Power cut blacks out Tajik capital

A massive power cut on Friday blacked out Dushanbe, the capital city of the impoverished Central Asian country of Tajikistan, and surrounding regions, an AFP reporter said. "A serious breakdown occurred with the power supply. Emergency services are working out the reasons," a spokesman for state energy company Barki Tojik told AFP.
A power cut at around 1400 GMT cut off Dushanbe, which has a population of one million, and surrounding regions in the mountainous ex-Soviet country which suffers regular energy shortages in winter. Due to the lack of electricity, the supply of drinking water also halted in Dushanbe and residents were using the torches on their cellphones to move around the city. State buildings and strategic installations in Dushanbe were being powered using autonomous generators.