The Danube rose after the heaviest rainfalls in the region in half a century, isolating several villages.

The snow reaches four to five meters in depths, sometimes isolating the towns and villages in the region from others.

Several authorities along the western coast said that the storm destroyed nearly 1,348 homes and caused landslides which blocked several roads which isolated several villages.

Documents came to light revealing that his regime coordinated with Turkey in its efforts to isolate Kurdish villages in 1988, in which he used chemical weapons.

As a result, landslides are frequent, often isolating rural towns and villages from the major urban centres.

But what were the people in these isolated little Iraqi villages like?

Dry Wells, Broken Roads The massive landslides blocked roads, isolating towns and villages in the Nepalese-Indian border belt, and disrupting communications and rail lines.

In Rajar, like other somewhat poor, isolated Middle Eastern villages, life goes on pretty much the way it has for decades.

Snowdrifts blocking roads have isolated villages in many remote areas, and British Rail is fighting numerous electrical failures and minor derailments caused by the snow.

Unita, which controls one-third of Angola, contends that the Government troops and their Cuban military allies use mines to isolate and punish villages sympathetic to the guerrillas.