• Winter storm strands thousands of motorists overnight in eastern Europe

    Szilard Gergely / AFP - Getty Images

    A man walks past a damaged truck at the site of an accident on the E71 motorway, near the Croatian, Slovenian and Hungarian borders on Friday, a day after a heavy snow storm hit the area.

    By Krisztina Than, Reuters

    BUDAPEST - Hungary deployed tanks to reach thousands of motorists trapped in heavy snow on Friday as a sudden cold snap and high winds struck parts of the Balkans, Slovakia and Poland, leaving at least two people dead.

    Snow stranded people in cars, buses and trains through the night and conspired with strong winds to cut off dozens of towns and villages in Hungary.

    "The situation is most critical on the M1 motorway (linking Budapest and Vienna) where hundreds of cars are stranded in the snow, most of them for 18-20 hours now," said Marton Hajdu, spokesman for the National Directorate for Disaster Management.

    Reuters photographer traveling with a rescue convoy said high winds had caused snowdrifts on the motorway up to three feet high.

    People took to Facebook to appeal for help.

    "At the Gyorszentivan exit on the motorway I have friends stranded since yesterday evening," wrote Ibolya Csukovics. "Can anyone help? They've run out of food and drink."

    The government said it had sent in tanks and other military vehicles with caterpillar tracks.

    The weekend's premier league and second tier football fixtures were canceled, with night-time temperatures expected to drop as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit).

    After a relatively mild winter for much of the region, almost 200,000 people in Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia were left shivering without electricity on Friday. Heavy rain hit parts of Serbia and Bosnia.

    In Bulgaria, one woman was killed when scaffolding collapsed in high winds in the central town of Gabrovo, and a school was evacuated in the southern town of Krichim when wind tore off the roof.

    To the south, in Kosovo, a 10-year-old girl drowned when a river burst its banks in heavy rain in the northern town of Skenderaj. Dozens of homes were flooded in the west of the country, a Reuters reporter said.

    "The situation is alarming," Klina municipality spokeswoman Samije Gjergjaj told Reuters. She said some 300 people were stranded by floodwater.

    "There's just one small boat evacuating these people," said Gjergjaj. "We're waiting for the state emergency services to help out."

    Heavy snow also paralyzed parts of southeastern Poland, where police banned heavy lorries from entering the city of Rzeszow for fear they would get stuck.

    In eastern Slovakia, snow stranded some 40 lorries on a highway in the High Tatras region. The army deployed hundreds of soldiers to help out and authorities appealed to people to avoid venturing out by car. 

    Alexey Gromov / AFP - Getty Images

    People struggle against wind and drifting snow in the Belarus capital, Minsk, on Friday.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Rare snowstorm blankets Holy Land, brings brief joy to war-weary Damascus

    Darren Whiteside / Reuters

    Snow covers the Dome of the Rock on the compound know to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City on Jan. 10, 2013.

    Abir Sultan / EPA

    An Ultra Orthodox Jew wades through the snow next to the Old City walls in Jerusalem on Jan. 10, 2013. The region has been gripped by a cold wave accompanied by heavy snowfalls over the last few days.

    Youssef Badawi / EPA

    Children with their families play in the snow on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on Jan. 10, 2013, after the region was hit by heavy snowfalls overnight. Syria has been gripped by a cold wave accompanied by heavy snowfalls for the second day, cutting off roads and bringing life to a standstill. The government has postponed the mid-year exams because of the blizzard that has blanketed all streets and hilltops.

    The worst snowstorm in 20 years shut public transport, roads and schools in Jerusalem and along the northern Israeli region bordering on Lebanon on Thursday. 

    Jerusalem was transformed into a winter wonderland after heavy overnight snowfall turned the Holy City and much of the region white, bringing hordes of excited children onto the streets.

    Powerful winter storm brings snow, havoc to Mideast, leaving 8 dead

    In neighboring Syria, the snowfall that covered Damascus in white on Wednesday sparked an overnight outbreak of playfulness among Syrians, who momentarily ignored their bloody civil war and forgot their affiliations as dissidents, loyalists and even soldiers.

