Kuwait restores power, hours after widespread blackout; members of parliament want answers

KUWAIT CITY – Kuwaiti lawmakers are seeking answers about a widespread blackout that hit the small oil-rich Gulf nation the previous evening.

The outage affected much of the country, including its international airport.

Minister of Public Works, Electricity and Water Abdulaziz al-Ibrahim was quoted by the official Kuwait News Agency early on Thursday as saying that power had been restored across the country within a few hours of the outage.

He says the cause was a "glitch" in one of the land lines linked to al-Subbyia power station that was transmitting 2,000 megawatts.

Emergency measures used to bring power back online following Wednesday's outage included the use of an electrical link to the rest of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia and other energy-rich nations.