Winter storm spreads snow, ice from Oklahoma to N.C.

OKLAHOMA CITY — A second winter storm in as many days hit Oklahoma and Arkansas early Thursday, closing schools and keeping roads slick and dangerous.

The storm followed snow and freezing drizzle that fell on the area Wednesday, causing dozens of accidents and four deaths.

The first storm, meanwhile, moved into Georgia and the Carolinas on Thursday, and forecasters warned that up to 4 inches of snow along with freezing rain could knock out power and plague drivers.

Schools and businesses across the area closed or opened late.

Chip Huffman, owner of Ace Hardware in Hickory, N.C., said his customers were mostly inquiring about heaters and kerosene.

"This morning we've got very little snow accumulation on the ground," Huffman said. "People still don't believe what's going to happen yet."

The storm led to three traffic deaths in Oklahoma, including one when a trucker lost control on an icy overpass, killing a man walking on a bridge. A woman died in Arkansas when her vehicle slid across a highway median and crashed with a tractor-trailer.

Oklahoma troopers said travel was improving Thursday, but roads throughout central and northeastern Oklahoma were still hazardous because of the second storm.

Up to 2 inches of snow is expected to fall by early afternoon, said meteorologist Cheryl Sharpe with the National Weather Service.

A three-day storm that hit Oklahoma beginning Jan. 12 caused 32 deaths and left more than 120,000 power outages across eastern Oklahoma.

Quake strikes under sea near New Zealand

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A powerful earthquake struck under the Pacific Ocean near a remote and uninhabited New Zealand island on Wednesday, seismologists said. Officials said there was no threat of an ocean-wide tsunami.

A magnitude-6.5 temblor hit about 25 miles south of Raoul Island in the Kermadec group that lies within a marine park far north of New Zealand, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said "no destructive Pacific-wide tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data."

Suspected cholera outbreak kills scores in Somalia

JOWHAR, Somalia, Feb 1 (Reuters) - A suspected outbreak of cholera has killed up to 121 people in Somalia in the past week, hospital sources and local elders said on Thursday.

Doctors say some samples of watery diarrhoea stools taken from the victims had tested positive for cholera, with the worst affected region being the central Hiraan area where at least 105 people have died.

In neighbouring Middle Shabele region, 16 people are thought to have died from the disease, which can be transmitted through contaminated food and water. In both areas, nearly 200 people have been admitted to hospital with suspected cases of cholera.

Both regions were badly hit by floods late last year.

"There is no hospital here. Victims are being taken care of by relatives," said Abdulle Adan, a local elder. "Forty two people have died this week in Buuloberde from the outbreak. Some of the dead are being buried today."

Residents of the affected areas fear the death toll will rise saying drugs are expensive and hospitals are ill-equipped to deal with the cases. Hospitals and aid workers are trying to contain the outbreak.

"Some of the samples taken to (Kenyan capital) Nairobi for testing have confirmed cholera," the director of Baladwayne hospital Mohamed Hussein Halane told Reuters by telephone. "We have admitted 160 cases and 14 have died in just a week."

Jowhar hospital in Middle Shabele was forced to quarantine cholera victims fearing the outbreak may spread, officials said.