<p id="thickbox_headline">Sri Lanka suffered a power outage across large parts of the island on Friday, local media reported, as state power workers scrambled to get a key transmission line operational.</p>.<p>The blackout occurred two days after engineers at state-run Ceylon Electricity Board began a work-to-rule protest over the government's plans to sell a 40% stake in a power plant to New Fortress Energy Inc from the United States.</p>.<p>“The outage is due to the failure of a key transmission line,” CEB spokesman Sulakshana Jayawardena told <em>Reuters</em>. “The CEB is working to restore power as soon as possible. It is too early to say whether the outage was countrywide.”</p>.<p>Jayawardena declined to comment on what caused the transmission line failure or when power could be restored.</p>
<p id="thickbox_headline">Sri Lanka suffered a power outage across large parts of the island on Friday, local media reported, as state power workers scrambled to get a key transmission line operational.</p>.<p>The blackout occurred two days after engineers at state-run Ceylon Electricity Board began a work-to-rule protest over the government's plans to sell a 40% stake in a power plant to New Fortress Energy Inc from the United States.</p>.<p>“The outage is due to the failure of a key transmission line,” CEB spokesman Sulakshana Jayawardena told <em>Reuters</em>. “The CEB is working to restore power as soon as possible. It is too early to say whether the outage was countrywide.”</p>.<p>Jayawardena declined to comment on what caused the transmission line failure or when power could be restored.</p>