11.   He toured the base of Banja Luka but fresh snowfalls forced him to cancel another planned visit to British and US troops at Tusla airbase in north-west Bosnia.

12.   The snowfall also forced the defence secretary to travel by road instead of taking a helicopter to visit American soldiers at a base just west of Tuzla.

13.   The snowfalls also forced certain flights to be cancelled or delayed at Berlin.

14.   Large snowfalls also forced several major routes linking the Johannesburg-Pretoria region with the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to close Sunday.

15.   The heavy snowfall also forced the French authorities to close the Mont-Blanc tunnel late Tuesday amid avalanche warnings.