Table-sized ice slabs close Toronto streets

Bitter snowstorm interrupts warm China

BEIJING - The worst March snowfall to hit northeast China in 56 years killed three people and storms halted power and water supplies just days after the country registered one of its warmest ever winters, state media said on Monday.

The three died when roofs of two market stalls collapsed under the weight of the snow on Sunday in Liaoning province, Xinhua news agency said.

High winds brought down 1,100 ramshackle houses and damaged another 1,300, it said, citing a provincial spokesman.

Power stations in the coastal city of Dalian were hit by high winds. Water and heating were cut for many parts of the city, the agency said. As a result, some 900,000 students were told not to show up for school Monday.

Heating for 40 percent of users of Dalian's largest electricity group was cut at midnight on Sunday, leaving thousands of urban families shivering as the temperature dropped to 19 degrees Fahrenheit, it said.

It would take two or three days to repair the damage, it added, quoting city authorities.

Scores of flights and trains were cancelled in the area, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.

Most of China's northern wheat-growing areas had also been hit by the snowfall, agriculture officials said.

A warmer-than-usual winter had increased the possibility of spring freeze damage as it accelerated growth of the crop, grain experts said.

Rain, isolation hamper Indonesia landslide rescue

JAKARTA, March 5 (Reuters) - Heavy rains and poor access to remote areas hampered search and relief efforts for about 40 missing people and hundreds displaced by landslides in Indonesia's eastern Flores island, officials said on Monday.

About 1,000 people whose homes were washed away have been evacuated, many still remain cut off with key roads severely damaged by the landslides and floods that have killed 34 people across vast swathes of land.

The landslides followed days of torrential rain in hillside areas in Flores' Manggarai regency, around 1,500 km (932 miles) east of Jakarta.

"It is still raining here today. There is thick fog around the location but we managed to evacuate 1,000 people," said Manggarai regent Christian Rotok, who was moving aid to an isolated district.

"Many houses in Manggarai are built on hills which are prone to disaster and much of the forest above has been stripped. Landslides occur almost every year," he told Reuters by telephone.

Rotok said rescuers, including soldiers and policemen, were forced to take food and medicine to evacuees by foot because some affected districts were still cut off.

Indonesia is in the middle of the rainy season, when landslides are frequent in the country. Tropical downpours can quickly soak hillsides and years of deforestation often means there is little vegetation to hold the soil.