Power went out in Toronto Monday afternoon, leaving part of the city – and the royal entourage – dark in the middle of a blistering heat wave. 
 
 Power was restored to all parts of the city by 8:30 p.m., Hydro One said. About 250,000 customers on the city's west side and downtown were affected – some for nearly four hours. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hydro One has confirmed a fire at one of their breakers at the Manby transformer station near Kipling Avenue. The fire broke out at 4:40 p.m., spokeswoman Daniele Gauvin said. Hydro One crews are investigating the cause, and don't yet know if the power was blown due to overuse. 
 
 The 230-kilovolt line provides power to thousands of Toronto Hydro customers, she said. There were no injuries. 
 
 Initial reports suggest the outage spanned from the eastern suburb of Ajax to Yorkdale in the northwest. 
 
 At the Fairmont Royal York hotel, the lights went out just as Prince Philip began awarding the Duke of Edinburgh awards in the Canadian room. 
 
 Displaying a trademark British stiff upper lip, he sat in the darkmess for a few minutes until the hotel's backup generator lit up the room's four chandeliers. With the power back on, he continued with his remarks, ignoring the blackout entirely. 
 
 "Congratulate your parents on having such brilliant children," he told the award winners, before being escorted out of the room and into a service elevator that remained operational. 
 
 Mahmood Mirza, a bio-medical engineer, stepped in to direct traffic when he witnessed the chaos after Monday's power outage. 
 
 In the darkened hallways, he passed an assembled crowd of black-tie clad men and women who had began arriving for the evening's dinner, many of whom attempted to snap his picture in the dark. 
 
 Outside, a crowd gathered near the royal motorcade on York Street, hoping for a glimpse of the Queen. 
 
 "She walked by me this morning, said Candi Kubiak, who is in town for the shriners convention. "I'm glad we're staying here. You know they're going to get lights on for her." 
 
 Melanie Coates, a spokesperson for the hotel, said everything was going ahead as planned for the royal dinner for 380 guests. She said the Queen was comfortable. Other guests said the air conditioning was still working. 
 
 Lights out at the intersection of Front Street and University Avenue in Toronto. 
 
 Outside, in the financial district, a symphony of honking horns filled the streets as streams of office workers left their buildings and filled the roads and sidewalks, looking for a way to get home. 
 
 One sweating Bay Streeter announced that he had walked down 53 flights of stairs. When the power went out, he was in a meeting with other CIBC employees. Did they all get up to leave? "No, we continued on for about an hour," he said laughing, with his jacket in his hand. 
 
 Ali Murtaza, 37, was near the top of the new Telus building on York when the power cut out. "I had to walk down 26 flights," he said. "The intercom jumped on and said it was an exploded transformer. We thought it was in our building, so we got the hell out." 
 
 A woman in a pink shirt outside the King subway entrance waved her arms above her head and warned would-be commuters away before she hiked her bag on her shoulder and pushed through the crowd to the streetcar: "The subway's not working!" ||||| Now, in the twilight of a reign that has spanned 58 years, one of the longest of any British monarch, the 84-year-old queen is to visit New York on Tuesday for a third and perhaps final time, accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. The royals will arrive in a private plane from Canada, where they have been traveling for nine days, and fly home to Britain in the evening. 
 
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 Although the queen arrives in the summer’s worst heat wave, she is not the wilting kind. The dark hair has gone white and the shoulders are a bit rounded with age now, but her step is still lively and the face engaged on a reception line or at a garden party as she shakes another hundred hands and speaks with simple dignity. She is addressed initially as “Your Majesty” and thereafter as “Ma’am.” 
 
 What can a visitor do with less than a half-day in New York? Quite a lot, it seems, if she is moving through Manhattan’s traffic morass in a motorcade escorted by police officers, watched over by cordons of federal, state and Scotland Yard agents and ushered through formalities by a protocol phalanx from City Hall and the State Department. 
 
