Lake-effect storms dump snow in western New York

FULTON, N.Y. (AP) — A woman died after her car collided with a stranded minivan during whiteout conditions along eastern Lake Ontario, where overnight lake-effect squalls produced up to three feet of snow.
Fulton officials declared a snow emergency Monday night and advised against any unnecessary travel. Some surrounding areas in northwestern Oswego County received up to three feet of snow before the squalls weakened early Tuesday.

State police said they are investigating whether a medical condition may have caused the death of Kathleen Pluff, 56, of Fulton, late Monday afternoon.

Pluff was in her 1999 Dodge Durango on Route 481 when she drove off the shoulder and hit a minivan that had become stuck in a snow bank. The minivan was one of several vehicles forced off the road by slick conditions and extremely heavy snowfall. The other driver was unhurt and the collision caused only minor damage to both vehicles, troopers said.

Authorities said there were no serious injuries among the 42 students from the Red Creek School District who were aboard a school bus when it overturned Monday afternoon in a ditch in Cayuga County.

The heavy snow also caused officials to shut down portions of Interstate 481 in the Syracuse area.

In western New York, a foot to two feet of snow has fallen in areas of northern Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties south of Buffalo.

Magnitude 6.5 Quake - KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND

Floods, storms topped '06 natural disasters
U.N. report tracked sharp increase in flooding; heat waves also a factor

GENEVA - Floods and storms were the most frequent natural global disasters in 2006, while extreme temperatures raised the death toll in Europe by five-percent compared to the average for the past five years, the United Nations said Monday.

There were 21,796 disaster-related deaths around the world last year, according to the U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction — a big drop from the 92,000 who died in 2005, the year of the Asian tsunami.

“The 2006 figures confirm the trends that we have been observing since 2000,” said Debarati Guha-Sapir of Louvain University in Belgium, which compiled the figures. The number of people killed by disasters has been falling for five years, with the exception of the rise in 2005 caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake, she added.

Asia, which continues to be the continent most hit by natural disasters, saw a 10-percent decrease in disaster-deaths in 2006, compared with the five-year average, according to ISDR.

Most of last year’s disaster-deaths occurred in Indonesia where an earthquake in May killed 5,778 people. Typhoon Durian left 1,399 people dead in the Philippines in December, and a landslide earlier in the year killed 1,112 people on the archipelago.

But heatwaves in the Netherlands and Belgium led to unusually high numbers of disaster-related deaths in Europe — 1,000 and 940 respectively — according to the U.N. agency. A cold snap in Ukraine early last year left 801 people dead.

“European countries are by far not protected adequately against natural disasters,” Guha-Sapir said, warning that European countries were not giving sufficient attention to natural disasters and reporting of them was poor.

There were 226 floods last year — a sharp increase compared with the average of 162 floods over the previous five years. Floods accounted for most of the 26 disasters which occurred in the United States, just nine disasters less than China, the country that was most hit by natural disasters last year.

The overall number of people affected by natural disasters in the world was 140 million, a slight fall compared with 157 million in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit the south of the United States.

The United Nations calculates “affected people” as those reported injured, homeless or in need of emergency assistance such as food or shelter as a result natural disasters.

Earthquake rocks Australian island

SYDNEY, Australia - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.7 rocked the coast of Australia's remote Macquarie Island Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake struck at 2:54 p.m. local time and was centered six miles below the seabed. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake was unlikely to cause a Pacific-wide tsunami.

The isolated, sparsely populated island lies about 835 miles south of the island state of Tasmania.

146 U.S. levees may fail in flood

WASHINGTON — The Army Corps of Engineers has identified 146 levees nationwide that it says pose an unacceptable risk of failing in a major flood.
The deficiencies, mostly due to poor maintenance, are forcing communities from Connecticut to California to invest millions of dollars in repairs. If the levees aren't fixed, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could determine that they are no longer adequate flood controls. If that happens, property owners behind the levees would have to buy flood insurance costing hundreds of dollars a year or more.

The substandard levees are being identified under a corps inspection program that has grown more aggressive since Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed levees across the Gulf Coast in August 2005. Thousands of residents who lost property did not have flood insurance because those levees were considered adequate; later reviews found many were not well maintained.

"The corps and FEMA are saying, 'We've been lax as a nation in our operation and maintenance of these levees, and it's time to tighten up,' " says Larry Larson, director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, an organization for officials who run flood-control systems. "You're talking about risking a lot of lives if one of these fails."

After Katrina, Congress directed the corps and FEMA, which administers federal flood insurance, to identify at-risk levees. The corps inspects about 2,000 levees nationwide, mostly larger ones. The corps provided USA TODAY only with a list of how many faulty levees have been found in each state.

Spokesman Pete Pierce says the corps does not want to release the list of the 146 places where levees have been identified as inadequate until all levees are inspected and all communities with faulty levees are notified. USA TODAY has filed a request for that list under the Freedom of Information Act.

Thousands of levees are spread across every state. They range from miles-long levees protecting major cities to small berms shielding crops. Many were built by the corps and turned over to local authorities, which are responsible for maintaining them.

Local officials fear that some cities cannot afford upgrades. Hartford, Conn., spent $5 million last year to meet the corps' demands for repairs. Otherwise, thousands of properties worth almost $2 billion would have needed flood insurance, City Engineer John McGrane says. "It's a tremendous burden," he says.

The corps is allowing a one-time, one-year grace period to do the work, says Maj. Gen. Don Riley, the corps' director of civil works. "We want communities to clearly understand the risks of not maintaining these levees and take responsibility," he says.

Angola cholera cases rise sharply after deadly floods

LUANDA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Cholera cases have surged to "alarming" levels in Angola after deadly floods left thousands of people without clean drinking water and access to sewage facilities, aid workers said on Monday.

An average of 90 cases of the potentially fatal intestinal infection are being reported each day in the province of Luanda, which includes the capital, compared to an average of 15 to 20 cases before heavy rains triggered floods last week.

"There has been a five-fold increase in the number of cases in relation to one week ago, which is a lot. Yes, it's quite alarming," said Mark van Boekel, head of Medicins Sans Frontieres Holland in Angola.

There have been a handful of deaths, but the authorities cannot say whether these are directly related to the recent flooding.

But with parts of Luanda, including its slums, submerged in fetid water and more rain forecast, aid workers say the outbreak may worsen in the coming weeks and the death toll could eclipse that of the floods, which have killed at least 90 people.

Cholera is spread through feces-contaminated water and food and usually marked by vomiting and acute diarrhoea. Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable to the disease, often dying from severe dehydration within 24 hours after infection.

An oil-rich nation that is emerging from a 27-year civil war that shattered bridges, roads and drainage systems, Angola has faced a number of cholera outbreaks in recent years. More than 1,800 people died last year in its worst outbreak in a decade.

Millions of Angolans lack access to health care, including the antibiotics and rehydration salts that easily treat cholera, and the country routinely struggles to get basic medical supplies to areas cut off by poor or non-existent roads.

One-quarter of all children in the former Portuguese colony, sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil producer after Nigeria, do not survive to their fifth birthday.

With the end of the civil war in 2002 and the beginning of an oil-financed reconstruction boom, Angola's leaders have said they are committed to improving basic health care and developing other social programmes.

But the government has been criticised for reacting slowly to the cholera epidemic and the health sector as a whole.

"They are making billions in oil revenues, but their general priorities do not seem to include health," one foreign aid worker told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

But others credit the government in Luanda for making progress, albeit slowly, in the health sector and learning from its most recent brush with cholera. Van Boekel noted that Angola seemed to be better equipped now than it was last year.

"There is a better preparedness among the population, the international agencies and authorities," he said.

"(But) in poor neighbourhoods there isn't always potable water to drink and the sanitary conditions are bad. So the preparedness doesn't change the cause, it only improves the response," he added.

Fears of a jump in cholera cases are not confined to Angola.

Authorities in Mozambique and Zambia have said they are concerned about outbreaks of the disease after floods prompted thousands to flee to crowded emergency camps and unsheltered higher ground in the two southern African nations.

Angolans face killer floods, death toll up to 81

LUANDA (AFP) - Relief and repair workers struggled to deal with havoc wreaked by torrential rain and flash floods in Angola, where the death toll around the seaside capital Luanda rose to 81.

"During search operations 10 more bodies were found in Luanda. The toll is now 81," fire service spokesman Faustino Sebastiao told AFP, adding that 18 people were known to be missing.

Fifty-nine of the deaths were in Cacuaco, one of the worst-hit areas just north of the capital, a local official said over radio.

Other parts of southern Africa have been hit by heavy downpours, including Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.

Central Luanda was cut off from Monday when three key bridges were damaged by heavy rain, but two of those have been repaired, linking the downtown area to the south and north east.

Officials said makeshift shelters had been set up to house 1,300 displaced families while residents of the sprawling but rundown city of 4.5 million struggled to cope with the rising waters.

Despite Angola's oil riches, Luanda has a skeletal infrastructure, which still bears the scars of a brutal 27-year civil war that ravaged the former Portuguese colony.

Telephone lines which were been badly hit were slowly being repaired and it had become possible to make international calls again, the head of the state-run telephone company said over radio.

Meanwhile, heart-rending scenes were witnessed in Cacuaco, home to some 900,000 people, which was still cut off from Luanda since a link bridge has been damaged.

A young man on the beach in Cacuaco wept copiously by the side of his wife's body, recovered by troops who are helping in rescue and search operations.

