A heavy snowfall caused a blackout in Japan's Niigata prefecture Thursday, leaving 650,000 homes without power. Several train lines were forced to suspend services, including the high-speed "bullet train," Asahi Shimbun reported Thursday. About 1,160 traffic lights went dark, seriously affecting road traffic. The power failure shut down automated teller machines and disabled online services at some regional banks. Kansai Electric Power Co. became unable to send electric power from Oi Nuclear Power Plant due to technical problems caused by the heavy snow. The operations of two of the plant's four nuclear reactors also stopped, Mainichi Shimbun reported. Electric company officials said power lines whipped up by strong winds likely got too close to each other and short-circuited. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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