ILIGAN, Mindanao - Muslim separatist rebels blacked out the southern third of the Philippines in overnight sabotage attacks, leaving about 18 million people in the dark for hours, officials said Thursday.
Electricity supply was restored to most of Mindanao island by Thursday as the government fired up emergency generating stations to temporarily replace baseload plants disabled by the toppling of transmission pylons overnight Wednesday, they said. Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas blew up at least five steel transmission towers before midnight using improvised explosives from mortar shells on Wednesday, knocking out from the grid the key Agus hydro-electric power complex outside this city. [...] Repairs to restore the transmission lines to Agus were expected to take a week. http://www.malaysiakini.com/foreignnews/200302280111046662857.php
