Japan's original fiction, according to legend, involved the sun goddess, Amaterasu, retreating into a cave and plunging the world into darkness.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia

They then promptly did so, blaming Tory policies for plunging the province into darkness.

ECONOMIST: Twilight for Ontario's premier

At the beginning of the year South Africa's lights started to go out, plunging the thrumming shopping malls and luxury homes into darkness and stopping work in the gold and diamond mines.

ECONOMIST: White flight from South Africa