Snowstorm, cold grip US, Europe; many dead

CHICAGO/MOSCOW: US travelers were hoping to finally head to their holiday destinations yesterday as the first major Midwest snowstorm of the season moved across the Great Lakes toward Canada, leaving deaths in several states.
The storm led airlines to cancel more than 1,000 flights, most of them in Chicago, where aviation officials said more than 350 flights were called off at O'Hare International Airport and more than 150 at Midway International Airport.
Southwest Airlines was anticipating normal operations yesterday in Chicago. United Airlines also planned to operate a full schedule.
In Iowa, two people were killed and seven injured in a 25-vehicle highway pileup. There were at least two traffic deaths each in Nebraska and Wisconsin and one in Kansas.
In Utah, a woman who tried to walk for help after her car became stuck in snow died Tuesday night.
Russia and much of eastern Europe remained locked in a cold snap yesterday that has already claimed dozen of lives.
In Russia, where thermometers have been stuck below minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) in Moscow and below minus 50 degrees (minus 58 F) in some parts of Siberia for a week, the cold has killed two people in the past 24 hours, the Ria-Novosti agency reported, citing medical sources.
The total number of cold deaths in Russia has reached 56 since Dec. 14. A total of 371 people have ended up in hospital.
Russian weather forecasters said temperature in the Khabarovsk region in eastern Russia had dropped to minus 43 Celsius, while Krasnoyarsk in Siberia reported minus 47. They added that this "abnormal" frost would last till Monday because of a persistent anticyclone.
In Russia's European region, meanwhile, the mercury is expected to fall to minus 31 degrees Celsius before rising rapidly afterwards.
In eastern Europe, police in Poland said yesterday that 49 people had died of exposure this month, with most of the victims homeless, as temperatures plunged to minus 10 degrees Celsius.
In the Baltic states, at least six people have died of exposure in Lithuania in the past weeks, police and emergency services said.
In Latvia, temperatures reached minus 14 Celsius yesterday morning. In the capital Riga, authorities decided to drop public transport fares to encourage drivers to leave their cars at home and prevent crashes and jams.