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 In contrast to her first two visits to the city — what might be called her awe-struck first impressions and her more mature celebratory return — this is to be a short, relatively solemn occasion: a valedictory at the United Nations, a reflective half-hour at ground zero and a stroll through a garden created in the canyons of Lower Manhattan as a memorial to the 67 Britons killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. 
 
 In the first of the three stops on her itinerary, the queen will speak at midafternoon to the delegates of 192 nations of the United Nations General Assembly and a galaxy of dignitaries and political leaders. There were only 82 member states in 1957, when she exhorted delegates to persevere in the quest for peace and human rights. 
 
 This time, she will offer personal reflections, looking back across the decades and to the future. “She will be taking a global perspective,” said Harriet Cross, speaking for the United Kingdom’s Mission to the United Nations. “She will touch on progress made since she was last here, and challenges that remain.” 
 
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 Generalizations, yes. But as a constitutional monarch with largely ceremonial powers, Elizabeth does not voice political views publicly. She opens Parliament, confers with her prime ministers and stands watch on the passing cavalcade. In her lifetime, the queen, who was born April 21, 1926, has seen the British Empire transformed from a pre-eminent world power into a commonwealth of 54 independent states, of which she is the figurehead. She is also the queen of 16 realms, including the United Kingdom, and a nominal leader of two billion subjects, nearly a third of the world’s population. 
 
 In the late afternoon, she will go to ground zero. She will make no speech, but will be met by an honor guard and by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Govs. David A. Paterson of New York and Christopher J. Christie of New Jersey. She will briefly tour the 16-acre site, where thousands died and where today new skyscrapers are rising, with reflecting pools in the footprints of the fallen twin towers. 
 
 Finally, in the early evening, the queen will cross Lower Manhattan to the British Garden in Hanover Square, a serene greensward memorial to the British subjects who died at the trade center on Sept. 11, 2001. Relatives of some 50 victims will meet the queen, who will cut a ribbon to formally open the garden. 
 
 An elongated triangle in the rough shape of the British Isles, it is a landscaped version of a traditional British garden, planted with hydrangea, rhododendron, azalea, foxglove, holly and yew, and set off by a winding path of Morayshire stone and benches fashioned in Northern Ireland. Situated on city land, the garden broke ground in 2005 and has been open for several years. 
 
 The queen will make no public remarks, but will stroll the path, escorted by the British ambassador to the United States, Sir Nigel Elton Sheinwald; the consul general in New York, Sir Alan Collins; the mayor and the governors; and leaders of the British Memorial Garden Trust, which developed the project with the St. George’s Society of New York as a gift to the city. 
 
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 Elizabeth, who became queen at 25 after her father, King George VI, died in 1952, has four children and eight grandchildren. Her duties have taken her around the world many times, making her one of history’s most widely traveled heads of state. While she has visited America often, her New York visits are rare touchstones in a life of pageantry and restraint. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption World War II aircraft and the Red Arrows conducted a flypast over Buckingham Palace 
 
 Four days of Diamond Jubilee events have culminated in an appearance by the Queen on the Buckingham Palace balcony in front of huge crowds. 
 
 There was also a flypast by World War II aircraft and the Red Arrows. 
 
 The Queen had earlier attended a service at St Paul's Cathedral where the Archbishop of Canterbury praised her "lifelong dedication". 
 
 But her consort, Prince Philip, has been absent from her side as he remains in hospital with a bladder infection. 
 
 The Earl and Countess of Wessex visited the Duke of Edinburgh on Tuesday afternoon . 
 
 Afterwards, Prince Edward said: "He's feeling better." The countess added: "He's in good spirits; he's on good form." 
 
 The Queen has recorded a two-minute message of thanks to the nation which will be broadcast at 1800 BST on radio and television in the UK and across the Commonwealth. 
 
 'God save the Queen' 
 
 Crowds built up from early morning outside St Paul's and Buckingham Palace. 
 