"At least I have seen her body," he said. "When the rains started lashing our area, we climbed on the roof. But the currents were too strong and our house collapsed. After that I lost sight of her."

Businesswomen and shoppers meanwhile traversed the river separating Cacuaco and Luanda on rocks they have put alongside the destroyed bridge.

On Thursday, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos visited Cacuaco and urge officials there to "get to work".

The capital was eerily still Friday with most vehicles off the roads.

"I walked four kilometres (three miles) before coming to a road where I could take a taxi," Marcos Costa said.

Luanda's governor Job Capapinha told an emergency meeting his three main priorities were providing emergency relief, restoring road links and ensuring proper sanitation to stem the tide of cholera, which has claimed more than 2,000 lives across the country since February last year.

The cholera epidemic broke out then in a sprawling Luanda slum and has been blamed on poor sanitation, an acute shortage of drinking water and inadequate infrastructure.

In March 2005, flooding in northern Angola left over 10,000 people without shelter.

Malaysian rain warning triggers fears of more floods

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Malaysia has issued its highest "red stage" rain warning for the southern state of Johor, triggering fears of a third wave of flooding after weeks of chaos caused by torrential downpours.

The Meteorological Services Department said in a statement late Wednesday that moderate to heavy rain was expected to persist until Sunday in Johor, which borders Singapore, and central Pahang state.

Residents in the flood zone, where tens of thousands were forced to shelter in evacuation centres during the crisis which has peaked twice since late December, said they were not bothering to do repairs yet in light of the warning.

"I only cleaned up the house a little because we fear the floods will come again, for the third time," 61-year-old Hassan Saadon told the official Bernama news agency.

Hassan said his family cleared up the flood damage after the first wave of floods in the closing days of 2006, only to be devastated again just two days later when bad weather returned.

State Drainage and Irrigation Department chief Chong Chee Han said river levels had already beached their danger mark.

"We never had heavy flooding twice within a month, but that too has occurred. All we can hope for is that a third wave does not happen," he told The Star newspaper.

The floods, the worst in a century, have claimed 17 lives and caused damage worth 350 million ringgit (100 million dollars) to infrastructure in the south. The private sector has reportedly estimated economic losses at 2.4 billion ringgit.

Oklahoma ice storm power outages at about 5,700

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Twelve days after an ice storm knocked down power poles and snapped transmission lines across the state, about 5,700 Oklahoma homes and businesses remained without electrical service Wednesday.

At the height of the storm, an estimated 125,000 people were without power in the state.

Most of those still without power are in remote, rural areas of far northeastern Oklahoma, where power lines are hard to get to and even harder to repair.

"We maintain thousands of miles of electrical line in rural areas," said Sid Sperry, spokesman for the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives.

"When our trucks go down the road, theyre not driving on asphalt or concrete. Theyre in pastures and fields in snow, ice or getting stuck in mud."

There are 1,200 electrical linemen working for Oklahomas 30 rural electric cooperative. Of those 1,200 linemen, 450 Oklahoma linemen are working to help restore power to customers in eastern Oklahoma, plus 1,100 linemen from other states.

State officials estimate rural electric cooperatives and the 23 eastern Oklahoma counties hit hardest by the storm received about $39 million in damage. The damage estimate was included in Gov. Brad Henrys request for federal aid.

Temperatures reached into the high 40s and low 50s under sunny skies Wednesday, melting much of the snow and ice that remained from the storm that began moving through the state on Jan. 12.

A winter storm brewing over northern Mexico was forecast to move into Oklahoma and North Texas by Friday afternoon and possibly bring rain and snow, according to the National Weather Service.

This storm, however, isn't expected to dump much precipitation and should exit the area by Saturday afternoon, forecasters said.

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Lost in the forest

Heavy rains claim 53 lives in Angolan capital

LUANDA (AFP) - Fifty-three people have died in Luanda, Angola's seaside capital, in torrential rains that have lashed the city for three days, a police spokesman has said.

"We have recorded 53 deaths until now," Divaldo Martins told AFP Wednesday, adding that more than 1,300 families were homeless.

Luanda's governor Job Capapihna on Tuesday met with senior local officials in the city of some 4.5 million, whose creaking infrastructure has been further damaged by the downpours, to assess the damage.

In March 2005, flooding in northern Angola -- a former Portuguese colony which is still recovering from a 27-year civil war that shattered most of its infrastructure -- left over 10,000 people without shelter.

Makeshift shelters have been put up in Luanda to house those rendered homeless by the flash floods, which have also hit telephone lines.

"The country has been cut off from the rest of the world because the rains have destroyed the optic fibre cables. We will do our best to address the situation," said Manuel Cesar, spokesman of the state-run telephone firm Angolatelecom.

Dozens dead, crops ruined in southern African floods

LUANDA, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Authorities in Angola, Zambia and Mozambique on Wednesday warned of a humanitarian crisis after deadly floods submerged towns, devastated crops and left thousands of villagers without shelter, food or water.

At least 55 people were killed and dozens others were missing in the three southern African nations after heavy rains triggered floods this week. The death toll was expected to rise as emergency crews searched for bodies and cared for survivors.

"We're trying to come up with an emergency plan, to work out how to get people out, supplying them with medicines and clean water," said a government official in Luanda, Angola's capital and the area hardest hit by the flooding.

"There has been a lot of damage done already and Luanda really isn't prepared to deal with this kind of situation," the official said on condition of anonymity.

While heavy rains are common at this time of year, the countries are often ill-prepared to cope.

Decades of civil war in Angola and Mozambique in particular have hampered the upkeep of infrastructure, leaving the drains and flood controls in a poor state of repair.

More than 50 people died in and around Luanda -- mostly in the Cacuaco municipality -- and some 1,200 families were displaced after their houses were destroyed by torrents of water, Luanda police spokesman Divaldo Julio Martins said.

"We believe that the number of reported deaths will rise," Martins said, adding more rain was expected.

The scale of the flooding has led to fears of an outbreak of cholera or other infectious diseases.

"We're calling on the health authorities to set up cholera treatment centres in Luanda. They need to be prepared because the consequences could be very serious," said Mark van Boekel, head of Medicins Sans Frontieres Holland in Angola.

More rain will also complicate efforts to set up temporary camps for those displaced in Cacuaco, where most of the homes are built on unstable sand and earth.

Some 70 percent of Luanda's more than 4 million residents were believed to be affected or at risk from the flooding.

CROPS DESTROYED

In neighbouring Zambia, officials were scrambling to airlift relief supplies to more than 20,000 people who had fled to higher ground after floods in Zambezi and other towns in the northwest, near the border with Angola.

The rising waters devastated cassava, maize, sorghum and millet crops and destroyed bridges linking the towns.

"Crops have been destroyed due to the disastrous floods, and people urgently need relief," Richard Salivaji, the permanent secretary of North Western province, said in a news conference in the Zambian capital Lusaka.

Salivaji said many of the displaced villagers had no food.

Authorities in Mozambique, which was devastated in 2000 and 2001 by floods that killed more than 700 people, also reported that flooding had wiped out crops and killed livestock in a number of towns.

Five people died and some 5,000 were forced to flee to emergency shelters in the former Portuguese colony.

"Small rivers burst their banks and flooded our fields, sweeping away everything including our goats and chickens," Armando Casimiro, a resident of Moma in Nampula province, told Noticias, a daily newspaper in Maputo.

"That was when we started to hear people screaming for help only to open our doors to find out that many houses had disappeared and been replaced by a lake," Casimiro said.

Winter lingers in southern New Mexico

Parts of southern New Mexico could still get more snow Tuesday, while other parts must finish digging out from the latest blast of winter weather to hit the state.
Snow advisories have been canceled for the southwest desert, including Lordsburg, Deming and Las Cruces. But the National Weather Service said it can't rule out a chance of snow showers from Ruidoso to the east and south through Tuesday night.

In addition, a system in northern Mexico could begin to move north, bringing scattered to isolated snow showers to the south, west and central sections of New Mexico by Thursday night.

Snowplows and sand trucks were busy Monday after the winter weather sent motorists skidding, closing 145 miles of the state's main north-south artery for hours and shutting down dozens of schools.

New Mexico State Police Lt. Rick Anglada had a simple message for southern New Mexico motorists: "Stay home."

Interstate 25 was closed between Socorro and Las Cruces and Interstate 10 was closed from Las Cruces to the Arizona state line for much of Monday morning. Both highways reopened in the afternoon.

The storm also closed some state roads in southern New Mexico and forced the cancellation of classes at Animas, Artesia, Clovis, Estancia, Hatch, Melrose, Mescalero, Moriarty, White Sands Missile Range and Truth or Consequences.

The state Department of Transportation has activated message boards to notify travelers about highway conditions.

The storm was forecast to drop an additional 3 to 5 inches of snow in areas below 7,500 feet and 5 to 9 inches above that, said Todd Shoemake, a weather service forecaster in Albuquerque.

The storm will stall before moving northward Thursday, perhaps giving Albuquerque another shot of precipitation, he said.

The storm had dropped 1 to 2 feet of snow across the southern mountains and more than 6 inches in the lower elevations north of Las Cruces on Monday.

Oklahoma covered with slush, mud as ice and snow melt away

TULSA (AP) — A break in wintry weather has helped utility crews working non-stop for the past week restore power to all but about 10% of the 125,000 homes and business that lost electricity during a deadly ice storm.
About 12,102 customers, mostly in eastern Oklahoma, still didn't have electric service early Tuesday, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management reported. Officials said it could be a week to nine days before power is back on for some rural customers.

