Cold wave claims 60 lives in Europe

Published: 26 January 2006 y., Thursday

Europe’s Arctic cold front loosened its deadly grip on Thursday, but not before claiming at least 60 more victims overnight in Ukraine, Poland and half-a-dozen other countries battered by a week of deep-freezer temperatures.

In Italy near Milan, a mother discovered that her newborn child had frozen to death inside the nomadic family’s makeshift tin shack. Another three-month old Roma child died under similar circumstances in Bulgaria.

In Ukraine alone 40 people perished overnight Wednesday as a result of extreme cold, bringing to at least 181 the number of deaths since temperatures plunged last week.

In Poland the most recent 24-hour toll was 10, for an 8-day total of 63 dead. There were also deaths reported in Croatia, the Czech Republic and Romania, which had registered 37 weather-related fatalities for the week as of Thurdsay.

The situation in Georgia remained critical Thursday due to massive electricity failures and the fifth day without natural gas supplies from Russia, abruptly cut when an explosion Sunday burst the main pipeline.

Most homes in the capital of this ex-Soviet nation were without gas as overnight temperatures fell as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit).

The country’s problems were compounded by power cuts across the capital Tbilisi and the rest of eastern Georgia caused by snowstorms and excessive demand. Only key installations such as hospitals were being supplied with emergency electricity, a spokesman for the state-run power company told AFP.

Šaltinis: dawn.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.

Facebook Comments

New comment


Captcha

Associated articles

The most popular articles

Tobacco blamed for predicted 50 per cent rise in cancer cases

The aggressive marketing of cigarettes in the developing world is a key factor in a predicted rise of global cancer rates over the next 20 years more »

First Case of Mysterious SARS Disease Confirmed in Germany

International health experts are hunting for the virus that causes SARS, the flu-like disease that has killed 61 people worldwide more »

NASA Launches New IT R&D Programs

NASA has awarded $19.4 million in funding for 20 new IT research and development programs more »

The academy for ex-communist states

Cyber-savvy Estonia, an ex-Soviet republic that has embraced information technology with the velocity of a Baltic Sea storm, will now teach other former communist states to do the same more »

Global Pandemic

Russia is on the brink of an AIDS catastrophe, experts say, that could lead to infection rates rarely seen outside sub-Saharan Africa more »

The greatest paleontological discoveries of the past 100 years

Skulls Found in Africa and in Europe Challenge Theories of Human Origins more »

Human Development Report 2002

Lithuania Among the World’s Fifty Three Most Developed Countries more »

Tibetan medicine to be taught at Harvard University

A Tibetan graduate student is scheduled to lecture on Tibetan medicine at Harvard University for three months starting from early September more »

Lifestyle linked to Alzheimer's

Having a healthy diet, exercising and not being overweight can not only reduce the risk of developing heart disease, but may also protect against Alzheimer's, new research claims more »

The discovery

AIDS researchers have announced a possible breakthrough with the discovery of a naturally occurring gene that effectively blocks the disease's progress more »