Mideast power brokers call for "Marshall Plan" after unrest (Reuters)

DEAD SEA, Jordan (Reuters) – Arab politicians and financiers at the World Economic Forum in Jordan called on Saturday for a huge injection of cash to narrow the inequalities that led to the Arab Spring revolts against authoritarian regimes across the region.

Days after the killing of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, senior figures said a home-grown version of the Marshall Plan was needed in the wake of the revolts, which have raised people's hopes for swift economic improvements after decades of corruption and mismanagement.

The proposal was the most specific put forward by senior figures meeting at a luxurious Dead Sea convention center to try and chart a new economic course for the region after its most sweeping upheaval since colonial powers divided most of the Middle East following the downfall of the Ottoman Empire.

Under the Marshall Plan, large sums flowed into Western Europe to rebuild the continent, restore productivity and prevent U.S. allies from falling under the Soviet sphere of influence.

"I am afraid that Arab Spring could turn into an autumn if the issue of social justice is not achieved. A Marshall Plan is needed," said Hassan al-Boraei, Egypt's labor minister.

"The old model of relying on state employment and big projects is no longer viable," Boraei said, adding that Egypt needed to find jobs for 950,000 people entering the workforce annually, with unemployment running at 12-17 percent.

Outrage against autocratic rule and associated nepotism and corruption sparked a democratic revolution in Tunisia in December that cascaded into what has become known as the Arab Spring.

So far, the revolts have toppled the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, with mass protests continuing in Syria and Yemen, threatening their autocratic presidents.

ANTIQUATED POLICES

"If the Arab Spring hopes to achieve anything it is to attain good governance. This does not necessitate only democracy and freedom but social justice, meaning economic policies that meet popular aspirations," said Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby.

Prominent banker Ibrahim Dabdoub said the proposed "Arab Marshall Plan" could be funded by Gulf petrodollars and regional development banks, as there is little hope for major funding from Western nations dealing with their own economic trouble.

"This region needs 85 million jobs ... and a Marshall Plan with the help of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund has become a pre-requisite of development," said Dabdoub, a Palestinian who heads the National Bank of Kuwait, the country's biggest lender.

Libya's Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril was more skeptical about whether money alone would improve the region's lot, saying "the problem of the Arab world is not a question of money but the management of money."

Jibril also said on Saturday that Libyans should be allowed to vote within eight months to elect a national council to draft a new constitution and form an interim government.

Making a keynote speech at the conference, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad al-Thani said economic models had only benefited ruling classes and their cohorts, sparking the Arab Spring.

Qatar, an absolute monarchy with one of the world's highest per capita incomes, has played an international role beyond its tiny size by virtue of its natural gas wealth and ownership of the satellite al-Jazeera channel.

Al-Thani did not address the issue of funding but said Arab economic policies that rely on attracting investment in tourism and real estate while ignoring corruption and the need to raise productivity and education standards have largely failed.

In recent years Arab states have tried to emulate the 'Dubai model', encouraging the setting up of big holding companies tied with the ruling hierarchy that were awarded privatization deals and embarked on large property ventures while public corruption deepened and unemployment remained stubbornly high.

Asked about his advice for Arab rulers, al-Thani said: "Don't fight to stay in your position. What sort of power (will) you have after killing your own people?"

(Additional reporting by Tom Pfeiffer and Suleiman al-Khalidi; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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Yemen president says will leave power in coming days (Reuters)

SANAA (Reuters) – Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday he would leave power in the coming days, the closest the veteran leader has come to announcing he plans to step down after nine months of mass protests against his 33 year rule.

"I reject power and I will continue to reject it, and I will be leaving power in the coming days," Saleh said in a speech on state television.

Saleh has been clinging to his position while opposition and ruling party representatives cast about for a formula to see through a transition-of-power deal.

"I call on my supporters to persevere and to confront any challenge," Saleh said.

Protests against Saleh's rule have paralyzed Yemen, weakening government control over swathes of the country and fanning fears al Qaeda's regional wing may use the upheaval to expand its foothold near shipping routes through the Red Sea.

Saleh has thrice backed out of signing a Gulf-mediated power transition deal. The opposition says the government is holding up negotiations after Saleh's return from Saudi Arabia, where he had gone for treatment after a June assassination attempt.

(Reporting by Erika Solomon)

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Power back on for most in Ariz., Calif. and Mexico (AP)

SAN DIEGO – Utility crews brought electricity back to much of California, Arizona and Mexico on Friday, a day after a power outage left millions in the dark, paralyzed freeways and halted flights at San Diego's airport.

Officials, however, warned that the electrical grid was still too fragile after the outage and asked residents and businesses to go easy on — or even put off using — major appliances, such as air conditioners.

"Conservation will really help reduce the strain," said Stephanie McCorkle at the California Independent System Operator, which manages the power grid.

A decade after California faced rolling blackouts that shutdown everything from ATMs to traffic signals, Thursday's outage raised anew questions about the condition of the nation's electricity grid.

Authorities were focused Friday on trying to figure out how a mistake by a single Arizona Public Service Co. worker making a routine repair in Yuma, Ariz., could cascade across the Southwest.

"That work should not have caused this," said Damon Gross, spokesman for the Phoenix-based utility.

"Why it became so widespread is what we are going to work with the other utilities to investigate because the system should have isolated itself," he said. "It's designed to protect itself."

The outage came more than eight years after a more severe black out in 2003 darkened a large swath of the Northeast and Midwest, affecting more than 50 million people.

Electricity came back in San Diego early Friday, signaling that the blackout was essentially over because most people affected were in the nation's eighth-largest city.