Most of those customers receive power from the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives, which reported more than 3,700 utility poles down and 11,922 outages in its service area, emergency management officials said. Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative in Vinita reported the largest service disruption — 7,703.

Oklahoma Gas & Electric reported 180 total outages, 90 in the Muskogee area.

Electricity has been restored to all customers of Public Service Co. of Oklahoma, which number 514,000 in eastern and southwestern Oklahoma, according to the company's website.

Donna Tow, 50, of Rose had power by Monday morning after going 10 days without it.

"After about the first four days of camping out with a family of eight in the house, it was quite nerve-racking to say the least," said Tow, a homemaker.

With temperatures forecast to reach the 30s and 40s on Tuesday and climb into the 40s and 50s through Friday any residual ice clinging to power lines and pavements will melt, although a storm system lurking over northern Mexico could bring a fresh round of frozen precipitation to the state, the National Weather Service said.

Meanwhile, Gov. Brad Henry announced he would ask the Legislature for $15 million to help pay costs tied to the brutal storms and officially forwarded his request for a major disaster declaration for eastern Oklahoma to President Bush.

The request allows communities and individuals to seek federal reimbursement for uninsured damages as they recover from the storm. Bush approved an emergency declaration for all 77 Oklahoma counties on Jan. 14 to cover federal assistance for federal assets that were needed to respond to areas affected by the winter storm, which lashed the state for three days beginning Jan. 12.

The Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol attribute 32 deaths to the storm. Highway collisions took 19 lives, eight people died of hypothermia, two from smoke inhalation and three from falls.

Of the latest victims, a 60-year-old Allen man fell on ice, a 31-year-old man was involved in a car wreck in Payne County and a 22-year-old Oklahoma City woman who was riding a sled being pulled by an all-terrain vehicle died when it collided with a pole, officials said.

Snow melt and rainfall has lifted the levels of major rivers in the state, including the Arkansas, Illinois, Kiamichi and Poteau rivers, but all are forecast to remain well below flood stage.

Runoff from melting ice and snow also caused some streams to spill from their banks.

A pickup carrying radioactive materials used in pipeline scanning equipment was swept from a bridge Sunday and disappeared in swollen Coal Creek in Pittsburg County.

It was located Monday about a quarter of a mile downstream, and officials were waiting for waters to recede to fish it out, said Undersheriff Richard Sexton.

"It doesn't appear to be any hazard whatsoever to the public," Sexton said, noting that the material was in a container secured to the truck.

Troopers reported nearly 500 collisions on Oklahoma roads since Jan. 12, and 3,656 people have been treated at Oklahoma hospitals for various injuries related to the weather, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

A nighttime curfew implemented in two southeast Oklahoma counties following reports of break-ins and the theft of generators that powered railroad crossing guards was lifted in Pittsburg County, officials said.

A 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew remained in effect in McIntosh County.

Snow storms bring chaos to Europe

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Three people were killed as snow and ice caused travel chaos across Europe on Wednesday, halting trains and planes and cutting off electricity to thousands of homes.

In Germany, icy roads caused multiple accidents, killing three people and injuring dozens, police said.

In the southern city of Stuttgart, about a thousand airline passengers were stranded overnight as 70 flights were cancelled due to heavy snowfall, the airport said.

In Britain, the first snow of winter disrupted road and rail travel across the southeast.

Commuters faced severe delays on many routes into London. Southeastern, a train company serving the region, said it expected delays to continue into the afternoon and said its Web site crashed from a flood of passenger queries.

Britain's Met office said heavier snowfalls were expected in parts of the southeast on Thursday and Friday.

Temperatures dipped to minus 10 Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) in parts of France.

About 5,000 vehicles were stranded when the A6 motorway that runs through eastern France was cut off by snow and 200 police and firefighters were sent to help stranded motorists.

Power was cut off to about 85,000 homes in central France and train travel was disrupted.

In Austria's Carinthia province 12,000 homes lost electricity when heavy snow toppled trees onto power lines and officials issued an avalanche warning for nearby Alpine mountains.

A blizzard deposited more than a metre of snow within hours, stranding hundreds of vehicles on roads.

But the weather was good news for Europe's ski resorts which have been struggling due to a lack of snow. The cold weather is expected to continue for the rest of the week.

Five killed, 3,500 homeless after heavy rains in Mozambique

MAPUTO (AFP) - Torrential rains in central Mozambique have claimed five lives and rendered more than 3,500 homeless since the weekend, the National Institute for Disaster Management said.

"Three people died of electrocution in Quelimane and two have drowned in Namacurra district. More than 3,500 people have been housed in makeshift shelters as their homes have been flooded," institute director Paulo Zucula told AFP Tuesday.

"The situation is alarming in Quelimane," he said adding that almost the entire length of the coastal town in the northern Zambezia province was flooded.

"For the moment there is only cholera but no other epidemics," he added.

In early 2000, about 1,000 people lost their lives in floods that caused widespread devastation in the southern African nation, which is also struggling to rebuild after a 16-year civil war that ended in 1992.

Rare snow storm surprises Arizona

PHOENIX - More than a foot of snow fell on parts of northern Arizona, and several more inches were possible Monday, while children as far south as Tucson got a rare chance to play in the snow as one of the strongest storms of the winter moved through the state.

Sunday's storm came amid a wave of winter storms that have brought snow, ice and strong winds to the Plains region, but also to the Southwest, including Arizona, Texas and New Mexico.

The harsh, frigid conditions were blamed for 11 traffic fatalities in the Plains over the weekend.

Although the heaviest snowfall in Arizona on Sunday was in the north, snow also fell in downtown Phoenix and Tucson, which received up to 1 1/2 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

Danita D'Water said there were huge snowflakes in her neighborhood in far northeast Phoenix.

"The children are running up and down the street, riding their scooters in the snow," she said. "The kids are pretty excited but the adults were out taking pictures."

More than a foot fell in Forest Lakes, Pinetop and at the Sunrise Ski Resort, among other places in northern Arizona. Between one and three inches fell in Flagstaff, said Robert Bohlin, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

A winter storm warning remained in effect until noon Monday for parts of northern and northeastern Arizona, with the National Weather Service forecasting up to an additional three inches of snow.

Dense fog and icy roads created hazardous driving conditions Monday morning in the Tucson area.

In Colorado, 3 to 6 inches of snow fell across much of the Front Range, with more in the in the eastern plains and the mountains. Strong winds created whiteout conditions on the state's eastern plains.

On Sunday, officials closed a long stretch of Interstate 70, from near Denver International Airport almost to the Kansas state line because of high winds, blowing snow, poor visibility and ice. The road had reopened by Monday morning.

Snow and icy roads caused accidents that shut down southbound Interstate 25 near Fort Collins for two hours Sunday morning. State Patrol Master Trooper Ron Watkins said no injuries were reported.

In Oklahoma, where an ice storm disrupted power to as many as 125,000 homes and businesses more than a week ago, about 20,000 electrical customers remained without power early Monday — mostly in the eastern part of the state.

Hundreds of utility linemen worked through the night in hopes of fully restoring power by Monday or Tuesday, authorities said.

Warmer temperatures in the state led to melting ice and snow that have turned roads into slushy rivers, yards into quagmires and streams into rushing torrents.

A pickup truck carrying radioactive materials used in pipeline scanning equipment was swept from a bridge and disappeared in a swollen creek in Oklahoma's Pittsburg County, said Undersheriff Richard Sexton.

The truck's two occupants escaped unharmed, but efforts to locate the truck and its radioactive cargo were suspended after dark. He said officials hope the creek's level will fall enough on Monday to reveal the truck's whereabouts. A container with the material is bolted to the truck.

"The radioactive materials are still in the truck, and that's what we're worried about," Sexton said.

In Missouri, more than 45,000 people remained in the dark from the same storm.

Winter weather has also hit hard on the East Coast, bringing snow, sleet and freezing rain to Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland and making roads treacherous. An accident on Interstate 81 in Virginia killed one person and injured five, authorities said.

Earthquake in Indonesia leaves 4 dead

MANADO, Indonesia - A powerful earthquake in northeastern Indonesia left four people dead and four injured when it rattled buildings, causing panicked residents to flee homes, churches and shopping malls, officials and witnesses said Monday.

Three men died after collapsing as they fled their houses Sunday in seaside Tuminting neighborhood in northern Manado, a regional capital on Sulawesi island, said Hani Solang, a subdistrict chief.

The fourth dead victim was a woman who suffered a heart attack, apparently triggered by the shock of the quake, and one of those hurt broke his leg after jumping from the fourth floor of a building, said a doctor in Manado.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the earthquake at magnitude 7.3 and the Indonesian seismological institute issued a tsunami alert via television and radio, but the feared wave never came.

The quake struck six miles beneath the Molucca Sea and was centered 80 miles from the Maluku capital of Ternate and 1,400 miles northeast of the capital of Jakarta, the USGS said.

Some buildings in Manado were left with cracks and other damage. Tsunami fears sent hundreds of people running inland to higher ground or racing off in cars and on motorcycles, causing massive traffic jams, witnesses said.

Indonesia is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered a tsunami that battered much of the Indian Ocean coastline and killed more than 230,000 people — 131,000 of them in Indonesia's Aceh province alone.