    "Last night, for the first time in months, I heard laughter instead of shelling. Even the security forces put down their guns and helped us make a snowman," Iman, a resident of the central Shaalan neighborhood, said by Skype on Thursday. 

    -- Reuters, Agence France-Presse

     

    Bernat Armangue / AP

    Snow falls as an ultra-orthodox Jewish man prays at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on Jan. 10, 2013. Stormy weather conditions continued on Thursday with snow, torrential rains and strong winds across the region.

    Majdi Mohammed / AP

    Palestinians play in the snow next to a section of Israel's separation barrier in Qalandia, between Jerusalem and the West bank city of Ramallah, on Jan. 10, 2013.

    Ahmad Gharabli / AFP - Getty Images

    A man takes pictures of the snow-covered Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the old city of Jerusalem on Jan. 10, 2013.

    Avi Ohayon / Israeli Government Press Office via Getty Images

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enjoys the snow with his family on Jan. 10, 2013 in Jerusalem.

    Bernat Armangue / AP

    A man walks through tombs covered by snow on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on Jan. 10, 2013.

    Jim Hollander / EPA

    Palestinian girls play in the snow on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem on Jan. 10, 2013.

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    Slideshow: Winter's frozen splendor

    AFP - Getty Images

    Ice and snow changes our environment, as winter engulfs our world.

    Launch slideshow

  • Powerful winter storm brings snow, havoc to Mideast, leaving 8 dead

    Bulent Kilic / AFP - Getty Images

    The city of Istanbul is covered with snow on Jan. 9, after a storm blanketed Turkey's commercial hub, a city of 15 million, paralyzing daily life, disrupting air traffic and land transport.

    Ammar Awad / Reuters

    Palestinians play with snow during a snow storm in the West Bank village of Halhul near Hebron on Jan. 9. At least 8 people have died due to a winter storm in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Meteorological agencies in Israel and Lebanon both called it the worst storm in 20 years.

    Reuters

    A man walks on snow after a heavy snowstorm in the desert near Tabuk, 932 miles from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Jan. 9.

    By Barbara Surk, Jamal Halaby, The Associated Press -- The fiercest winter storm to hit the Mideast in years brought a rare foot of snow to Jordan on Wednesday, caused fatal accidents in Lebanon and the West Bank, and disrupted traffic on the Suez Canal in Egypt. At least eight people died across the region.

    In Lebanon, the Red Cross said storm-related accidents killed six people over the past two days. Several drowned after slipping into rivers from flooded roads, one person froze to death and another died after his car went off a slippery road, according to George Kettaneh, Operations Director for the Lebanese Red Cross.

    The unusual weather over the past few days hit vulnerable Syrian refugees living in tent camps very hard, particularly some 50,000 sheltering in the Zaatari camp in Jordan's northern desert. Torrential rains over four days have flooded some 200 tents and forced women and infants to evacuate in temperatures that dipped below freezing at night, whipping wind and lashing rain.

    "It's been freezing cold and constant rain for the past four days," lamented Ahmad Tobara, 44, who evacuated his tent when its shafts submerged in flood water in Zaatari. A camp spokesman said that by Wednesday, some 1,500 refugees had been displaced within the camp and were now living in mobile homes normally used for schools.

    Read the full story.

    AFP - Getty Images

    A visitor climbs the steps of Baalbek's Bachus temple as snow covers the Roman ruins of the historic town in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Jan. 9, following a fierce storm which has whipped the region this week with temperatures dropping dramatically and snow falling on across Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel.

    Said Khatib / AFP - Getty Images

    A Palestinian man uses his donkey cart to transport people across a flooded street in the Rafah refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Jan. 9.

