‘Beast from the east’ paralyses Europe
EUROPE: Two people were found dead in Romania as snow and subzero temperatures across much of Europe saw flights cancelled, road and rail transport disrupted and schools closed.
A Siberian weather system forecasters have called the ‘‘beast from the east’’ has brought the coldest temperatures for years to many regions. The freeze is expected to continue for much of the week.
In southern Romania, an 83-year-old woman from Adancata was found collapsed in the snow and died on the way to hospital. A 65-year-old man was found dead on Tuesday in the eastern county of Suceava.
Parts of a motorway linking the capital Bucharest to Constanta and dozens of other roads were closed. More than 80 trains and 15 flights were cancelled, Romanian police said, and Romania’s Black Sea ports were closed.
Record snowfall of 182cm paralysed the northern Croatian town of Delnice, and rescue services took several hours to evacuate residents in the nearby village of Mrzle Vodice. Temperatures hit a low of -20 degrees Celsius in Zavizan on the Velebit mountain.
Schools were closed in Bucharest and 10 Romanian counties as well as across western and central Croatia.
The roofs of dozens of houses collapsed under the weight of snow in the Unsko-Sanski canton in north western Bosnia.
A rare snowstorm in Rome on Tuesday prompted Italian authorities to call in the army to help clear the streets.
As the storm moved south yesterday, Naples saw the most snow since 1956. It blanketed the beach and covered fishing boats in small city ports such as Santa Lucia and Mergellina. With a snow-covered Mt Vesuvius providing the backdrop, the snow paralysed traffic and train services. Schools were closed in Naples and much of southern Italy.
Heavy snowfall has caused major travel disruption across the UK and Ireland, leading to road closures as well as flights and trains being cancelled. Up to 10cm of snow fell in many areas overnight as Britain’s Met Office warned that ‘‘snow showers or longer periods of snow are expected’’.
The Met Office issued weather warnings for northern and northeastern areas, adding that snow could cut off some isolated communities and disrupt power supplies.
Dozens of stranded motorists had to be pulled from snow drifts yesterday, the Automobile Association said.
Similar conditions affected transport in much of Ireland, where national forecaster Met Eireann said daytime temperatures were as low as -5C yesterday. – PA
Conservationists pick up bill
Environmental campaigners paid for Bill Shorten’s trip to the Great Barrier Reef where he said he was prepared to revoke the Adani coal mine’s licence if it didn’t stack up environmentally. The opposition leader updated his register of interests yesterday to reveal the Australian Conservation Foundation paid for his flight to the proposed mine site and a tour of the reef in January. Businessman and anti-Adani campaigner Geoff Cousins said on Tuesday that Shorten told him he would revoke the licence for the Adani coal mine if the environmental evidence didn’t stack up.
Opposition to no term limits
In a rare public expression of dissent in China, a well-known political commentator and a prominent businesswoman have penned open letters urging lawmakers to reject a plan that would allow President Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely. Their impassioned statements on a popular messaging app were circulated widely after the ruling Communist Party announced a proposal Sunday to amend the constitution to scrap term limits on the president and vicepresident. In a statement on WeChat to Beijing’s members of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, Li Datong, a former editor for the state-run China Youth Daily, wrote that lifting term limits would ‘‘sow the seeds of chaos.’’ ‘‘If there are no term limits on a country’s highest leader, then we are returning to an imperial regime,’’ Li said. ‘‘My generation has lived through Mao. That era is over.’’ Wang Ying, a businesswoman, wrote on WeChat that the Communist Party’s proposal was ‘‘an outright betrayal’’.
School safety proposal
Florida’s governor said yesterday that he was determined to make the Parkland school shooting the last the state ever experiences. Governor Rick Scott met Miami-Dade County officials to outline a plan to pass a school safety bill before the state’s annual legislative session ends next Friday. Scott said he wanted to spend $500 million to increase law enforcement and mental health counsellors at schools, to make buildings more secure and to create an anonymous tip line.