A tsunami off Java island last year killed nearly 5,000.

Earthquake rattles northeastern Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck under the sea of northeastern Indonesia Sunday, damaging a church and injuring three people, the U.S. Geological Survey and witnesses said.
It was large enough to cause a tsunami, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a statement, but there were no immediate reports of high waves in regional coastal areas.

The Indonesian seismological institute, which put the tremor at 6.7 magnitude, issued a tsunami alert via local television and radio after the earthquake hit around 10 kilometers (6 miles) under the Molucca Sea, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

In the regional capital of Sulawesi, Manado, a witness told The Associated Press that residents ran in panic and that three people had been hurt after a church was damaged.

The epicenter was 130 kilometers (around 80 miles) from the city of Ternate, the capital of North Maluku province, where residents ran to higher ground in panic.

An official with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii told AP that a basin-wide tsunami — one that travels a great distance or across an ocean — is not expected, though a tsunami near the earthquake's site is "always possible."

"Given the size of the earthquake, we think a basin-wide tsunami isn't likely, though a local tsunami could be possible," said Brian Shiro, a geophysicist at the tsunami center.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra island and triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 lives — 131,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province alone. A tsunami off Java island last year killed nearly 5,000.

Earthquake demolishes homes in 2 Turkish villages

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- A moderate earthquake shook eastern Turkey on Sunday, demolishing homes in at least two villages in the eastern Turkish province of Agri, Governor Halil Ibrahim Akpinar said. There were no immediate reports of any deaths.

The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0, was centered in the town of Tutak, in Agri province, which borders Iran, the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory said. It struck at 9:38 a.m. (0738 GMT).

The quake knocked down a number of homes in the villages of Yukarikosk and Cobanova, Akpinar said. Snow was slowing down access to some of the villages in the province, he said.

Derya Ozer, the daughter of the local administrator in Cobanova village, said some houses and barns came down in the temblor, while others had suffered cracks or other types of damage.

"But thank God there is nothing serious," she told CNN-Turk television. "Everyone is waiting outside. Nobody will go back into their homes."

The tremor also caused a power outage in the village, she said.

The quake was felt in several areas around Agri and sent residents running out of their homes in panic.

A magnitude-5 earthquake can potentially cause considerable damage

Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which lies on active fault lines.

Two devastating earthquakes hit northwestern Turkey in 1999, killing some 18,000 people.

Snow storm rolls across Plains; 8 dead

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A winter storm marched across the Plains, causing numerous accidents that killed at least eight people in three states, including four in Nebraska.
Heavy snow hit parts of Nebraska on Saturday, limiting visibility and creating hazardous driving conditions.

A car slid across the median on Interstate 80 near Kearney in central Nebraska and was struck by a tractor-trailer, killing the car's 28-year-old driver and her two children, ages 5 and 3, police said.

On U.S. 281 south of St. Paul, a 76-year-old man was killed when the car he was in crossed the center line and was struck by a pickup. The man's 59-year old wife was seriously injured.

In western Kansas, a couple and their 20-month-old daughter died when their car drove off U.S. 50 and collided with two others cars, authorities said. The couple's 6-year-old daughter was critically injured, they said.

In Oklahoma, a 5-year-old boy died after being thrown from a sport-utility vehicle that veered off a snow-covered highway and rolled.

Up to 6 inches of snow were forecast for some sections of Kansas on Sunday, with more to follow.

Farther south, the storm spared much of Oklahoma, though snow fell in western and north-central regions. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission reported Saturday night that about 36,000 customers in the state remained without power a week after a crippling ice storm.

Outback storm floods Australia, bushfires burn

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia is living up to its iconic image as a sun burnt country of droughts and flooding rains, with a huge outback storm causing flooding in three states on Saturday as drought-fuelled bushfires continued burning.

Monsoon rains over the country's vast interior have caused the usually dry Todd River in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory to come to life and flooded outback South Australia state and parts of Victoria and New South Wales states.

The small rural town of Oodnadatta in South Australia was flooded and most major roads leading to it closed to traffic by rising waters, emergency service officials said.

Sister Joan Wilson at the Oodnadatta Hospital said medical supplies were running low.

"If we don't get the supplies through in the next couple of days, some people may be in a bit of pain," she told reporters.

The flooding prevented the Royal Flying Doctor service, the outback's medical lifeline, from reaching the town.

Many remote cattle properties in South Australia were also cut off, but farmers battling the worst drought in 100 years welcomed the rains.

"I am sure there will be a lot of pastoralists around here rubbing their hands together with glee," said Trevor McLeod, a local government officer in the opal mining center of Coober Pedy, another flooded South Australian town.

Cattle property owner Dean Rasheed said the rain was the heaviest to hit South Australia's Flinders Ranges in living memory and would bring his dry land back to life.

"I'm looking at the largest flood I've seen in my lifetime and I'm getting on in years, so it's very significant," Rasheed told Australian Associated Press news agency.

"The water is 200 meters wide and four meters deep."

As the outback storm moved east across Australia it caused flooding in Victoria, which has been battling bushfires for more than 50 days, and also the state of New South Wales.

Fires have struck five of Australia's six states since November, blackening more than 1.2 million hectares (4,600 square miles) of bushland, killing one and gutting dozens of homes.

MEGAFIRES

Some have been "megafires," created in part by global warming and a drought which has provided an abundance of fuel, stretching thousands of kilometers.

Rain in Victoria's north and east on Saturday eased bushfire threats, but failed to douse the large fires, and left the Victorian towns of Mildura and Stawell flooded, with rising waters inundating shops and stranding motorists.

Weather forecaster Ward Rooney said he could not remember when Victoria last reported such contrasting extreme weather conditions. "It's a large bundle of warnings altogether, a combination you wouldn't see too often," said Rooney.

Across the border in New South Wales, favorable weather conditions on Saturday saved the alpine resort of Thredbo from a nearby bushfire, with lower temperatures and rain from the outback storm expected on Sunday.

But in the far west of New South Wales, rain caused flooding in the mining town of Broken Hill, forcing residents to sandbag homes to stop water entering. Roads around the town were cut.

Australia's weather bureau said this month that the country appeared to be suffering from an accelerated climate change brought about by global warming.

While the heavily populated southeast experiences its worst drought for a generation, the tropics and remote northwest are receiving unseasonably heavy rains accounting for more than Australia's yearly total average.

Bird flu claims 62nd human life in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Bird flu has killed a woman in Indonesia, the 62nd death from the virus in the country with the highest human fatality rate, a health ministry official said on Saturday.

The 19-year-old woman from West Java died on Friday, Dr. Muhammad Nadirin at the ministry's bird flu centre, told Reuters.

"She was sick since Jan. 11, got a high temperature and cough and then entered Garut hospital on Jan. 17," he said.

"Six days before she got sick she had contact with a sick chicken that, according to the agriculture department's rapid test, was also positive for bird flu."

Most human bird flu cases have resulted from contact with infected fowl.

Indonesia, the world's fourth-most-populous country and one that stretches across 17,000 islands in an archipelago as wide as the continental United States, faces an uphill task in fighting the virus.

Millions of backyard fowl live in close proximity to humans and health education campaigns have often been patchy and rules difficult to enforce.

This week a campaign began to rid the Indonesian capital of such fowl but it got a mixed reaction from residents. Some welcomed the culling amid health concerns but others worried about losing a key source of income.

Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease, but it has infected nearly 260 people worldwide since late 2003, killing more than 150, according to the World Health Organisation, and sparking fears of a pandemic.

Since 2003, outbreaks have been confirmed in about 50 countries and territories.

Huge waves crash in the port of Wimereux, northern France. Countries across Europe were counting the cost of a devastating storm that killed at least 40 people and left widespread damage and disruption to travel and power supplies.(AFP/Philippe Huguen)

Europe mops up after storm kills 46

BERLIN (AP) — Europeans labored on Friday to restore services across the continent after hurricane-force winds toppled trees, brought down power lines and damaged buildings, killing at least 46 people and disrupting travel for tens of thousands.

Berlin's new main train station was shut down after a two-ton girder fell from the side of the glass facade onto an outdoor staircase. The station was evacuated after the beam plummeted 130 feet on Thursday night, but there were no injuries and the building was reopened Friday afternoon.

"I can see maybe the glass falling, but not the steel," said 38-year-old electrician Thomas Mueller, who had stopped to survey the damage. "They just built this thing eight months ago."

Virtually the entire German national railway system was shut down during the storm, with trees over many tracks and overhead power lines down. Services were being restored gradually on Friday.

"We've never had such a situation in Germany," Deutsche Bahn CEO Hartmut Mehdorn said.

Off the coast of France, a coast guard tug was called to tow a damaged British container ship containing explosive materials to safety, a day after its crew of 26 was rescued from stormy seas.

More than 1 million homes had no electricity in the Czech Republic, which was hit by winds of up to 112 mph. A million households in Germany suffered blackouts and tens of thousands of homes in Poland and Austria also were hit.

The storm led to the deaths of at least three people in the Czech Republic, 12 in Germany, 14 in Britain, six in the Netherlands, three in France, two in Belgium and six in Poland.

It was the highest death toll from a storm in Europe since 1999 when gales downed trees and driving snow brought on avalanches, killing more than 120 people.

Climate researchers had been predicting stormy weather this year for parts of Europe, saying that unusually high temperatures in the North Atlantic — around 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit above normal — would allow winds to accumulate more moisture and surge in energy.

