41.   In Islamabad, international aid groups appealed for a chance to transport food to Afghans ahead the winter snow, expected to start next month.

42.   Most of the tourists to northern Iraq are people from central and southern Iraq, escaping the scorching summer heat or seeking winter snow holidays.

43.   Now, with winter snows melting, the government and Serbs are girding again for all-out war, forcing the United Nations to respond in kind.

44.   They are to start lifting mines as soon as winter snows melt.

45.   They are packing new sandbags to replace those destroyed by melting winter snows and rain.

46.   With winter snows melted, long-term reconstruction is about to begin.

47.   Winter snows have begun to block roads winding through the Hindu Kush mountains in the northeast, and many paths will soon be unpassable.

48.   The situation in these areas has deteriorated since the arrival of winter snows, which are making it harder for Afghans in isolated areas to reach feeding centres.

49.   There was no reported fighting around Charikar Saturday as the first winter snow began to fall, the Taliban said.

50.   The terrain is difficult at the best of times, and worse in the harsh winter snows, preventing humanitarian agencies from carrying out effective assistance, Mansour said.