Many spent the night struggling to fall asleep in the high temperatures.

Dan Williams lives in the hot desert of eastern California and usually looks forward to his business trips to San Diego. Not this time, he said, describing his stay at a motel like a camping trip.

"It was hot, there was no air. It was just miserable," said Williams, who slept with the door open.

Several construction workers at a clinic in San Diego stumbled back to work shortly before dawn.

Ed Harris grabbed a beer with his son and watched the traffic congestion from the patio of his San Diego home until he couldn't fend off sleep any longer and had to go back into his roasting residence.

"When I got up, my body left a big bed mark in a sweat ring," he said.

The lights came back on at his home at 2:18 a.m. His wife woke him up to set his alarm clock.

San Diego schools, state universities and community colleges in the area remained shuttered. Beaches were closed because the outage caused a 3.2-million gallon sewage spill.

The San Diego area was hit especially hard with power severed about 4 p.m. Thursday to all of San Diego Gas & Electric Co.'s 1.4 million household and business customers.

That left residents sweltering without air conditioners and paralyzing some freeway and airport traffic.

The outage extended across California's inland deserts, as far east as Yuma and into Mexico. The region is home to 6 million people, though it was impossible to say exactly how many had lost power.

Two reactors at a nuclear power plant along the coast went offline after losing electricity, but officials said there was no danger to the public or workers.

The outage occurred after an electrical worker removed a piece of monitoring equipment at a power substation in southwest Arizona, APS officials said.

"This was not a deliberate act. The employee was just switching out a piece of equipment that was problematic," said Daniel Froetscher, an APS vice president.

It's possible that extreme heat also may have caused some problems with the transmission lines, said Mike Niggli, chief operating officer of San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

During the night, much of San Diego was in darkness, and all outgoing flights grounded at Lindbergh Field. The airport was open and had power Friday but authorities said some airlines may have cancelled flights.

There were no immediate reports of major injuries connected with the outage.

Officials in San Diego and elsewhere said they were on alert but no major problems had arisen, including any signs of looting or other unrest.

There were reports of minor traffic accidents as the outage knocked out stoplights during rush hour.

Leah Walden said she saw about five fender-benders on her drive from her accounting job in suburban Spring Valley to a wedding-cake tasting in San Diego.

"People are irritated. They don't want to wait," said Walden.

The blackout extended south of the border to Tijuana, Mexicali and other cities in Mexico's Baja California state, which are connected to the U.S. power grid, Niggli said.

In Tijuana, people formed long lines outside convenience stores Thursday, trying to buy ice or take advantage of half-price beer. Many drank it on the streets or in parked cars with speakers booming loud music.

Cars also formed snaking lines at the few gas stations with generators that remained open and traffic snarled streets after traffic lights stopped working.

Jose Padilla Flores was one of the few people who still had electricity Thursday.

He offered to let people watch the telenovela on his television if they bought fried tacos and flavored water from his small restaurant "El Dorado" in the Independencia neighborhood.

"My female neighbors were the first ones to ask if I could let them watch the telenovela," said Padilla Flores, 35. "I thought that was a great idea to promote my business."

San Diego residents poured into the few bars that remained open downtown after dark, some donning reading lights on their heads like miners.

Two men carried flaming tiki torches — usually planted in backyards — to see their way.

___

Associated Press Writers contributing to this report include Elliot Spagat in San Diego; Gillian Flaccus in Orange County; Shaya Mohajer and Greg Risling in Los Angeles; Walter Berry, Paul Davenport and Michelle Price in Phoenix and Mariana Martinez in Tijuana.

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Power restored to most in California after blackout (Reuters)

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – Power companies in Southern California restored electricity to most customers by early Friday after a massive blackout on Thursday left nearly 5 million people in parts of California, Arizona and Mexico in the dark.

Although the September 8 outage, apparently caused by human error, was just a tenth the size of the 2003 blackout that left about 50 million people without power in the eastern United States and Canada, it will surely rank as one of the biggest blackouts in recent history -- certainly one of the biggest caused by human error.

Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric power company said it restored power to its 1.4 million customers at 3:25 a.m. Western time on Friday.

That was almost 12 hours after a major electric transmission system outage in western Arizona and the loss of a key connection with the 2,150-megawatt San Onofre nuclear power plant in California resulted in the most widespread power outage in the company's history, SDG&E said.

Across the border in Baja California, where 3.5 million people were affected by blackouts, power had been restored to 1.1 million customers by 6 a.m. local time, Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission said in a statement.

"Service is practically back to normal, with only some specialized industrial clients awaiting reconnection," it said.

San Onofre, which is operated by Edison International's Southern California Edison, shut on Thursday and remained out of service early Friday, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"Restoring power in the aftermath of the loss of the entire local grid serving San Diego and southern Orange counties was a monumental task," David Geier, SDG&E vice president of electric operations, said in a release.

"The restoration process, however, has left our local power grid very fragile and we are asking our customers to conserve electricity throughout the day Friday," Geier said.

SDG&E and the California ISO, which operates the power grid for much of the state, said they would focus on maintaining and ensuring the integrity of the local power system for the next few days before determining the sequence of events that led to the outage and establishing practices and procedures to ensure that outages such as the September 8 event are not repeated.

"There appears to be two failures here -- one is human failure and the other is a system failure. Both of those will be addressed," said Damon Gross, a spokesman for Pinnacle West Capital's Arizona utility Arizona Public Service.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Arizona and Lizbeth Diaz in Tijuana; Editing by Alden Bentley and David Bailey)

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