Massive blackout hits Cuba, prompting government to shutter schools and workplaces

Cuba's electrical grid went offline Friday after one of the island's major power plants failed, the energy ministry said.  

The massive outage left millions of Cubans without power and prompted the government to implement emergency measures to slash demand, including suspending classes, shutting down some state-owned workplaces and canceling nonessential services.

The government announced that one of the nation's main thermoelectric plants, La Antonio Guiteras, had ceased operations at about 11 a.m. local time, with authorities saying it was only offline temporarily.