Nation/world in brief: Senator’s wife out of hospital

RENO, Nev. – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s wife has been released from a Virginia hospital, where she was taken after being seriously injured in a traffic accident.

Reid spokesman Jon Summers confirmed the news about Landra Reid on Sunday.

Reid, 69, underwent surgery Friday to stabilize serious injuries suffered when a tractor-trailer rear-ended the minivan she and her daughter were riding in Thursday on an interstate highway near Washington, D.C.

Power failure hits most of Chile

SANTIAGO, Chile – A power failure plunged nearly the entire Chilean population into darkness Sunday night, rattling a country already anxious after last month’s 8.8-magnitude quake.

The outage struck around nightfall and affected a 1,200-mile stretch, according to the Interior Ministry’s emergency office.

Officials blamed a transformer failure that caused a ripple effect and ultimately caused a total collapse of the Central Interconnected System grid. Between 80 percent and 90 percent of Chile’s 17 million people get power from the system, said Eduardo Andrade, vice president of electricity distributor Transelec.

Officials said it would take several hours to fully restore service.

Factory closed over lead sickness

BEIJING – Chinese authorities have ordered the closure of a lead ingot factory in the country’s southwest after 94 people, including 88 children, in nearby villages were found to have lead poisoning.

Reports of lead poisoning have emerged around the country since last year, highlighting the heavy environmental cost of China’s rapid economic development.

Authorities organized medical tests for some 1,600 residents in four villages within a 2,600-foot radius of the Zhongyi Alloy Co. in Sichuan province’s Neijiang city, the official Xinhua News Agency reported today.