"In times of rapid climactic change, extreme events arise more frequently," said Peter Werner, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research.

Europe has been experiencing an extremely warm winter and has already been hit by several storms.

"If we don't get climate change under control, winter's just going to get worse," said Joern Ehlers, spokesman for the World Wide Fund For Nature.

Most of the people killed in the storm were motorists, but in Germany they also included two firefighters — one hit by a falling tree and the other dying of a heart attack — and an 18-month old child in Munich hit by a terrace door that was ripped from its hinges.

In London, a toddler was killed when a brick wall collapsed on him.

As winds calmed Friday, airports reported some delays and cancellations but were returning to normal.

Frankfurt Airport reported that flights were departing normally after some morning delays and 200 cancellations on Thursday.

German national airline Lufthansa canceled 331 internal flights on Thursday, affecting nearly 19,000 passengers. Intercontinental flights were largely on time on Friday, spokesman Thomas Jachnow said.

British Airways canceled 34 incoming flights to London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports and the two main London to Scotland rail routes ran much-reduced services.

Eurostar was running a full service again, after one early Paris-to-London train was canceled. Meanwhile, London Bridge station was reopened after being closed after part of its forecourt roof collapsed.

British train companies warned of delays through the day as repairs were carried out.

Thousands of Dutch commuters were stranded overnight when the railroad service suspended all trains because of obstructions to the tracks and downed power cables.

By early Friday, trains were running again in most of the country after engineers worked through the night to clear tracks and repair the power cables, Prorail, the company that manages Dutch railroads, said.

In Germany, subways, trams and buses were largely back in service, but only a few long-distance trains were running.

"Bringing the service back is like a puzzle — it goes bit by bit and we're now at the first pieces," railway spokesman Martin Walden said.

Track-clearing work was expected to last at least through the day, and passengers were advised to cancel all unnecessary trips.

The German Weather Service said the storm was the strongest to hit the country since 1999. The highest winds were felt in the southern state of Bavaria, where gusts of up to 126 mph were recorded.

Weather service meteorologist Olaf Pels Leusden said the storm was slightly stronger than one in 2002 that registered winds of 114 mph and weaker than a deadly 1999 storm that had wind speeds of 161 mph.

Schools around much of Germany, which had closed early on Thursday, resumed classes, although some remained shut because of problems transporting children.

Winter weather to strike Okla., Mo. — again

MUSKOGEE, Okla. - Still recovering from snow and ice storms that downed power lines and trees in a large swath of the country, residents of Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas braced for another round Friday.

With thousands of customers in Oklahoma still without power, Gov. Brad Henry on Thursday requested a major federal disaster declaration, which would make people in hard-hit counties eligible for housing grants and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses. He had already declared a state of emergency.

“Unfortunately, the worst may not be over,” Henry said.

Much of Oklahoma and parts of Missouri were forecast to get 6 inches of snow from Friday to Sunday, even as utilities worked to restore electricity to more than 164,000 customers who lost it in the last storm.

In eastern Oklahoma, ice snapped hundreds of power poles and transmission lines. More than 57,000 customers statewide remained without power late Thursday, six days after freezing rain began to fall, and more than 1,000 people remained in shelters and many schools remained closed.

'Like Godzilla came through'
Mike Mackey, 47, who has been staying in an American Red Cross shelter in Muskogee with his wife and son, said the crushing weight of ice broke trees throughout his neighborhood.

“It looks like Godzilla came through there and just stomped them all down,” he said.

At least 70 deaths related to winter weather have been reported in nine states in the past week, including 23 in Oklahoma and 12 each in Texas and Missouri.

In Texas, the wintry weather forecast Friday was expected to be less severe than the pelting of snow and freezing rain that paralyzed much of the state this week.

San Antonio, Austin and Houston, which saw rare icy conditions during the last storm, were expected to avoid the worst of the incoming storm, even as El Paso officials announced county offices would be closed Friday. Freezing weather also was expected in northern parts of the state, including Dallas.

The rare spate of icy weather has led hard-hit areas to scramble for sand and de-icing chemicals. Stocks will be rationed in far West Texas this weekend, said Blanca Del Valle, a Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

In other parts of the state, bridges and overpasses will probably get the highest priority, but icy roads that would normally get treatment might not if supplies are in question, department spokesman Randy Ormsby said.

“It’s a problem we’ve never seen before,” he said. “We typically don’t go through this much ice and snow statewide.”

Texas airports largely grounded by freezing rain earlier this week resumed mostly normal schedules Thursday. Formerly ice-slicked roads also reopened, including a 300-mile stretch of Interstate 10 from Fort Stockton to San Antonio that had been shut down since Tuesday.

In Missouri, particularly in the state’s southwest section, more than 108,000 homes and businesses were still without power Thursday, the State Emergency Management Office said.

Along with the fatalities in Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri, the wave of storms was blamed for eight deaths in Iowa, four each in New York and Michigan, three in Arkansas, two in North Carolina and one each in Maine and Indiana.

Fires ravage southern Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Wildfires destroyed eight houses and cut electricity lines in southern Australia, plunging much of Victoria state into chaos as hundreds of thousands were left without power, a fire official said Wednesday.

A fire caused by a lightening strike west of the capital, Melbourne, destroyed one home late Tuesday, while seven others were razed in a massive blaze that has blackened 27,000 hectares (66,717 acres) in the state's northeast, according to Pat Groenhout, a Victoria state emergency spokesman.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Lightning strikes started several other blazes late Tuesday, and were expected to spark other fires amid soaring temperatures predicted throughout the weekend, Groenhout said.

The northeast fire also cut a main electricity circuit on Tuesday, plunging some 200,000 homes and businesses into darkness and affecting hundreds of traffic signals and suburban train services. Several people were caught in elevators when power went out in some buildings and had to be rescued, said Metropolitan Ambulance Service spokesman Phil Cullen.

The power was restored early Wednesday, but Victoria's Premier Steve Bracks urged residents to conserve electricity as temperatures were set to exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) this week.

"This is the worst bush fire conditions we have ever had in Victoria's history because it is going to go on and it is going to get worse," Bracks told reporters Wednesday. "We have never encountered this in Victoria before."

Over 10,000 square kilometers (3,861 square miles) of Victorian forest and ranch land has been destroyed since the start of the southern hemisphere summer, when soaring temperatures and gusty winds often combine to spur the sometimes deadly blazes.

Nine people died in fires on South Australia state's Eyre Peninsula in January 2005. Eight of them died in their cars as they tried to flee the approaching blaze.

In January 2003, more than 500 houses were destroyed and four people killed when a huge fire tore through the national capital of Canberra.

Malaysia red-faced over mistaken tsunami warning

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Malaysian authorities mistakenly issued a tsunami warning on Friday, and their embarrassment only deepened when beachgoers failed to receive it.

"It's a technical glitch. The system broke down and it issued an old warning to everyone including the media," said the science minister's press secretary, Ainon Mohd.

"We are asking the press to ignore the warning," she said.

But one local media group had already issued the warning twice via its nationwide text-message service. The warning came from the meteorological department, part of the science ministry.

But beachgoers on the resort island of Penang, hit by the devastating Asian tsunami in 2004, were blissfully unaware.

"We did not get any reports of a tsunami here. Our guests are not disturbed, they are enjoying themselves," said an executive at the Parkroyal hotel on Penang's famed Batu Ferringhi coast.

Friday's warning said a strong earthquake in northern Sumatra could cause a tsunami in the northern states of Kedah, Perlis and Penang and warned people to stay off the beach.

The government set up its own tsunami alert system after the Asian tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, which killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including Malaysia.

A Pacific-wide tsunami drill held last May found glitches in the regional alert network, including a faulty fax machine in Malaysia.

Huge waves in the port of Wimereux, northern France. A severe storm front has battered the British Isles and Germany, causing havoc with shipping and leaving one man dead in England, with forecasters predicting worse weather to come.(AFP/Philippe Huguen)

Severe storms batter northwestern Europe

BERLIN (AFP) - A severe storm front has battered the British Isles and Germany, causing havoc with shipping and leaving one man dead in England, with forecasters predicting worse weather to come.

In the English Channel on Thursday, French and British helicopters began winching to safety the 26 crew who abandoned a sinking cargo ship off the coast of Cornwall.

No details of the crew's condition were immediately available but those who abandoned the London-registered ship were British, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Indian and Filipino, a British coastguard spokeswoman told AFP.

The storms also forced the suspension of cross-Channel ferry services between the English port of Dover and France and caused chaos to road and rail transport in England.

A 54-year-old man was killed when a branch which had fallen from a tree smashed into his car windscreen early in the morning in the western English town of Bridgnorth, Shropshire.

He was identified as Richard Heard, the managing director of Birmingham Airport in central England, who had been driving to work.

In Germany, winds of 120 kilometres (75 miles) per hour were ripping through western and central regions as the storm moved eastwards.

Meteorologists said the storm was shaping up to be the worst to hit Germany in four or five years and authorities warned people only to go outside in exceptional circumstances.

The storm was causing heavy rain throughout Germany and the combination of that and high winds leds to flight cancellations at Frankfurt airport, Germany's busiest, a spokesman for its operators Fraport said.

At least 17 flights had been cancelled by 1000 GMT.

Authorities told Germans to stay indoors in the afternoon and not to park their cars under trees or near the sea because of the risk of severe flooding along the coast.

