Power out in Venezuelan capital and oil province

A power blackout hit swaths of Venezuela on Monday, including the capital of Caracas and a major oil-producing province, darkening office buildings and homes and knocking out traffic lights, witnesses said. It was the second time this year the OPEC nation's electricity grid, creaking from outdated infrastructure, suffered a major outage. Venezuela's oil refineries are hit by frequent outages. But it was not immediately possible to reach officials from the state-run oil industry for information on Monday's blackout. In some parts of the country, like the major provincial town of Barquisimeto, electricity was lost for only a few seconds. The government moved to assure residents that electricity will be restored quickly in other areas. Supply was already returning to parts of the capital and would soon begin to be restored in other regions, a senior government electricity official, Hipolito Izquierdo, told state television. Witnesses confirmed some power was already being restored to parts of the capital as lights began flickering back on before Caracas's busy rush hour was set to begin. The government did not immediately know the cause of the blackout that was triggered by a problem in a provincial transmission line, Izquierdo said.