Heavy snow across Europe

WINTER’S full fury arrived late but with a vengeance across much of Europe yesterday, dumping snow that played havoc with Switzerland’s famously efficient trains and gave Rome and the Mediterranean island of Majorca a rare white blanket.

Heavy snow stranded Ukraine’s new president, Viktor Yushchenko, in Poland and forced him to cancel a much-anticipated trip to Brussels for his first address to the European Parliament.

A plane carrying mail from Romania to Hungary crashed in snowy weather, killing the two pilots.