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They are the voracious Asian invaders that have evaded poisoning, lock gates and hi-tech electronic barriers as they penetrated thousands of miles of American rivers and canals, devouring most of the food in their path.
Now the silver and bighead carp, originally imported from Taiwan, face the might of the US Army in a last-ditch effort to prevent them from reaching the largest freshwater system in the world - the Great Lakes and their connecting rivers that straddle the Canadian border.
© APSome passengers had to stay overnight in Frankfurt airport
Many passengers were left stranded in the airport as snow ploughs attempted to clear runways. In Nuremberg, one plane slid off the runway.
A blizzard is forecast to hit the country soon and people have been advised to stock up on enough essential supplies to last up to four days.
© Ron Trevett A field full of hundreds of rare self-rolling snow balls in Yeovil
Also known as snowrollers, snow bales and snow doughnuts, they form mostly in unusual conditions created by a precise combination of snow, ice, wind, temperature and moisture on the prairies of North America.
But this week's frozen weather has allowed the snow cylinders to make a freak appearance in the UK.
© Neodaas / University of DundeeNasa satellite picture of Britain doused in snow received by the University of Dundee
Thousands of homes have been left without power, schools have closed and travellers have faced chaos as the weather hit roads, rail services and airports over the last two days. The disruption is estimated to have cost businesses around £700 million.
Councils continued to struggle with a growing salt emergency as police warned drivers in many areas not to travel unless their journey was essential.
The AA expect to have attended 20,000 breakdowns today - compared with about 9,000 for a normal Thursday - and warned that conditions were expected to remain "treacherous".
Meanwhile, the shutdown of an offshore Norwegian gasfield pushed Britain's gas infrastructure into emergency mode, forcing the closure of industrial companies in the north of England in order to preserve supplies to homes, shops and offices.
Although major airports stayed open, some air passengers had long waits for their flights, particularly at Gatwick, on the outskirts of south London, where more than 130 flights were cancelled. EasyJet had to axe more than 100 flights and British Airways was among other carriers that had to cancel some services.
The body of Philip Hughes, 45, from Slough, was recovered from beneath ice at the Lakeside Country Club in Surrey where he was watching the world darts championship. A spokesman said it appeared to have been a "tragic accident".
© Associated Press / Nati HarnikVehicles travel in white out conditions caused by blowing snow on Interstate 80 west of Omaha, Neb., Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010. A storm system with sub-freezing temperatures and high winds is traveling through the Midwest.
Frigid weather also was gripping the South, where a rare cold snap was expected to bring snow and ice Thursday to states from South Carolina to Louisiana. Forecasters said wind chills could drop to near zero at night in some areas.
Dangerously cold wind chills were anticipated in the Midwest overnight, including as low as 35 below in eastern Nebraska, minus 45 in parts of South Dakota and negative 50 in North Dakota, according to National Weather Service warnings.
Another 10 inches of snow was expected in Iowa, buried in December by more than 2 feet of snow, while up to 9 inches could fall in southeast North Dakota that forecasters warned would create hazardous zero-visibility driving conditions. Wind gusts of 30 miles per hour were expected in Illinois - along with a foot of snow - while large drifts were anticipated in Nebraska and Iowa.
© UnknownIcy roads spawned traffic accident in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday.
Temperatures on Sunday and Monday at the tip of the Sunshine State are expected to be in the low-to-mid-40s.
The fast-moving cold that gave Florida the chills had combined with moisture from the Gulf of Mexico to dump a dangerous mix of ice and snow throughout the Southeast, coating roadways with a slick glaze.
Numerous school systems throughout the region shut down.
At least nine deaths around the country have been blamed on the round of winter weather this week.
© UnknownThere's no Ice Age here... Nothing to see... Perfect surfing conditions
Whatever happened to global warming?
Such weather doesn't seem to fit with warnings from scientists that the Earth is warming because of greenhouse gases. But experts say the cold snap doesn't disprove global warming at all, it's just a blip in the long-term heating trend.
"It's part of natural variability," said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. With global warming, he said, "we'll still have record cold temperatures. We'll just have fewer of them."
© AP Photo/Nati HarnikVehicles travel in white out conditions caused by blowing snow on Interstate 80 west of Omaha, Neb.
The tractor-trailer jackknifed on Interstate 70, crossed the highway median and swerved into oncoming traffic, colliding with a small bus transporting adult disabled passengers, the Ohio Highway Patrol said.
The driver of the 17-passenger bus was among those killed, said Sgt. Raymond Durant. One person was in critical condition and six others were injured and taken to hospitals, he said. Six of the injured were on the bus, and the tractor-trailer driver was also injured.
Durant said the bus was carrying 11 people at the time of the crash.
Frozen depositories are giving up methane to the sea
Methane is about 20 times more potent than CO2 in trapping solar heat.
The findings come from measurements of carbon fluxes around the north of Russia, led by Igor Semiletov from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
© Daily ExpressA man clears snow from the paths outside his house in Wilkieston in West Lothian
With millions of Britons battling through snow and ice to get to work today, scientists claim that the cold conditions should not be used as evidence against man-made climate change.
Blizzards, ice and sub-zero temperatures that have gripped the UK for almost a month in a record deep freeze are not "robust" indicators of global weather patterns, they say.
Comment: Some 'experts' just can't admit they made wrong predictions: