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Europe pounded by snow

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.
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