Talleyrand replied, "that his ideas respecting Egypt were certainly grand, and that their utility could not fail to be fully appreciated."

Within a fortnight of coming back to her council house she woke one morning to find all the house's utilities had failed.

Basic utilities such as electricity, telephone lines, and gas supply can also fail.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has charged that the utilities fail to buy enough backup power from other producers, as is allowed under industry deregulation.

The utility certainly failed spectacularly as it left 174,000 people sweltering in the dark for as long as nine days.

Public transportation and utilities unavoidably failed, due to shortage of fuel and American air raids killed thousands, leaving more homeless.

If the utility fails to improve its performance, it could be shut down.

At a commercialization level, the utility has failed to enforce collection of bills, and to eradicate theft and corruption in under billing of the service.

On Saturday, California's governor, Gray Davis, pledged he would not allow the utilities to fail.

The utility that owns the lines said an alarm that should have alerted controllers to the shutdown also failed.