    Afif Diab / Reuters

    Syrian refugees play with snow outside their tents during a winter storm in al-Marj, in the Bekaa valley on Jan. 9. The worst winter storm in two decades has hit the eastern Mediterranean this week, bringing destruction and death to Syria and its neighbors who are already dealing with a refugee crisis from the country's civil war.

    Bulent Kilic / AFP - Getty Images

    A seagull stands on Galata Tower on Jan. 9. Heavy snowfall blanketed Turkey's commercial hub Istanbul, a city of 15 millions, paralyzing daily life, disrupting air traffic and land transport.

     

  • Snow, extreme weather threaten 2 million Afghans

    Qais Usyan / AFP - Getty Images

    A burqa-clad Afghan woman makes her way as snow falls in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Dec. 27.

    Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images

    Internally displaced Afghan women from Helmand province wait to receive winter supplies from the UNHCR at the Charhi Qambar refugee camp on the outskirts of Kabul on Dec. 27. Since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban, 3.8 million refugees have returned, leaving 1.6 million behind, most born and brought up in Pakistan. In late October, UNHCR boosted incentives for Afghans to return and around 10,000 Afghans went home from Oct. 23 to Nov. 30 -- more than double the number who were repatriated in the same period last year.

    Ahmad Jamshid / AP

    Afghans warm themselves at their shop in Kabul on Dec. 27. Temperatures dropped to 34 Fahrenheit in Kabul.

    The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says more than 2 million Afghans throughout the country are at risk from extreme weather this winter. Last winter, more than 30 Afghans - most of them children - froze to death, when the country witnessed one of the harshest winters in the past 15 years with record snowfall.

    -- European Pressphoto Agency

    S. Sabawoon / EPA

    Afghan displaced families receive winter goods distributed by the UNHCR on outskirts of Kabul Dec. 27.

    Mohammad Ismail / Reuters

    An Afghan girl walks past a burning tire, which was set on fire by residents to warm themselves, along a street on a snowy day in Kabul on Dec. 27.

    Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images

    Afghan men walk past snow-covered trees in Kabul on Dec. 27.

    Previously on PhotoBlog:

    Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

    More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

    Launch slideshow

  • Russia's deep freeze: dozens die, feels like 50 below

    The temperature in Siberia is reaching lows not felt in more than half a century as the mercury dips to 42 degrees below zero and the air instantly freezes boiling water. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Americans feeling their first wintry blast of the season on Wednesday could take some comfort from this: In Moscow it felt like 10 below – part of a week-long cold spell across Russia that has parts of Siberia feeling like 50 below. 

    Across Russia, the deep freeze killed at least 45 people over the last week, 21 on Tuesday alone, the English-language Moscow Times reported Wednesday. Nearly 270 people were hospitalized, more than half with frostbite.

    Russia's emergency ministry urged everyone in Moscow to stay indoors on Wednesday, while forecasters said the cold could get worse over the weekend.

    Siberia has been hardest hit, with cities like Novosibirsk dipping to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday. With the wind chill, it felt like minus 47.

    The temperatures have been abnormally low for Russia at this time of year.

    Related: US snowstorm threatens travel

    Last week, the cold in Siberia nearly killed two circus elephants after their trailer caught fire, the RIA news agency reported.

    A handler quickly devised a plan, buying two cases of vodka from a nearby village and serving it to the elephants -- albeit diluted with warm water.

    "After that they roared as if they were in the jungle. Apparently they were happy," the unnamed handler was quoted as saying.

    Valery Titievsky / AFP - Getty Images

    A woman walking in Novosibirsk, a city in Russia's Siberia, reflects the cold there on Wednesday. Temperatures dipped to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit -- and the wind chill made it feel like minus 47.

    Neighboring Ukraine has also felt the freeze -- 37 people have died there so far this month because of subzero temperatures, the government said Tuesday.

    The cold followed storms that left some areas with nearly two feet of snow.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

    More world stories from NBC News:

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  • A dusting of snow on the Great Wall of China

    Alexander F. Yuan / AP

    Chinese tourists take photos on a rebuilt part of the Great Wall in Luanping, in northern China's Hebei province, Friday, Dec. 14, 2012.

