East Asia cold wave claims 60, US shovelling out of blizzard

Temperatures in Taiwan’s capital of Taipei plunged to a 16-year low of 4 degrees Celsius (39 Fahrenheit), killing 57 mostly elderly people. Most homes in subtropical Taiwan lack central heating, and the cold caused heart trouble and shortness of breath for many of the victims, a city official said. Normally, temperatures in Taipei hover around 16 degrees C (60 degrees F) in January, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau. Heavy snow in western and central Japan left five people dead in Japan over the weekend, and possibly a sixth on Monday, Kyodo News Service said. 

Most parts of mainland China experienced coldest weather in decades and lead to four deaths— strawberry farmers who died of carbon monoxide poisoning when they turned up heating in a plastic greenhouse, the Xinhua News Agency reported. In South Korea, hundreds of flights were cancelled after the temperature fell to record lows Sunday, Yonhap News Agency reported. 

New York City emerged on Sunday from a massive blizzard that paralyzed much of the US East Coast and midtown Manhattan sprang back to life on a bright and sunny Sunday. Government offices in Washington, Columbia and Virginia and Maryland are closed until Monday.