 Image caption The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joined the Queen on the palace balcony 
 
 There was a fanfare as Her Majesty, wearing a mint green outfit of fine silk tulle, embroidered with tiny star-shaped flowers, arrived at St Paul's for the service at 10:30 BST and the crowds chanted "God save the Queen". 
 
 Prime Minister David Cameron, who gave a reading, led the large representation from the government, military personnel and members of the royal household, at St Paul's alongside diplomats and foreign leaders. 
 
 Following the service at St Paul's, the Queen attended a reception at nearby Mansion House - the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London. 
 
 The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry were at a similar event at the Guildhall. 
 
 All of the senior royals then moved on through crowd-lined streets to a lunch at Westminster Hall where they dined on salmon, followed by Welsh lamb, grilled Isle of Wight asparagus, Jersey Royal potatoes and chocolate delice, bread and butter pudding and berry compote with apple sauce. 
 
 60-gun salute 
 
 The Queen travelled in an open-topped coach with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall back to Buckingham Palace. 
 
 Princes William and Harry and the Duchess of Cambridge followed in a second coach. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Queen's procession in open-top carriage procession 
 
 They were led along The Mall by soldiers from the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, and the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, then fired a 60-gun salute. 
 
 The day culminated with an appearance by the Queen and other senior royals on the balcony for the flypast, which had been in doubt due to the threat of bad weather. 
 
 The BBC's Gerry Holt, on The Mall, said the deafening sound of the flypast drowned out the crowd's cheers. She said that after the Red Arrows had passed overhead there were cries from youngsters of "The sky's turned red, white and blue!" 
 
 BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt said the choice to have only six members of the Royal Family - the Queen, Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, Princes William and Harry and the Duchess of Cambridge - sent a message demonstrating both continuity and restraint at a time of austerity. 
 
 Among other Jubilee news: 
 
 The Archbishop of Canterbury praised the Queen for dedicating herself to the service of her nation and the Commonwealth . He said the Queen had put aside "selfish goals" and dedicated herself to public service, honouring countless communities and individuals and referred to Prince Philip, saying "our prayers and thoughts are very much with him" 
 
 US President Barack Obama also paid tribute to the Queen, calling her "a steadfast ally, loyal friend and tireless leader" . He said that throughout her "60 extraordinary years" she had been "a loyal witness" to the unique alliance between his country and the UK "and the chief source of its resilience" 
 
 Ministers are being urged to look into reports that unemployed people hired as unpaid stewards for the Diamond Jubilee pageant ended up having to sleep outside and change in the rain 
 
 Southampton is hosting a Diamond Jubilee celebration involving Cunard cruise ships the Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria but a display from the Red Arrows has been cancelled as a result of poor weather 
 
 Other highlights of the Jubilee weekend included a star-studded concert outside Buckingham Palace on Monday night. 
 
 At the show, Prince Charles paid tribute to his mother, describing her as "mummy" and a "very special person" but said there was disappointing edge to the night because his father could not be there. 
 
 Afterwards the Queen came on to the stage to press a diamond-shaped crystal into a pod, igniting a beacon in The Mall to mark her 60 years on the throne. It was one of more than 4,000 lit across the UK and the Commonwealth. 
 
 See all the latest Diamond Jubilee news and features at bbc.co.uk/diamondjubilee
– A power outage struck late this afternoon in Toronto, where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip are visiting at the end of a 9-day swing through Canada. The prince was at a downtown hotel when the lights went out and gamely presented the Duke of Edinburgh Awards for community service to local youths in a dimly lit room, reports the Globe and Mail. Earlier, the queen visited the headquarters of Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry—she's a fan—and received a personalized smartphone. The visit was the first time reporters have been allowed on the floor at the RIM plant, AFP reports. The queen is scheduled to visit New York tomorrow. She will speak at the UN and visit the site of the World Trade Center, reports the New York Times.