    Slideshow: Winter's frozen splendor

    Arno Balzarini / EPA

    Ice and snow changes our environment, as winter engulfs our world.

    Launch slideshow

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  • Hard winter ahead for troops in Afghanistan

    Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

    U.S. and Afghan soldiers rest during a operation on a cold morning near the town of Walli Was in Paktika province, Afghanistan on November 2, 2012.

    By David R Arnott, NBC News

    As the rigors of an Afghan winter started to take effect, soldiers wrapped themselves in blankets to protect against the cold on a rocky outcrop in the east of the country on Friday morning. 

    Reuters photographer Goran Tomasevic, who won a Frontline Club award last week for the "unparalleled combat photography" he produced in a previous project, 18 days with the Syrian rebels, is currently documenting U.S. and Afghan troops in the country's Paktika province.

    According to a report by The Associated Press last month, al-Qaida is attempting a comeback in Afghanistan's mountainous east as U.S. and allied forces wind down their combat mission and concede a small but steady toehold to the terrorist group. 

     

    Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

    U.S. and Afghan soldiers and a U.S. Army Chinook during an operation near the town of Walli Was in Paktika province on November 1, 2012.

    Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

    A soldier of B Troop, 1st squadron of the 4th US Cavalry Regiment works with a shovel next to a mired truck near COP (Combat Outpost) Sar Howza in Paktika province on October 29, 2012.

    Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

    An AK-47 rifle belonging to an Afghan policeman lies on the ground as other policemen grill meat during the celebration of the Muslim Eid Al Adha festival in COP Sar Howza in Paktika province on October 26, 2012.

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    Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    Aref Karimi / AFP - Getty Images

    More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

    Launch slideshow

     

  • Israelis and Palestinians alike revel in snow blanketing the Holy Land

    Israelis and Palestinians woke Friday to a rare sight in the usually temperate Holy Land: a thin blanket of snow.

    Snow fell in Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the Galilee, and the West Bank cities of Hebron and Bethlehem as residents and tourists alike ventured out to enjoy the unusual winter weather. 

    Local media reported that this was the first time in four years that snow had fallen in Jerusalem.

    Marco Longari / AFP - Getty Images

    A Palestinian man and his son stand next to a snowman outside their house on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah as wintry weather swept through the region on March 2, 2012.

    Marco Longari / AFP - Getty Images

    Israelis play in the snow in Jerusalem on March 2, 2012.

    Marco Longari / AFP - Getty Images

    Palestinian youths play with snowballs in Jerusalem on March 2, 2012.

    Abir Sultan / EPA

    Two Haredi (Ultra Orthodox ) Jews make their way through a snowstorm in the Mea Shaarim neighborhood of Jerusalem on March 2, 2012.

    Bernat Armangue / AP

    Ultra-orthodox Jewish youths dress a snowman in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood on March 2, 2012.

    Marco Longari / AFP - Getty Images

    Snow falls on an olive tree in the West Bank city of Ramallah on March 2, 2012.

    Darren Whiteside / Reuters

    Melted ice trickles off the hat of a man as he visits the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City on March 2, 2012.

     

     

  • Afghanistan's sorrow: Cruel winter claims lives of children

    Afghanistan's coldest winter in years has claimed the lives of dozens of children. ITN's Emma Murphy visited one camp outside of Kabul.

     

    KABUL – Afghanistan's coldest winter in years has claimed the lives of dozens of children.

    Many of the young victims froze to death in makeshift camps full of families fleeing the fighting in Helmand Province.

    Their desperate situation is made worse by aid agencies unable to get supplies to help them.

    The Afghan government has recorded 41 deaths from freezing in three provinces, including Kabul, Ghor and Badakhshan, Health Ministry spokesman Ghulam Sakhi Kargar told The Associated Press. All but three or four of those deaths were children, he said.  

