Heavy Snow Brings Traffic Woes to France, Thick snowfall added to the misery of the daily commute for millions of Parisians on Thursday, causing dangerous driving conditions for motorists heading into the centre of town.
The snowfall, only a week before Christmas, was a rarity for the French capital, which generally does not see snow before the late winter — if at all. The snow was caused by cold air coming from Eastern Europe. A total of 51 departments (counties) in the northern part of the country went onto orange alert as authorities grappled with the climate conditions amid worries that the state electricity distribution network might not hold up in the face of sharply increased demand. Residents in Brittany and the Provence region of southern France have been warned that they may face power cuts lasting up to two hours. Officials at electricity distribution network RTE have said the cuts could affect tens of thousands of people at a time if they come. But with no threat of power cuts in the capital, ordinary Parisians were happy to enjoy the snow. “It would be even nicer if it settled a little and if we had 10 centimetres of snow that we could keep for three or four days,” said Cecile de Tuny, a passer-by at the Arc de Triomphe.
Meteorologist Patrick Galois said snowfall in France just before Christmas was a rare occurrence. “It is true that with global warming, in the last 30 years we have been able to notice a tendency towards less and less snow in the winter time in France. But, even so, there is always some snow. In general, the snow falls more often in January and February than in December. So, it is rather rare to have this kind of snowfall in the middle of December,” he said. But he said that despite global warming, snow and frost would continue to occur. “Climate change goes mostly in the direction of heating, in the direction of reducing the snow, so what we are actually seeing is a climate hazard, which means that the climate can be a little colder or warmer, and it changes day after day. So, even if we have fewer waves of frost and less snowfall, because the climate changes, it does not mean that we will not have them anymore. So it is not directly linked to climate change.”

Barrack Obama Leaves South Korea, Brings Asia Tour to End, US President Barrack Obama ended his Asian tour and left for home on Thursday after meeting US troops stationed in South Korea.
President Obama visited Japan before attending an Asia Pacific economic summit in Singapore, and continuing his first Asian tour to China and South Korea. Obama spoke to some of the 28,000 US troops stationed in the South before flying home at Osan Airbase, south of Seoul. An auditorium filled with young US soldiers greeted Obama enthusiastically as he walked in. Obama reaffirmed the US will keep a strong alliance with South Korea. “I made it clear. America’s commitment to the defence of the Republic of Korea will never waiver and our alliance has never been stronger,” Obama said. He hugged some of the soldiers and shook hands with several others. This was the end of his Asian tour, before he boarded Air Force One and headed back to Washington D.C.
North Korea argues that the presence of a large US troops contingent in South Korea threatens them of possible attacks, and thus pushed them to develop nuclear weapons. North and South Korea are still technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce without a peace treaty. North Korea rattled the economically powerful region just ahead of Obama’s first visit to Seoul since taking office by sparking a naval fight with the South and telling the world early this month it had produced a fresh batch of arms-grade plutonium. But it has toned down its normally strident anti-U.S rhetoric since Obama began his trip to Asia a week ago.
Obama said on Thursday he was willing to help North Korea repair its economy and end decades of international isolation if Pyongyang stopped a cycle of threats and finally moved towards nuclear disarmament. Speaking to reporters at the end a week-long Asia tour, Obama said he and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed the North must end the pattern of provocations that simply ended up with demands for more concessions but never resolved the central problem.