EUROPE: Eleven people were killed and at least four were missing after gale-force winds battered northern Europe at the weekend, causing flooding and transport chaos and leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity.
In Britain, police searched for two men swept away by overflowing rivers in the north of England, after heavy rain and 90 m.p.h. gales ripped through many parts of the country.
Police were also investigating three deaths that may have been caused by the extreme weather.
Cumbria was hardest hit, with emergency services rescuing hundreds of people from flooded homes after a river burst its banks. Carlisle was swamped with its worst floods for 40 years and electricity was cut to 76,000 homes.
However, worst-hit was southern Scandinavia. In Sweden, seven people died, including three motorists whose cars were hit by falling trees, as winds of up to 67 m.p.h. hit the south of the country.
The winds left 400,000 Swedes without power and forced the closure of two nuclear power stations. Sturup airport, near Malmo, was briefly closed and ferry traffic stopped.
Across the Baltic Sea, 60 per cent of Latvia's population of 2.4 million was without electricity yesterday.
The military evacuated people from districts in the capital, Riga, because of flooding.
In Denmark, more than 15,000 households were without power. Two men were killed when they were struck by a roof torn off a cottage on the island of Funen, while two others were killed by falling trees.