Power failure leaves British royal entourage in dark
By DPA, IANSMonday, July 5, 2010
TORONTO/WASHINGTON - A two-hour power outage in Toronto Monday left Britain’s royal entourage in the dark, as Queen Elizabeth II was wrapping up her visit to Canada.
The electricity went out after an explosion at the Hydro One power station, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported, leaving parts of the city sweltering in 40 degree Celsius weather.
The lights went out at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel just as the queen’s husband, Prince Philip, began giving out the Duke of Edinburgh awards, but the generator kicked in a few minutes later.
A royal dinner for 380 guests was going ahead as planned, the hotel’s spokeswoman was quoted as saying. She added that the queen was comfortable.
Earlier Monday the octogenarian queen was given a Blackberry smartphone on her visit to the Research in Motion factory in Waterloo, Canada, the British Press Association reported.
The queen and Prince Philip have been in Canada since last week to mark its national holiday July 1 and are to travel to New York Tuesday, where she will address the UN and visit the site of the World Trade Center destroyed in the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
It will be her third visit to New York. She last addressed the UN General Assembly in 1957.
