Scores dead in Afghan cold snap

Here.

Excerpt:

The number of people who have died due a cold snap in Afghanistan has risen to 200, government officials say.

Four large provinces in the western part of the country have been especially badly hit. Tens of thousands of livestock have also perished.

Local people are saying the winter conditions have been the most severe in decades. The cold spell is also affecting neighbouring countries.

A related story is here, entitled "Misery for millions as temperatures plummet across the Middle East":

THE Middle East is shivering amid exceptionally low temperatures that have left at least ten people dead in Saudi Arabia alone and killed countless livestock and damaged crops across a region usually associated with sun-baked deserts.

Some have had cause to cheer. Children in several countries have been enjoying days of fun after icy temperatures forced the closure of schools. And snow has fallen in Baghdad for the first time in living memory.

But the severe cold snap, caused by a weather system spawned in Siberia, has mostly brought misery. Faulty gas heaters have claimed the lives of about 90 people in Iran where temperatures have plummeted in places to -24C.
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Temperatures in Saudi Arabia reached their lowest point in 30 years this week, plunging to -2C in the capital, Riyadh, and to -6C in mountainous regions blanketed by snow.