One of the heaviest snowstorms in 30 years has led to at least 1,000 herdsmen being trapped in the interior of China's Inner Mongolia region, a media report said Saturday.

The snowstorm hit Xing'an prefecture, 1,500 km northeast of Inner Mongolia capital Hohhot, last week. Snow piled up to 30 cm in most parts of the region and a metre in some areas, the China Daily reported.

The snow was 40 days earlier than its usual arrival time and was the heaviest in 30 years, officials said. At least 700 livestock are believed to have perished in the storm.

The winds have so far hampered efforts to start a rescue operation in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which has been cut off since a major snowstorm a week ago.

The lives of the herdsmen were not threatened as they have enough stocks of food and no casualties have been reported, said Qiu Feng, a government official.

France has been hit by unusually early snow with the first snowfall of the winter hitting the east of the country on Thursday and Paris Friday afternoon. The cold snap will see temperatures plummet and is likely to last at least a week, according to Michel Daloz of Météo France.

As in much of the rest of Europe, relatively heavy snow has hit lowlying areas three weeks earlier than usual. The cold is likely to move south at the weekend.

Temperatures will drop below zero overnight in some areas, with 0°C to 5°C during the day.

Although 2009's winter saw the heaviest snowfall for 30 years, it did not start in low-lying areas until December.

Snow has not arrived this early since 2005, when winter was also colder than last year. Any part of the country could be disrupted by the harsh weather this year, meteorologists warn.

Paris on Monday announced its plan to tackle the effects of cold this winter.

Severe weather warnings for almost all of the UK are in place, with heavy snow, widespread icy roads and bitter temperatures forecast.

Some 10ins (25cm) of snow is expected to fall over higher ground, while parts of the Midlands and London will not escape a dusting. Overnight temperatures across the UK plunged well below zero again, after a day when much of the country was badly disrupted by the earliest widespread snow for 17 years.

The Met Office said London and the South East, the South West, East Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber and the north east of England face widespread icy roads. The North East, Yorkshire and Humber, East Midlands and the South West were also braced for heavy snow and Wales and Northern Ireland can expect icy roads while Scotland is in line for more heavy snow and drifts thanks to a biting wind.

Forecasters said the cold snap is set to tighten its grip, blanketing swathes of the country in white by the middle of next week.

Aisling Creevey, of MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "It's definitely staying cold and going into next week, we could see a lot more snow. There is a low pressure system across the country and if it moves the way it is looking to at the moment, it's going to be very windy, very snowy and really bitter."

Temperatures will barely rise above freezing on Saturday, with the South West set to be the warmest at around 3C.

Jakarta -- Officials say one of Indonesia's dozens of volcanos has shot ash into the air in a minor eruption that caused no injuries.

Earlier this week the government raised the alert level at Mount Bromo to its highest level, telling villagers and tourists to stay off the rumbling slopes.

Government volcanologist Agus Budiono says the mountain, a popular tourist attraction, spewed ash more than 1,600 feet (500 meters) in the air Friday.

Mount Bromo typically erupts about once a year but unlike nearby Mount Merapi rarely spits debris and hot gas far from its crater. However, two people were killed in a 2004 eruption.

Quincy - Seventeen rare sea turtles suffering a variety of ailments are recovering at the New England Aquarium after being rescued over the past two days off of Cape Cod, Mass.

The turtles rescued by volunteers with the Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary at Wellfleet Bay are being cared for at the aquarium's new animal care center in Quincy. They eventually will be released back to the ocean.

Most of them are Kemp's ridley turtles and are suffering from hypothermia, dehydration and malnourishment. The turtles usually migrate to warmer waters in the winter, but aquarium officials say strong northwest winds Wednesday drove the turtles to shore.

Many had body temperatures in the 50s, when they should have been in the 70s.

An aquarium spokesman says it's unusual for the center to care for so many at one time.

Eyeless cave fish and a frog that carries its offspring on its back are among the new species a team of scientists have discovered in Indonesia's eastern Papua region.

The researchers from the Institute of Research and Development (IRD) in Montpellier, southern France, studied caves, underground rivers and jungles in the remote Lengguru area of New Guinea island.

'In terms of discoveries almost everything remains to be done in this area, which is very difficult to access but which has exceptionally rich biodiversity,' IRD scientist Laurent Pouyaud told AFP.