Winds could reach speeds of up to 150 kph (93 mph) near the sea and in mountain regions, the national weather bureau in Offenbach said.

The head of the German rescue services (THW), Albrecht Broemme, said tens of thousands of emergency workers were on standby.

"If this hits all of Germany, things could become pretty bad," he said.

Northern France was also being lashed by rain and winds gusting up to 140 kph (87 mph), creating perilous conditions for motorists and pedestrians, the national weather service said.

Meteorologists said France would feel the brunt of the storms in the afternoon and late evening.

In Paris -- where a man was killed last month when strong winds ripped a heavy billboard from a shopfront -- all parks, gardens and cemeteries were closed as a precaution until the end of the violent weather.

In Italy, meanwhile, 80 flights were cancelled early Thursday at Rome's main Fiumicino airport because of fog, the airport news agency Telenews reported.

Flights to or from Brussels, Casablanca, Paris, Nice, Munich, Florence, Venice and Amsterdam were among the 38 departing and 42 arriving flights cancelled, the report said.

Icicles created by drip irrigation hang from an orange tree in Orange Cove, California, on 17 January. Snow has fallen in normally balmy southern California, as Americans coped with a deadly nationwide cold snap that has left hundreds of thousands in the dark and caused billions in crop damage.(AFP/Getty Images/Justin Sullivan)

Snow in southern California as cold snap grips US

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Snow has fallen in normally balmy southern California, as Americans coped with a deadly nationwide cold snap that has left hundreds of thousands in the dark and caused billions in crop damage.

More than 60 deaths across nine states were blamed on the harsh weather, US media reported Thursday, mostly in car accidents as drivers lost control of their vehicles on icy roads.

A layer of snow on Wednesday blanketed hills in Malibu, a seaside town near Los Angeles popular with entertainment industry celebrities. The town is situated by the Pacific Ocean and is famous for its beaches and year-round sunshine.

Snow also fell on parts of metropolitan Los Angeles, with the upmarket neighborhood of Westwood receiving a dusting of flakes as the unseasonably low temperatures continued across California.

The six-day regional cold snap "took a surreal turn" with the snow, the Los Angeles Times said, adding that chilly temperatures were forecast for Thursday.

The weather even forced transport authorities to close portions of a major California highway that links Los Angeles to the state capital Sacramento. The stretch remained close early Thursday.

California's temperatures have plunged to near-record lows, prompting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency.

The cold snap has devastated California's citrus fruit industry, with authorities forecasting losses of more than one billion dollars because of the damage to crops.

Unusually low temperatures hit most of the southwestern state of Texas, with up to 7.6 centimeters (three inches) of snow accumulating in Dallas, and ice and freezing rain forcing schools to close in San Antonio and Houston.

A quarter of all flights from the busy Dallas airport were canceled Wednesday due to the low temperatures, local media reported, with service expected to resume normally on Thursday.

Ice was the most dangerous regional culprit: accumulated snow and hail that melted during the day would freeze at night, creating treacherous roads.

Low temperatures are expected to remain for the next days, weather forecasters said.

Meanwhile some 300,000 people in the midwest and northeastern US were without power, including about 100,000 in Missouri and 92,000 in Oklahoma, CNN reported.

President George W. Bush declared an emergency in Oklahoma on Sunday and in Misouri on Monday, freeing up federal funding for recovery efforts.

Oklahoma state governor Brad Henry toured areas hit by the ice storm, The Oklahoman newspaper reported Thursday.

"It looks like a war zone," Henry told the newspaper. "It's hard to imagine ice could cause so much damage."

Recovery is expected to last for weeks or months, the newspaper reported.

Ice is expected to cause serious problems Thursday in South Carolina and as far south as Atlanta, forecasters said, with National Weather Service posting ice and freezing rain advisories across the region.

In the northwestern states of Oregon and Washington, thousands stayed home on Wednesday after a heavy snowfall a day earlier -- but forecasts Thursday called for snow and freezing rain.

Portland city crews worked around the clock plowing, sanding and de-icing streets, though most streets are expected to remain icy and snow-covered for days, the Portland Oregonian newspaper reported Thursday.

Winter storm blamed for 51 deaths in nine states

ROCHESTER, New York (AP) -- Power lines were down, highways were treacherous and spring-like temperatures were only a memory Tuesday in parts of the Northeast in the wake of the storm that earlier had plastered the Midwest and Plains with a heavy shell of ice.

The death toll reached 51 in nine states.

About 450,000 homes and businesses in several states were still without electricity Tuesday after the storm brought ice, snow, flooding and high winds to a swath of the country from Texas to Maine.

The weight of the ice snapped tree limbs, shorted out transformers and made power lines sag, knocking out current to about 145,000 customers in New York state and New Hampshire on Monday, though service had been restored for roughly half of them by Tuesday morning.

"If you live here long enough, you just know the power's going to go out twice a year, at least. You don't worry about it," said Scott Towne, owner of Rondac Pet Services near Saratoga Springs, New York, where portable generators provided light and heat for about two-dozen dogs. "You make all the plans in advance that you can."

Scores of schools canceled classes or opened late Tuesday in New Hampshire and upstate New York in the Northeast and Oklahoma and Texas on the southern Plains.

The storm had largely blown out of New England by Tuesday, but forecasters expected more freezing rain to hit parts of Texas, perhaps even Houston, on Wednesday night, said Dennis Cook of the National Weather Service. Gusty winds were forecast to make the Northeast bone-chilling cold through Wednesday night before warming Thursday.

A wave of arctic air trailed the storm, dropping temperatures into the single digits as far south as Kansas and Missouri. The 7 a.m. temperature Tuesday at Kansas City, Missouri., was just 2 degrees, while Bismarck, North Dakota, had a reading of 16 below zero, with a wind chill of 31 below, the National Weather Service reported.

Cold air also was moving into the East, where temperatures have been far above normal in recent weeks and the ground has been bare of snow. Instead of skiers, the unseasonable weather has drawn out golfers and bicyclists.

Icy roads cut into Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observances from Albany, New York, to Austin, Texas, where officials moved Texas Gov. Rick Perry's inauguration indoors Tuesday and canceled the traditional inaugural parade.

More power outages were possible in New Hampshire as wind battered ice-laden branches. "We are restoring some and adding more," Public Service Co. spokeswoman Mary-Jo Boisvert said Tuesday morning. Some New York customers might have to wait until Thursday, the utility National Grid estimated.

In Missouri, the utility company Ameren said it would probably not have everyone's lights back on until Wednesday night. As of Tuesday afternoon, about 210,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity.

The White House said Tuesday that 34 Missouri counties and St. Louis had been declared a major disaster area, making federal funding available. A similar federal disaster declaration was approved Sunday for Oklahoma.

About 92,000 homes and businesses were still waiting for power Tuesday in Oklahoma, some of them waiting since the storm's first wave struck on Friday. Ice built up by sleet and freezing rain was 4 inches thick in places. The Army Corps of Engineers assigned soldiers to deliver 100 emergency generators to the McAlester area.

Customers in some rural parts of Oklahoma might have to wait until next week for service, said Stan Whiteford of Public Service Co. of Oklahoma. "There are a lot of places where virtually everything is destroyed. In some cases, entire electric services will have to be rebuilt," he said.

More than 200,000 customers in Michigan also lost power and about 86,000 of them were still blacked out Tuesday. Many customers were also without power in central and western New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Waves of freezing rain, sleet and snow since Friday had been blamed for at least 17 deaths in Oklahoma, nine in Missouri, eight in Iowa, four in New York, five in Texas, three in Michigan, three in Arkansas, and one each in Maine and Indiana.

Elsewhere, Washington state's Puget Sound area, known for off-and-on drizzle rather than freezing winter weather, was hit by another round of snow Tuesday, snarling traffic and closing schools for more than 380,000 students. The Oregon Legislature delayed hearings and sessions until afternoon because of the weather.

In California, three nights of freezing weather had destroyed up to three-quarters of the state's $1 billion citrus crop, according to an estimate issued Monday. Other crops, including avocados and strawberries, also suffered damage. (Full story)

"This is one of those freezes that, unfortunately, we'll all remember," said A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Warm spell in Russia wakes up the bears

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - Winters in Russia are always tough, but rarely like this — so warm that bears aren't hibernating and so gray that humans are having trouble waking up.

Much of the European part of Russia has been gripped by an uncharacteristic warm spell this winter, with temperatures generally well above freezing and little if any snow.

It's an astonishing contrast to last year, when it was so cold that even Russians inured to frigid winters complained about temperatures that lurked around 30 below zero for days at a time.

This year, they'd probably be happy for the cold to come back.

The bears in the Leningradsky Zoo in St. Petersburg certainly would be. Two of the zoo's five bears have come out of hibernation already, weeks ahead of time.

On Saturday, visitors were surprised when, despite a sign reading "The bears are in their den; they are hibernating," a bear named Varya ambled out into view for a snack.

Some of the zoo's hedgehogs also are waking up.

"They can't sleep because of the weather," said zoo assistant Lyuba Astakhova, who added that they nod off when the temperature falls below freezing.

Humans, meanwhile, are complaining about the seemingly endless days of heavy cloud cover that reduces what little light is available to Russians at this time of year, when the sun clears the horizon for only about seven hours a day.

Average temperatures throughout European Russia have mostly been above freezing in December and January, some 11-15 degrees higher than normal, Roman Vilfand of Russia's Hydrometeorological Center said Tuesday.

