21.   Countless avalanches have been roaring down alpine slopes in recent days, stranding thousands of tourists.

22.   Delays at the domestic airport were as long as three hours, temporarily stranding thousands.

23.   Elsewhere, protests by poppy farmers furious over a new government anti-drug campaign strand thousands of Afghan refugees trying to return home from Pakistan.

24.   Enormous volumes of smoke have closed airports, stranding thousands of passengers.

25.   European Union partners criticized the strike, which stranded thousands of foreign trucks and threatened to slow economies struggling out of recession.

26.   Fog shrouded Hong Kong for a second day Sunday, causing massive flight disruptions that stranded thousands of people at Hong Kong airport, the government reported.

27.   Heavy snow continued to fall relentlessly in other parts of Europe, meanwhile, forcing evacuations and stranding thousands in Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

28.   Hurricane Floyd stranded thousands of vacationers and business travelers around the country when airline and rail service in and out of Florida ground to a halt.

29.   Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes in the two Central American countries and thousands were stranded by surging rivers that made bridges and roads impassable.

30.   In Austria, where heavy snowfalls stranded thousands of tourists and caused many road accidents.