Unix Timestamp: 1060819200
Thursday, August 14. 2003, 12:00:00 AM UTC

6.4 Richter scale earthquake near the Greek Ionian island of Lefkada – 24 injured

A major power outage due to a power grid failure affects more than people in the northeast of North America, including New York City, New Jersey, Cleveland, Ottawa, Toronto and Detroit //www.sunspot.net/news/nationworld/bal-newyork0815,0,2936608.story?coll=bal-home-headlines//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59083-2003Aug14.html//www.cjad.com/content/cjad_news/article.asp?id=n081461A//abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/power_outage030814.html ABC //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3152451.stm BBC //www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/14/power.outage/index.html CNN. According to U.S. authorities, the cause is still unclear according to the Canadian Department of National Defense, the chain reaction was started by a lightning strike in the Niagara Falls region on the U.S. side of the border //abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20030814_1766.html. A press release with some technical details of the event is available at //www.nerc.com/. The NRC reports that all nine affected nuclear power plants have been safely shut down //www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2003/03-102.html.

SARS: Public health officials are investigating seven deaths and several infections in an outbreak that resembles, but is not believed to be, SARS in a nursing home in Surrey, British Columbia (a suburb of Vancouver). However, until more is known about the disease, the home will be treated as a SARS site for safety's sake. //www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030814.wvirus0814a/BNStory/Front/ !reported by Reuters Thu August 14, 2003 02:38 p.m. ET