"Short-term fluctuations have occurred before, but such weather persisting for a whole month is a previously unseen phenomenon," the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted him as saying.

But Vilfand held out some hope, predicting the temperature will fall to 14 in about a week.

Firefighters clear a tree from a road in Grove, Okla., Monday, Jan 15, 2007. The Association of Electric Cooperatives reported nearly 50,000 customers were without power in rural areas across the state. (AP Photo/Tulsa World, A. Cuervo)

Storm blacks out parts of Northeast

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - A storm blamed for at least 41 deaths in six states spread into the Northeast on Monday, coating trees, power lines and roads with a shell of ice up to a half-inch thick and knocking out power to more than half a million homes and businesses.

Icy roads cut into Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observances from Albany, N.Y., to Fort Worth and Austin, Texas, where officials also canceled Gov. Rick Perry's inauguration parade Tuesday because another round of ice was expected overnight.

The weight of the ice snapped tree limbs and took down power lines, knocking out electricity to about 145,000 customers in New York state and New Hampshire.

Even in Maine, a state well-accustomed to winter weather, a layer of sleet and snow on roads shut down businesses, day care centers and schools.

In hard-hit Missouri, the utility company Ameren said it would probably not have everyone's lights back on until Wednesday night. Overnight temperatures were expected to drop into the single digits. As of Monday afternoon, about 312,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity.

Missouri National Guardsmen went door to door, checking on residents, and helped clear slick roads.

About 100,000 homes and businesses blacked out in Oklahoma, some of them since the storm's first wave struck on Friday, also were still waiting for power Monday. Ice built up by sleet and freezing rain was 4 inches thick in places.

"Emergency responders are having a hard time getting to residents where their services are needed because of trees and power lines in the road," said Pittsburg County, Okla., Undersheriff Richard Sexton.

The Army Corps of Engineers dispatched soldiers from Tulsa to deliver 100 emergency generators to the McAlester area. Fifty additional generators were being sent from Fort Worth, Texas, by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

About 106,000 customers were without electricity Monday in Michigan.

More than 160 flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Authorities closed University of Texas and Austin public schools Tuesday.

Before dawn Monday, a car slid into the path of a dump truck on an icy New York highway in Sennett, 20 miles west of Syracuse, killing the car's driver and two passengers.

"It was very icy, rainy, a snow-sleet mix, so definitely the road conditions had a lot to do with this," Sheriff David Gould said.

A wave of arctic air trailed the storm and was expected to push temperatures into the single digits in some areas. Oklahoma officials strongly discouraged travel, saying the frigid weather would refreeze slush and water on roads.

Waves of freezing rain, sleet and snow since Friday had been blamed for at least 17 deaths in Oklahoma, eight in Missouri, eight in Iowa, four in New York, three in Texas and one in Maine. Seven of the Oklahoma deaths occurred when a minivan carrying 12 people slid off an icy highway Sunday and hit an oncoming truck.

In California, three nights of freezing temperatures have destroyed up to three-quarters of California's $1 billion citrus crop, according to an estimate issued Monday. Other crops, including avocados and strawberries, also suffered damage.

Comoros plans for 30,000 volcano refugees

MORONI, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Authorities in the Comoros islands have made emergency plans to help as many as 30,000 people expected to be uprooted if one of the world's largest active volcanoes erupts, officials said on Tuesday.

The 2,361 metre (7,746 ft) high Mount Karthala on the Indian Ocean archipelago's biggest island, Grande Comore, began glowing red and emitting fumes on Friday.

Strong tremors over the weekend -- thought to have been caused by lava trying to escape -- forced thousands of people to sleep outside for fear their homes might collapse.

The island's security chief, Oukacha Jaffar, told Reuters as many as 30,000 people could be displaced by an eruption.

"We have planned for the creation of two advance medical posts in the central and western zones, while primary and secondary schools will be used for first aid," said Hamada Goda, a doctor at one of the medical posts.

Hamidou Soule, a geologist who leads the Karthala surveillance centre, said satellite images clearly showed a build-up of heat on the northern edge of the crater.

"There are three possible scenarios: a crack on the side of the mountain mass, an overflow from the crater, or simply a settling of activity," Soule told journalists.

Karthala's eruptions have happened every 11 years on average, but have rarely caused a major disaster.

In 1903, 17 people died when noxious fumes seeped from cracks in the mountain, and the last big eruption was in April 2005 when thousands fled in fear of poisonous gas and lava.

Drought-stricken Ugandans receive emergency food

NAWEET, Uganda, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The U.N. World Food Programme launched an emergency food programme on Tuesday for half a million people in Uganda's northeastern Karamoja region, hit by a devastating third drought in six years.

WFP food trucks rolled into the semi-arid region to dump bags of maize and beans as lean, hungry villagers lined up to receive their rations.

Looyan Kapis, who said she was too old to remember her age, wept as she said she had not eaten for days.

"Look at us -- we are dying," she said, gesturing towards another elderly lady too weak from hunger to lift her head off the ground.

"We resorted to eating leaves foraged from trees that give stomach pains. But there's nothing else to eat."

WFP officials said levels of child malnutrition in the region had reached "emergency levels", with 16 percent of children malnourished in some places.

The food supplies will be distributed for several months throughout the semi-arid region where sorghum crops failed due to poor rains, aid workers said.

"We planted sorghum, it germinated, then the rain disappeared and it was all destroyed," said Choko Lomugele, 30, as she opened her thatched food granary to reveal nothing but a lizard scuttling over a few empty plastic pots.

Like much of the Horn of Africa region, Karamoja is plagued by frequent drought and food shortages made worse by banditry and inter-clan warfare.

But aid workers say drought cycles are worsening, with rains failing every two years, withering crops and killing livestock.

"The droughts seem to be getting worse," James Feeny, head of WFP for Karamoja, told Reuters. "They used to be every five years, now it's more like every two years."

As water and pasture run out, conflict among Karamojong warriors and with neighbouring Kenya's Turkana tribes has grown, fuelled by a flood of readily available semi-automatic weapons.

Drought and insecurity have left Karamoja Uganda's least developed region, the U.N. says.

Ice storm leaves 330,000 without power, 30 dead

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Utility crews worked on Monday to restore electricity to about 330,000 Missouri households and businesses that were still without power in chilly weather following a storm blamed for 30 deaths across six states.
Crews hoped to take advantage of moderate weather expected Monday — with only a few lingering snow showers and flurries — to bring power back on before an expected drop in temperatures to the single digits Monday night.

The remains of the storm system streamed toward New England on Monday, shutting down numerous businesses, day care centers and schools in Maine with a mixture of sleet of snow that made roads treacherous.

Lower Michigan and parts of New England could see more than a foot of snow Monday, as rain fell from the lower Mississippi Valley up through the Ohio Valley, The National Weather Service said. On the back side of the storm, snow in Iowa closed some schools Monday.

Waves of freezing rain, sleet and snow since Friday had been blamed for at least 15 deaths in Oklahoma, six in Missouri, five in Iowa, two in Texas and one each in New York and Maine.

Seven of the Oklahoma deaths occurred in one accident, in which a minivan carrying 12 people slid off an icy highway Sunday and struck an oncoming truck, the Highway Patrol said. All of the van's occupants were adult residents of Mexico, who were traveling from Arizona to North Carolina, Highway Patrol Capt. Chris West said.

Most of the Missouri power outages — the majority in the state's southwest corner — were caused by the weight of freezing rain snapping tree branches and dropping them onto power lines, officials said.

Guardsmen went door to door checking on the health and safety of residents in the hardest hit parts of the state and helping to clear slick roads. The temperature in the St. Louis area hovered just above the freezing mark Monday morning, but the wind chill was 24 degrees, the weather service said.

Amtrak canceled Sunday service between Kansas City and St. Louis because of to fallen trees and other debris on railroad tracks. Airlines in Texas canceled 415 flights because of the weather Sunday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. On Monday, 100 more departures at the airport were canceled.

In the St. Louis region, about 150,000 customers remained without power Sunday afternoon.

About 122,000 customers lacked power in Oklahoma as of Sunday night, the state Department of Emergency Management said. Authorities said it could be up to a week before power is fully restored. A gymnasium roof collapsed under the weight of ice and snow at Del City, Okla., but no one was inside, authorities said.

Late Sunday, President Bush declared a federal disaster for Oklahoma because of the storm.

Elsewhere, a weekend cold snap that had worried citrus growers and other farmers in California produced rare freezing temperatures Monday in southern Arizona. The 8 a.m. reading in Phoenix was 29, the weather service said.

During the weekend, the cold had frozen water pipes in the Phoenix area and flooded shelters with homeless people.

"This is something that we don't think about much here," said Ken Kroski, spokesman for the Phoenix Water Services Department, which was flooded with calls about burst pipes.

Disease fears rise after floods hit Malaysia

SERI MEDAN, Malaysia, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Fears of disease gripped Malaysia's flood-devastated south on Monday and more than 100,000 evacuees were crammed into emergency shelters.

Two people have died from leptospirosis, caused by exposure to water contaminated with the urine of animals such as rats, bringing the death toll from the worst floods in nearly 40 years to 15.

Health workers planned to step up inoculations against typhoid and fumigate mosquito-prone areas to guard against diseases such as dengue fever and malaria. Warnings have also been issued about cholera.

Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told the Sun mobile phone news service that 106 schools in the hardest-hit state of Johor had been shut and would be used as relief centres. More than 40 schools were already inundated, the report added.