    Twenty-four of the deaths were mostly in camps for families seeking safety from conflict.

    ITN’s Emma Murphy visited one camp outside of Kabul.

  • Emergency food flown into stranded European towns

    AP reports - Military planes and police helicopters flew in tons of emergency food to snowbound villages and ships in the Balkans on Monday, after blizzards so fierce that some people had to cut tunnels through 15 feet of snow to get out of their homes.

    Vladimir Gogic / AP

    A Serbian police helicopter delivers food to sailors stuck on stranded boats on the Danube river near Smederevo, Serbia, on Monday, Feb. 13.

    Since the end of January, Eastern Europe has been pummeled by a record-breaking cold snap and the heaviest snowfall in recent memory. Hundreds of people, many of them homeless, have died in the bitter cold and tens of thousands have been trapped by blocked roads inside homes with little heat. More on this story...

  • Europe tries to shield homeless from deep freeze

    Freezing temperatures and heavy snowstorms across Europe have caused massive traffic and energy problems, and  left at least 37 dead. The rare snow in Rome also forced the closing of The Colosseum and other tourist attractions. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports. 

    By msnbc.com news services

    KIEV, Ukraine – Russia and Ukraine took extra precautions on Friday to protect homeless people during a brutal cold snap, ordering new facilities and medical care after scores of people have frozen to death on the streets of Europe.

    As the death toll from the past week rose to at least 175 on Friday, Russian Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered the creation of facilities nationwide to feed and provide medical assistance to the homeless.

    The weeklong freeze — Eastern Europe's worst in decades — is causing power outages, frozen water pipes and widespread closure of schools, nurseries, airports and bus routes.

    Other parts of Europe experienced frigid temperatures unseen in years. A roundup:

    Ukraine
    In the hardest-hit country, health officials have told hospitals to stop discharging the hundreds of homeless patients after they are treated for hypothermia and frostbite. The goal is to prevent them from dying once they are released into temperatures as low as minus 32 Celsius (minus 26 Fahrenheit).

    Authorities also have set up nearly 3,000 heating and food shelters.

    PhotoBlog: Images of Europe's deep freeze

    Thirty-eight more fatalities were reported from frostbite and hypothermia in Ukraine on Friday, raising the nation's death toll to 101. Emergency officials have said many of the victims were homeless.

    Bosnia
    Bosnia reported its first deaths. Five people died Friday in Sarajevo, most of them while shoveling snow, Dr. Tigran Elezovic said, and one person died in the southern city of Mostar, where ambulances could not reach the victim because of snow.

    Rome
    Thick snowflakes fell on Rome on Friday, forcing the closure of the Colosseum over fears tourists would slip on the icy ruins, and leaving buses struggling to climb the city's slushy hills.

    The snowfall prompted authorities to stop visitors from entering the Colosseum, the adjacent Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill, the former home of Rome's ancient emperors.

    A woman looks through an icy window in a bus in Ukraine's capital, Kiev, on Friday.

    Authorities appealed to Italians to stay off highways, as the cold snap was predicted to continue well into the next week.

    Northern Italy also has been gripped by snow and ice that is disrupting train travel.

    Netherlands
    Police in the eastern city of Wageningen reported that a homeless man found dead Thursday in a shed died of hypothermia, making him the first confirmed Dutch victim of the cold.

    Traffic around the Netherlands was thrown into chaos Friday by snow. Trains ran with long delays and several flights in and out of Schiphol were delayed or canceled.

    Poland
    The Interior Ministry recorded eight more deaths on Friday and said two other people died of asphyxiation from carbon monoxide-spewing charcoal heaters.

    Croatia and Montenegro
    In Croatia, some highways were closed and waters of the Adriatic Sea froze in some areas. Buses that travel from Zagreb, the capital, toward the coast have been canceled. In Montenegro, the airport in the capital, Podgorica, was closed due to heavy snow.

    This article includes reporting from Reuters and The Associated Press.

    More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

     

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