Storms Shut Schools, Shops Across Middle East
Date: 31-Jan-08
Country: ISRAEL
Many Israelis and Palestinians stayed home from work as snow piled up in Jerusalem and highland areas of the West Bank. Cars crawled through sleety streets and children, excused from school, flocked to parks to have snowball fights.
The storms also closed government ministries and universities in Jordan's capital Amman, as many residents took the day off rather than try to negotiate the clogged roads.
In Lebanon, heavy snow disrupted traffic on the main highway to the Syrian capital, Damascus, and left villages above 600 metres (2,000 feet) largely cut off.
(Reporting by Avida Landau in Jerusalem, Tom Perry in Beirut, and Suleiman Khalidi in Amman; Writing by Avida Landau; Editing by Charles Dick)
