? My goal is to capture a single, unique scene, just as it appeared to the unaided eye.

With less than two weeks to go, there is still a great deal of work to do. I am carefully studying maps of Easter Island and descriptions and photographs of the landscape. Upon arrival, I'll have several days to scope out the perfect site: somewhere where I can catch the eclipse with those iconic moai at the bottom of the image.

The technical details of the eclipse itself - the exact altitude and azimuth of the sun, the local time of the beginning and end of the eclipse - will determine the choice of lens needed to get the perfect shot. I intend to shoot with several camera and lens combinations during the brief span of totality, with both a digital SLR and a traditional 35-mm film SLR. Amid that rush, however, I hope to take a few moments to simply savour the spectacle with my own eyes.

I've been looking forward to this remarkable natural event for more than a decade. It's an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Fingers crossed for clear skies on Easter Island on 11 July! I'll keep you updated here on CultureLab, where I hope to finally premiere the photograph I've been dreaming about.

Dan Falk is a science journalist, author and photographer. More of his astrophotography can be found on Flickr and he tweets at @danfalk.

Toronto hosts heat wave, power outage, royal visit

Power was gradually being restored to parts of Toronto Monday evening after a fire erupted at a transformer station in the city's west end, knocking out power to 240,000 Toronto Hydro customers.

"We are working on getting everybody back on," said Daffyd Roderick, a spokesman for Hydro One, which supplies power to distributor Toronto Hydro.

He couldn't say when power would be fully restored or what caused the fire that sparked the failure, which happened at around 4:45 p.m. ET during an extreme heat alert and caused traffic chaos at the height of the city's afternoon rush hour.

Roderick said Hydro One is working on getting all of the big circuits that connect its transformer stations up and running after losing about 900 megawatts of electricity inside the affected area.

The fire happened at the Manby Transformer Station on Kipling Avenue in the Etobicoke section of Toronto.

Hydro One said equipment at the station caught fire and that the cause of the blaze is under investigation. No injuries have been reported at the station, the power company said.

Six Toronto Hydro substations fed by Hydro One are out of service as a result of the outage, Toronto Hydro said.

Power is being restored through a process called backfilling, which is when hydro agencies draw on other sources of power and re-route the power around the out-of-commission transfer station to get it to customers, the CBC's Muhammad Lila reported.

"Hydro One has told us that pockets of power are going to be coming and going," he said.
Helpful numbers

* Hydro One: report a power outage 1-800-434-1235.
* Toronto Hydro: power outage hotline 416-542-8000.
* Toronto Police Service: non-emergency services 416-808-2222.
* Toronto Transit Commission: 416-393-4636.
* Greater Toronto Airport Authority: departures schedule Terminal 1: 416-AIRPORT (416-247-7678); Terminal 3: 416-776-5100.

Commuter chaos

A map posted on the Toronto Hydro website soon after the outage showed large swaths of the city had been affected.

According to the map, the area where outages occurred stretched from Renforth Drive in the west to Yonge Street in the east, and from the Gardiner Expressway in the south to Highway 401 in the north.

The blackout hit on a day when temperatures in the city rose to a muggy, sweltering 34 C and disrupted many commuters.

According to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), subway service was down from Jane to Kipling stations on the Bloor-Danforth line during the outage and had to be replaced with shuttle buses. There were also minor delays reported along the Yonge-University-Spadina line at Union Station.

By 7:30 p.m. ET, subway service was restored, TTC chair Adam Giambrone said.
A pedestrian directs traffic at King Street and University Avenue in the downtown core. A pedestrian directs traffic at King Street and University Avenue in the downtown core. (Guin Orvis/CBC)

Streetcars and buses although still running were delayed because of the many downed traffic lights.

At the height of the outage, stranded commuters filled the streets as police — and sometimes pedestrians — directed traffic.

Pedestrian Aseel El-Baba took it upon herself to direct traffic at King and Wellington streets in downtown Toronto for about an hour before police arrived.

