Brazilian officials are disputing the claim by “60 Minutes” and others that a blackout in 2007 was caused by computer hackers. Wired magazine’s blog Threat Level, citing government and investigative sources, reports that the outage “was actually the result of a utility company’s negligent maintenance of high voltage insulators on two transmission lines.” Insulators hang from power lines and are prone to collect debris, which can cause power surges. In this case, officials say soot from nearby fires collected on the insulators.

Threat Level, which has long been skeptical of some of the more extraordinary claims by U.S. officials about cyber threats to critical infrastructure, spoke to the utility company involved in the blackout and got a denial of any hacker involvement. The company “has no knowledge of hackers acting in [the] power transmission system,” TL reported.

News of the “60 Minutes” piece hit the wires on Saturday, and over the weekend, Brazilian government officials started batting down the story. A senior homeland security official in Brazil told newspaper Folha de S. Paulo that he had investigated the allegations of a hacker causing the blackout and found no traces. Read the full story

SAO PAULO– Several major Brazilian cities including the two largest, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, were plunged into darkness Tuesday, witnesses said, in a blackout initially attributed to problems at a hydroelectric dam.

The power outage hit at 10:15 p.m. (0015 GMT Wednesday) and spread to the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, including both their capitals, the states of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo, in the southeast, Mato Grosso do Sul, in the southwest, parts of the central state of Goias, as well as the federal district of Brasilia.

The blackout reportedly affected large swaths of Brazil’s major cities in those states as well.

Globo television said National Electric System officials blamed the blackout on a domino effect in the country’s power grid from a power failure at the Itaipu hydroelectric plant that Brazil shares with Paraguay.

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Brazil’s 2 largest cities hit by blackouts

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s two largest cities have been hit by a massive blackout that has also affected other parts of Latin America’s largest nation.

Media reports say problems at a huge hydroelectric dam are to blame for the electrial outages affecting large parts of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and other cities in several states.

The G1 Web site of Globo TV says Brazil lost 17,000 megawatts of power after an unspecified problem happened at the Itaipu dam that straddles the border of Brazil and Paraguay.

Officials did not immediately comment on Tuesday’s outages. The blackouts came three days after CBS’s “60 Minutes” news program reported several past Brazilian power outages were caused by hackers. Brazilian officials played down the report.

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SAO PAULO (AFP) – It may be one of nature’s repulsive little blood-sucking parasites, but the humble tick could yield a future cure for cancers of the skin, liver and pancreas, Brazilian researchers have discovered.

They have identified a protein in the saliva of a common South American tick, Amblyomma cajennense, that apparently reduces and can even eradicate cancerous cells while leaving healthy cells alone. Read the full story

The UFC middleweight champion moved up a weight class and not only beat former light-heavyweight Forrest Griffin, he made him look bad in the process. Silva beat up the bigger man, all but breaking his will in three minutes 23 seconds in a non-title fight.

It was a jar-dropping performance that cemented Silva’s status as mixed martial arts’ top dog. Read the full story