RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s two largest cities have been hit by a massive blackout that has also affected other parts of Latin America’s largest nation.
Media reports say problems at a huge hydroelectric dam are to blame for the electrial outages affecting large parts of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and other cities in several states.
The G1 Web site of Globo TV says Brazil lost 17,000 megawatts of power after an unspecified problem happened at the Itaipu dam that straddles the border of Brazil and Paraguay.
Officials did not immediately comment on Tuesday’s outages.
Philippines’ Mayon volcano spews ash, could erupt
MANILA, Philippines — Scientists say the cone-shaped Mayon volcano in the central Philippines has shot an ash plume into the air and are advising nearby residents to be ready to move in case of eruption.
Chief state volcanologist Renato Solidum says Mayon’s alert level remains the same but that if magma continues to rise below the glowing crater it could erupt within weeks.
Chemical BPA in workers linked to sex problems
NEW YORK — Male factory workers in China who got very high doses of a chemical that’s been widely used in hard plastic bottles had high rates of sexual problems, researchers reported Wednesday.
Heavy exposure to BPA, or bisphenol A, on the job was linked to impotence and lower sexual desire and satisfaction, according to the study, which adds to concerns about BPA’s effects on most consumers.
The men in the study experienced BPA levels about 50 times higher than those faced by typical American men, said researcher Dr. De-Kun Li.
UN: 10,000 Salvadoran flood victims need food
VERAPAZ, El Salvador — At least 10,000 Salvadorans are in urgent need of food aid after floods and mudslides destroyed huge swaths of crops during harvest season, the U.N. World Food Program said Tuesday.
President Mauricio Funes told reporters the death toll had risen to at least 160, but lowered the number of homeless to 12,930. Dozens of people remained missing.
Heavy rains caused a dozen rivers to jump their banks and sent torrents of mud and boulders tumbling down mountainsides across the Central American country over the weekend, burying entire neighborhoods.
King Tut’s tomb set for 5-year renovation project
CAIRO — Egypt’s famous Tomb of Tutankhamun will undergo a five-year project to clean and restore the lavish wall paintings in the underground chambers of the boy king whose golden mask and artifacts have long awed the world.
The project to restore the country’s most famous tomb is the latest collaboration between Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Los Angeles-based Getty Conservation Institute.
Since the small, four-roomed tomb and its famous golden burial mask were discovered in 1922 by British archaeologist Howard Carter, observers have noted strange brown spots marring the wall paintings.
— Herald wire services
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