For seven weeks, the team including biologists, paleontologists and archaeologists explored the vast limestone 'labyrinth' where species have evolved in isolation for millions of years.

In one previously undocumented cave they found a new species of fish which had developed without eyes or pigmentation.

Motorists battled with hazardous conditions on the roads today as the widest-spread November snowfall for 17 years gripped the country. Parts of the UK were blanketed in white as many woke to wintry scenes and freezing temperatures following a bitterly cold night.

The Met Office issued severe weather warnings, flagging up drifting snow for the eastern side of the country as well as parts of Wales and Northern Ireland, while North Yorkshire County Council said six village primary schools were forced to close. Worst-hit were the Scottish Highlands, with up to 8ins (20cm) of snow forecast to settle in Grampian - along with Yorkshire, north east England and East Anglia.

But the rest of Britain did not escape unscathed and snow ploughs and gritters were out in force. A heavy dump of snow caused havoc for commuters in north east Scotland and northern England where up to to 4ins (10cm) had settled today. Drivers also struggled on the North York Moors, which have been hit by bad weather and sub-zero temperatures.

The A170 at Sutton Bank was particularly affected, as was the B1249 at Staxton Bank near Scarborough. The A165 Reighton bypass was partially blocked this morning, with slow traffic around the Sands Road junction.

The number of people killed in recent eruptions of Indonesia's most volatile volcano has risen to 324, according to an official.

Syamsul Maarif of Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency said Wednesday the official death toll from Mount Merapi's eruptions rose after some victims succumbed to severe burns and more bodies were found on the volcano's slopes.

The volcano, located in the middle of the central Indonesian island of Java, initially erupted Oct. 26 - less than 24 hours after a tsunami slammed into the remote Mentawai islands at the western end of the country, killing 509 people.

The Upper Midwest will become one of the nation's worst regions for Thanksgiving travelers to pass through today due to an invasion of snow and ice. The snow will continue to create slick roadways from far eastern Montana to the western shores of Lake Superior today. The snow will fall intermittently throughout the day over North Dakota, eastern South Dakota and neighboring parts of Canada.

This afternoon and evening is when the snow will create the most adverse conditions for motorists in Minneapolis and Duluth. airline passengers should prepare for substantial delays. As the snow continues into tonight, as much as 6 inches will accumulate from northern North Dakota to places in the vicinity of western Lake Superior. International Falls, Minnesota, lies within this zone.

Gusty winds will worsen the situation for travelers today by whipping the snow around, leading to reduced visibility. The strongest winds will blast the northern High Plains, where high temperatures will be held to the teens and single digits. These winds will create dangerous blizzard conditions at times. While a substantial amount of new snow will not fall today, the winds will have no trouble blowing and drifting the snow left by recent storm systems.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 5 inches of snow remained on the ground in Rapid City, South Dakota

Weather system brings snow, power outages and unseasonably chilly temperatures

A blast of Arctic air is barrelling down on the West Coast of B.C., threatening to break low temperature records that have stood for 25 years. The low is expected to dip to -10 C in the Vancouver area and -4 C in Victoria - the "warm" spot for the province. The overnight low in the far northeast at Fort St. John is forecast at -30 C and in Prince George, in the central Interior, -26 C.

The lowest recorded temperature in Vancouver for this date is -12.9 C, set in 1985. Tuesday's forecast high of -6 C should smash the record for the coldest daytime high for Nov. 23 of -1 C, also set in 1985. The weather system brought more strong winds Monday night, knocking out power to more than 20,000 homes in the Fraser Valley. The outages were located mostly in Chilliwack, Abbotsford and Langley. Hydro crews were expected to have the power back on sometime overnight.

The freezing weather system also dumped snow on the streets of Victoria and shut down some ferry routes between the islands. Police in Victoria asked people to keep their vehicles off the street after a dump of snow made some routes impassable and led to a rash of traffic accidents. Environment Canada issued a snowfall warning for southern Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and the Sunshine Coast as road conditions are expected to worsen. That prompted many businesses like Gateway Property Management to close for the day so their staff could avoid the afternoon rush hour, according to manager Nathan Enns.

"If the snow stops in the next hour then ... it's sort of a non-issue. But if it keeps going, it's going to be a messy, convoluted rush hour going home this afternoon," said Enns. In Victoria, the city urged drivers to stay out of their vehicles in order to give public works crews time to clear major arteries. A dozen smaller streets in the city are closed, in order to clear motor vehicle accidents, police said.