Fun Flash Games

WASHINGTON (AFP) –
A ferocious snow storm blanketed much of the eastern United States Sunday, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes, paralyzing air traffic and stranding motorists.

The governors of Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and Delaware declared states of emergency in advance of the storm, the worst to hit the region in decades.

Three people died on Virginia roads Saturday as some 3,000 accidents shut down interstates for several hours, according to the state's department of emergency management. The Virginia Department of Health confirmed one other weather-related death.

Hundreds of thousands of customers lost power in West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina.

The worst of the storm was over for Washington as it swept northeastward, but a lot of roads were still unplowed in the city unused to so much snow so early in the year.

Only scattered flurries remained after snowfall shattered a 1932 December snowfall record, with 16 inches (40 centimeters) covering streets and homes. It was also one of the biggest snowstorms to hit the capital since records began in 1885.

Service slowly returned to the capital region's main airports after hundreds of flights were cancelled Saturday, stranding thousands of passengers on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

Washington Dulles International Airport reopened one of its four runways. Snow-clearing crews were still busy on the airfield there and at Reagan National Airport, where runways were expected to reopen around 10:00 am (1500 GMT), Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority spokeswoman Tara Hamilton told AFP.

Baltimore Washington International Airport also resumed air traffic, although many flights were delayed or cancelled.

But bus service remained suspended and limited Metrorail operations saw trains servicing only underground stations at 30-minute intervals. Heavy-duty diesel-powered trains moved back and forth throughout the night along exposed, above-ground sections of the track to clear and de-ice them.

"For now, the responsible decision is to limit service until conditions are safe for our customers and employees," said Metro general manager John Catoe, adding that officials would reevaluate conditions later in the day in hopes of resuming halted service.

The massive storm at one point stretched some 500 miles (800 kilometers) across a dozen states, affecting around a quarter of the US population.

Much of the East Coast, home to tens of millions of Americans, turned into a winter wonderland, even if the conditions were as perilous as they were scenic.

The monster weather system was moving steadily northeastward, blanketing Baltimore with roughly 20 inches (51 cm), Philadelphia (23 inches, 58 cm) and New York, where the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast near-blizzard conditions and as much as 14 inches (36 cm) of accumulation before the snow tapers off later Sunday.

Further north, Boston was facing a similar fate, with blizzard warnings in effect for parts of Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island.

Some parts of Virginia received more than two feet of snow. Areas in Maryland recorded 23 inches (58 cm).

Officials reported many Virginia drivers and passengers had been stranded in their vehicles, some for more than 12 hours. Emergency services delivered hot meals and 400 bottles of water for stranded motorists, while others were moved to shelters.

Greyhound Lines, the country's biggest provider of bus transportation, canceled service on nearly 300 routes across the eastern seaboard.

President Barack Obama raced home from a climate change summit in Copenhagen to avoid the worst of the storm that hammered the East Coast with over two feet (61 cm) of snow in some places.

He got back before dawn on Saturday, two days before winter's official arrival.

With near white-out conditions forcing many residents to stay home and shopping malls shuttered or closing early, the extreme conditions also looked likely to take a bite out of retail sales on "Super Saturday."

The major shopping day usually accounts for some 15 billion dollars of all nationwide sales on the last weekend before Christmas.

Most churches and other places of worship were closed, along with museums and schools.

And snow could return to the capital as early as next week, with NWS meteorologists forecasting more flurries on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

LONDON (AFP) –
The executive director of Eurostar Richard Brown between England and France confirmed Sunday that passenger train services remained suspended for the day and was unable to say when they would resume.

"I can't guarantee our services will be working because we've suspended the service again today until we get to the bottom of what happened on Friday night," he told BBC television on Sunday morning.

More than 2,000 passengers spent the night trapped in the Channel Tunnel, some without anything to eat or drink, after five Eurostar trains broke down in freezing weather.

The breakdowns were blamed on trains being unable to cope with the change in temperature as they moved from the bitter cold of northern France into the warm air of the tunnel.

"We did run two or three trains yesterday, they all got through the tunnel OK, but one or two of them showed symptoms of the problem that happened on Friday night.

"We will not start services again until we're sure that we can get them through safely," he emphasised.

Eurostar estimated that around 24,000 passengers were waiting to cross the Channel on Sunday after two days of disrupted services, the company's deputy director Nicolas Petrovic said Saturday.

Pipeline transport sends goods through a pipe, most commonly liquid and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes can send solid capsules using compressed air. Any chemically stable liquid or gas can be sent through a pipeline; sewage, slurry, water and even beer pipelines exist,while long-distance networks are used for petroleum and natural gas.

