The mercury rose, then came the blizzards. After a record number of deaths from the cold, eastern Europe on Saturday saw a relative thaw, only for southern France to get the shivers.
Blanketed by 7cm of snow, the city of Toulouse in southwest France closed its airport, leaving shivering passengers curled up on benches under shiny plastic blankets. Dozens of people died in road accidents. Roads were closed in a swathe running from northern Spain, through Provence, to the Italian Alps, and motorways were shut to heavy goods vehicles.
Milan's two airports ran a reduced service on Saturday after more than 24 hours of snow, and trains between Milan and Florence and Turin and Venice were not running. The southern Swiss canton of Tessin was cut off after the biggest snowfall in 21 years.
But the organizers of the Turin Winter Olympics, due to start on Feb. 10, were grateful.
"It's terrific," said a spokeswoman for the Games. "If it carries on snowing then everything will be OK."
Amid poor snowfall, concern for the 16-day Games had been mounting in Sestriere, the venue for most of the Alpine skiing events. The 20th games were being dubbed "Olimpiadi Infernali" -- the Olympics from hell -- blighted by problems ranging from budget threats to low ticket sales to a helicopter crash upon the slalom piste. For the past few weeks, pistes have been prepared with water cannons costing up to ?15,000 (US$26,600) a day to operate. By Saturday, Sestriere had received 30cm of fresh powder. But the same cold front threatens the Games with another hiccup: an energy crisis.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government has introduced emergency measures after Eni SpA, the country's biggest gas importer, announced last week that supplies from Russia have fallen 2.7 percent below the requested levels. The company confirmed that Italy could face power problems next month if the bitter weather continued.
The Winter Olympics organizing committee's statement made no comment on whether the new governmental restrictions would affect the running of the gas-fueled, 56m-high, Olympic torch due to be lit at the opening ceremony in the newly built Stadio Olimpico.
Italy has also became the first western European country to take sides in the political controversy surrounding the diminishing seepage of Russian gas. Industry minister Claudio Scajola accused Ukraine of stealing its gas. Poland, Hungary and Turkey also complained of reduced deliveries.
Europe's natural gas problems began late last month. Christmas dinners were undercooked in many countries after Ukraine refused a four-fold price increase and Russia closed the tap.
The EU said a proposed 3,000km pipeline taking Iranian and Azerbaijani gas to Austria through Turkey would in due course reduce its dependence on Russian gas but no solution was found for this winter.
Georgia struck a deal with Iran on Friday for 2 million cubic meters of gas a day via Azerbaijan.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not