Tens of thousands of victims also faced food shortages following the return of heavy monsoon rains to southern states after last month's severe flooding.

"We are in grave need of food supplies," Welfare Minister Shahrizat Jalil said.

There were also reported cases of looting from abandoned homes, officials said.

Abdul Latif Sapri, a truck driver, and his family have been taking shelter at a relief camp for the past 26 days after floods swept through their riverside house last month.

The 55-year-old, who has been having sleepless nights from the flood trauma, says he is uncertain about his future.

"I'm puzzled why this is happening to me," Latif said in a crowded badminton hall-turned-relief centre in Seri Medan, a rural town in Johor.

Residents in Seri Medan said there was at least one case of malaria as well as several cases of jaundice.

"A 40-year-old Malay woman is in hospital with malaria," Abdul Latif, the flood victim, said.

Health department deputy chief Ramlee Rahmat warned the public not to play in dirty flood water and to wear clothes that covered their bodies to prevent them from becoming infected.

"But we are more concerned about food and water-borne diseases such as typhoid and cholera because those can spread fast. We are monitoring the situation," Ramlee told Reuters.

The symptoms of leptospirosis include diarrhoea, vomiting and kidney or liver problems.

The government said many people, who had returned home after the first floods, refused to leave home again.

"I cannot stress the urgency of evacuation enough," said Johor Chief Minister Abdul Ghani Othman.

"The longer people opt to stay in their flooded homes, the higher the chances of facing the threat of attacks and diseases from animals," he said.

The latest floods cut off several towns in Johor, which is a major oil palm and rubber growing region, and shut down power and water supplies. Johor is just across a narrow strait from Singapore, which has also been hit by days of heavy rain.

The damage bill from last month's floods, which also displaced more than 100,000 people, was estimated at more than 100 million ringgit ($28 million).

Flood victims in Johor complained of inadequate supplies and cash aid.

"We don't have blankets, mattresses, pillows, soaps, infant's milk at this relief centre," said Mohamad Jamian, 57, who is taking refuge at a school.

"We have not seen the 500 ringgit promised by the government. But there are a lot of mosquitoes." ($1 = 3.5 ringgit)

Angolan cholera outbreak kills 2,760

LUANDA, Angola (AP) -- More than 2,760 people have died of cholera in Angola since an epidemic broke out last February, authorities said Monday.

The Health Ministry said in a report it had recorded more than 69,000 cases of cholera and 2,764 fatalities.

The epidemic, which started in Luanda, the capital, has spread to all but one of the southwest African country's 18 provinces.

Foreign aid agencies have been distributing water dispensers, water purification tablets and soap in affected areas.

Cholera is transmitted through contaminated water and is linked to poor hygiene, overcrowding and inadequate sanitation. Though it can be treated easily, cholera is a major killer in developing countries.

Angola's health care and sanitation systems remain weak after a two-decade civil war that ended in 2002.

Ice storms, snow, floods, tornado wallop US killing 13

CHICAGO (AFP) - Freezing rain, snow, sleet, flash floods and at least one tornado walloped the United States this weekend, killing at least 13 people in accidents on slick roads as a storm front blanketed much of the country, local media and authorities said.

The storm was expected to continue through at least Tuesday.

The ice, wind and snow downed trees, traffic signals and power lines, blocked roads and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights. Churches cancelled Sunday services and businesses closed early or did not open at all.

Ten people died in Oklahoma where slippery highways caused more than 200 accidents, the Oklahoman newspaper reported.

With about 100,000 people without power in Oklahoma, state Governor Brad Henry asked the federal government for assistance in handling the consequences of the ice storm, the paper reported on its website.

"Were doing everything we can to help Oklahomans who have lost power or suffered other hardships because of the winter storm," Henry said.

"We need additional resources that only the federal government can provide."

A state of emergency was declared and the National Guard was called out in the midwestern state of Missouri after an ice storm knocked power out to more than 200,000 homes on a bitterly cold weekend.

Emergency shelters and hotels were filled by people trying to warm up and a nursing home had to be evacuated because of the freezing temperatures, local media reported.

In Texas, the governor also called out the National Guard after more than six inches of rain caused flash flooding and dramatic high-water rescues.

One woman was swept away by floodwaters in an Austin creek and a man who jumped in to save her was rescued when he was spotted clinging to foliage in water up to his neck, the Austin-American Statesman reported.

Crowds filled grocery stores to stock up on essentials after the rain was forecast to turn into an ice storm, the Statesman reported.

Record-breaking cold weather even hit California, which usually has mild temperatures throughout the year, with citrus farmers in the Central Valley and the southern part of the state using wind-machines to protect their fruit, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Photos showed icicles hanging off of tangerine trees in a Central Valley orchard, a rare sight in the state.

"This is a very, very big cold front," National Weather Service spokesman Greg Romano told AFP.

"We're aware of at least six fatalities and numerous injuries due to weather-related vehicle accidents as of Saturday afternoon. There's been tree damage, downed power lines and significant power outages."

Parts of Colorado got up to half a meter (18 inches) of snow while up to eight centimeters (three inches) of sleet were reported in Illinois, Kansas and Missouri, Romano said. Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri got 2.5 centimeters (an inch) or more of freezing rain.

The storm is gathering moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and cold air from the Arctic, Romano said. It is expected to hit the east coast on Tuesday.

A man stands in strong winds in Malmo. Three people were killed in southern Sweden in severe storms that disrupted air, rail and road traffic and caused a power cut, the TT news agency quoted police as saying.(AFP/SCANPIX/Johan Nilsson)

Storm in Sweden kills three

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Three people were killed in southern Sweden in severe storms that disrupted air, rail and road traffic and caused a power cut, the TT news agency quoted police as saying.

The three victims -- one a nine-year-old boy, the other two motorists, one in his 60s -- died from falling trees, as meteorologists said winds on the southwest coast reached speeds of up to 144 kilometres (90 miles) per hour.

By late afternoon, the storms had left about 270,000 homes without electricity, TT said.

The rail authority Banverket said on its Internet site that train traffic in the affected southwestern regions would be suspended until 2300 GMT because of trees blown on to tracks.

Road traffic was stopped across the Oresund bridge linking Denmark and Sweden while trains were crossing at reduced speed.

The storm also swept into Denmark over the course of the day with falling trees blocking roads, said Danish press agency Ritzau.

At the airport in Gothenburg air traffic was partially affected but a spokesman said it was expected to return to normal during the evening.

"About five or six departures were cancelled ... and some planes preferred to land at other airports, in Oslo or Copenhagen," said spokesman Hans Roennqvist.

Late in the day, the storm moved from the west coast towards the east coast and hit the capital Stockholm, although its intensity had weakened.

"The worst is over... in the evening it will begin to diminish everywhere," said meteorologist Bengt Lindstrom.

Malaysia on alert for disease as floods return

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Malaysian health officials are on alert for outbreaks of disease as a second wave of floods hits southern areas, forcing more than 90,000 people to flee their homes and seek shelter at crowded relief centres.

Two people have died from leptospirosis, which is caused by exposure to water contaminated with the urine of animals such as rats, bringing the death toll from the worst floods in 37 years to 15, officials said. The other 13 deaths were due to drowning.

Health deputy director-general Ramlee Rahmat urged the public not to play in dirty flood water and wear clothes that covered their bodies to prevent them from becoming infected.

"But we are more concerned about food and water-borne diseases such as typhoid and cholera because those can spread fast. We are monitoring the situation," Ramlee told Reuters on Sunday.

The latest floods cut off several towns in the southern state of Johor, which is a major oil palm and rubber growing region, and shut down power and water supplies. Johor is just across a narrow strait from Singapore, which has also been hit by days of heavy rain.

Many of the victims had just returned to their homes when they were forced to move back to the evacuation centres.

"We had just finished cleaning up our house a few days ago and were resting when the floods came back. Now we have to start all over again," said 36-year-old Rosli Othman, a resident in Kluang, one of the worst-hit areas in Johor.

"The flooding could get worse as it's still raining here," said the father of five.

The Meteorological Department said rains in many parts of the state were expected to continue at least until Monday.

The damage bill from last month's floods, which displaced more than 100,000 people, was estimated at more than 100 million ringgit ($28 million). ($1 = 3.5 ringgit)

Bird flu spreads to sixth Vietnamese province

HANOI, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Bird flu has been confirmed in poultry in a sixth Vietnamese province despite efforts by the government to stop it spreading.

The Animal Health Department said in a report on Sunday the H5N1 bird flu virus had been found in ducks in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh, extending the spread of bird flu in southern provinces in recent weeks.

Tra Vinh is adjacent to Vinh Long province where bird flu struck a chicken farm a week ago.

Officials have confirmed outbreaks of the virus in ducks and chickens in four other Mekong delta provinces further southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, where market inspectors have restricted the movement and sale of poultry.

Vietnam has had no human H5N1 cases since November 2005 but the virus that first hit the Southeast Asian country in late 2003 re-emerged last month in Mekong delta poultry.

Agriculture officials have warned the country's 84 million people that the virus could spread nationwide via migrating birds.

The risk of infections could also rise before the Tet Lunar New Year festival in mid-February, where the slaughter and eating of poultry is a traditional part of the new year's feast.

Bird flu killed 42 of the 93 people infected in Vietnam in 2003-2005.

It has killed 159 people globally since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation, spreading from Asia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.