"I saw two near car accidents, and I thought, 'OK, I have to do something'," she told CBC News. "The first five minutes were scary, but I got used to it."

Police told her she was a safety risk and urged her to leave the intersection, she said.

The power went out briefly at Pearson International Airport, but the airport authority's website showed few flight delays.

Capt. Mike Strapko of Toronto Fire Services said firefighters had to rescue some people who got trapped in elevators when the power failed.
Giant fireball reported

Stephen Michalowicz of the local news website Torontoist reported seeing a "giant fireball" near the Kipling Avenue facility.
Queen Elizabeth attended a state dinner at the downtown Royal York Hotel, which was among the buildings that lost power. The 7:30 p.m. dinner, hosted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, proceeded despite the outage.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/07/05/toronto-hydro.html#ixzz0srRAK498
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Toronto hosts heat wave, power outage, royal visit

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July 05, 2010 8:36 p.m.
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TORONTO - A power outage that left large swaths of Toronto in the dark as the city sweltered Monday also turned out the lights on Prince Philip.

A fire at a west-end transformer station sapped some 1,000 megawatts from the city, which is hosting the royal couple amid a heat wave.

Prince Philip was presenting the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, a program that encourages youth to participate in community service, among other areas, at the Royal York Hotel when the lights went out.

The emergency power kicked in and Prince Philip soldiered on, presenting the awards in the dimly lit room, joking with parents in the audience.

The outage had threatened to darken a dinner with the Queen, Prince Philip and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, but full power was restored to the hotel just in time.

Some didn't seem too concerned that the power outage came when the royal couple was in town.

"They're just people like the rest of us," said Scottish tourist Sandy Horsburgh, who was at the top of the CN Tower when the lights went off.

Hydro One said the cause of the fire, which turned the lights out in pockets throughout the city at 4:42 p.m. ET, was under investigation. There were no injuries.

Hydro One spokesman Daffyd Roderick said about 240,000 customers were without power at the height of the outage.

Power was fully restored by about 8:30 p.m. ET, Roderick said.

Toronto Hydro appealed to customers to wait at least 15 minutes after power was restored before turning air conditioning back on to avoid overloading the grid.

The Independent Electricity System Operator reported on its website that power demand in the province was at 24,567 megawatts at 5 p.m. — exceeding the day's predicted peak of 24,351.

The outage was substantial enough to cause blips on the provincial grid, with reports of the lights flickering as far away as Ottawa.

Rishi Ghuldu helped direct traffic when he got off work early because of the power failure.

"When I came out I saw it was a lot of chaos and I thought I should actually help out by directing traffic and making the pedestrians cross the road safely," he said.

The Barrick Gold employee spent about an hour at a couple of intersections on Bay Street until a police officer asked him to move on.

"He said if someone were to get hurt they could actually sue me so he asked me to leave the spot," Ghuldu said.

Hiba Abdou noted that the power outage came on the heels of an eventful period for the city — the G20, the royal visit and "now this."

"Who knows what's next."

Toronto and most of Ontario are in the grip of a heat wave, with temperatures in the mid-30s. Humidex values are expected to be in the 40-degree range during the next few days.

At the height of the outage Sherway Gardens, a large shopping mall in the west end, was in the dark as was the Toronto stock exchange in the financial district.

Two subway stations in the west end were affected. The city's streetcars, which draw from a different power source, were not hit by the outage.

Senior Lebanese Shi'ite cleric Fadlallah dies

BEIRUT | Sun Jul 4, 2010 3:39am EDT

BEIRUT July 4 (Reuters) - Lebanon's Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, one of Shi'ite Islam's highest religious authorities, died on Sunday at the age of 74, a medical source at a Beirut hospital said.

Fadlallah had a wide following among Lebanese Shi'ites and was a supporter of Iran's Islamic Revolution. He was the spiritual leader and mentor of the Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah in the first years after it was formed in 1982.