Intermodal freight transport is the combination of multiple modes of transportation for a single shipment; containers allow seamless integration of sea, rail and road transport and have reduced transshipment costs.

Phoenix Airport Transportation

LOS ANGELES – Nelson Mandela made it clear that Morgan Freeman was the man he would want to play him in a film.
When it came time to play Mandela in "Invictus," Freeman told producing partner Lori McCreary that he had two men in mind to direct the film, which dramatizes Mandela's partnership with a South African rugby star (played by Matt Damon) to rally their post-apartheid countrymen behind the team's underdog quest for the 1995 World Cup.
"I said, `I can only think of two. Clint Eastwood, and then there's Clint Eastwood.' He's the best director I know," Freeman says of the filmmaker who gave him a plum role in "Unforgiven" and an Academy Award-winning part in "Million Dollar Baby."
Freeman's comment comes moments before Eastwood enters the room for a joint interview, amiable banter and wisecracks ensuing as the two longtime friends and colleagues talk about their third collaboration.
"Are you supposed to be here?" Freeman demands of Eastwood.
Informed of the compliment Freeman had just paid him as his only choice to direct "Invictus," Eastwood shoots back: "That's very kind of him. He's obviously a man of very good taste and selectivity in life."
Freeman follows with a reminder that Eastwood had once "stood up in public with a microphone and called me the best actor in the world."
The exchange continues:
Eastwood: "That was right after I told Matt that he was the best actor in the world."
Freeman: "Doesn't matter. ... You always go for the best."
Eastwood: "I do pride myself on that. I believe in surrounding myself with the very best people, and that cuts down the margin for error, and that covers my inadequacies."
Freeman: "And he says, he can stand back and let them do their thing, then take all the credit."
Their give-and-take reflects the camaraderie that Eastwood, 79, and Freeman, 72, captured on screen as hired mercenaries in 1992's Western "Unforgiven" and as ringside pals in 2004's boxing drama "Million Dollar Baby." Both films dominated the Oscars, their wins including best picture and director for Eastwood.
With both movies, Eastwood came calling for Freeman. With "Invictus," Freeman was the first man on board, sending the script Eastwood's way, hoping his friend would want to direct.
Freeman had been meeting with Mandela since the 1990s with the idea of adapting the jailed-activist-turned-president's memoir "Long Walk to Freedom" for the big-screen. The actor eventually set it aside, finding Mandela's life story too expansive to fit into a film.
"How can you take all that and put it into a movie?" Freeman says. "Even if you condensed it down to a three-hour movie, how could you do it justice?"
Then journalist John Carlin told Freeman about his book, "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation," recounting the new South African president's cheerleading that united whites and blacks behind the national rugby team.
The effort defined the healing spirit Mandela brought to the nation, Freeman says.

But "Invictus" is not being embraced by all South Africans, who complain that South Africans should be starring in movies about their own stories rather than American actors. South Africans do, however, have key roles in the film, including Patrick Mofokeng as Mandela's chief bodyguard.

Eastwood sees a lot of similarities between Mandela and Freeman.

"I've always thought he was the perfect guy to be playing Nelson Mandela," Eastwood says. "Morgan has the same presence when he walks in the room as an actor that Mr. Mandela has as a politician walking into a room. ... They both are intelligent, and they both seem to have a lovely sense of humor and a lot of life. They both get in trouble in the same way, sometimes."

"Ssh," Freeman interjects.

"Invictus" marks the first time Eastwood worked with Freeman as a director only, not as a co-star, too.

Eastwood jokes that he's been trying to give up acting for the last decade, but roles keep coming along that he feels are right for him, among them the racist widower who becomes unlikely defender for his young Asian neighbors in last year's "Gran Torino."

"I read it and I liked it. I said, `Gee, I know this guy,'" Eastwood says. "I've seen this guy many times. And sometimes, these guys will grow at an older age and become more open, and sometimes they don't. But it was fun to talk about racial relations by playing a guy who doesn't want any part of anybody and is bitter because his neighborhood has all died off."

Eastwood wants to stick solely to directing, though he doesn't rule out going in front of the camera again.

"I'm perfectly willing and happy to have him direct from here out, and if he wants to step in front of the cameras again, that's fine, and I'm hoping I can be there with him when he does," Freeman says. "But you know, I think he's hellbent on becoming another (famed Japanese filmmaker Akira) Kurosawa, if he isn't already. I think he already is."