Chinese Internet Traffic Redirected to Small Wyoming House.

In one of the more bizarre twists in recent Internet memory, much of the Internet traffic in China was redirected to a small, 1,700-square-foot house in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Tuesday.

A large portion of China’s 500 million Internet users were unable to load websites ending in .com, .net or .org for nearly eight hours in most regions of China, according to Compuware, a Detroit-based technology company.

The China Internet Network Information Center, a state-run agency that deals with Internet affairs, said it had traced the problem to the country’s domain name system. And one of China’s biggest antivirus software vendors, Qihoo 360 Technology, said the problems affected roughly three-quarters of the country’s domain name system servers.

Those servers, which act as a switchboard for Internet traffic behind China’s Great Firewall, routed traffic from some of China’s most popular sites, including Baidu and Sina, to a block of Internet addresses registered to Sophidea Incorporated, a mysterious company housed on a residential street in Cheyenne, Wyo.

A simple Google search reveals that the address on Thomes Avenue in Cheyenne is not a corporate headquarters, but a 1,700-square-foot brick house with a manicured lawn.

That address — which is home to some 2,000 companies on paper — was the subject of a lengthy 2011 Reuters investigation that found that among the entities registered to the address were a shell company controlled by a jailed former Ukraine prime minister; the owner of a company charged with helping online poker operators evade an Internet gambling ban; and one entity that was banned from government contracts after selling counterfeit truck parts to the Pentagon.

Wyoming Corporate Services, the registered agent for Sophidea Incorporated, according to Internet records, did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday afternoon.

It was not immediately clear what caused the traffic shift Tuesday. One Chinese newspaper suspected a cyberattack. But by late Tuesday, some technologists had come to an alternate theory: a backfiring of China’s own Internet censoring system.

Sophidea appears to be a service that redirects traffic from one address to another to mask a person’s whereabouts — or to evade a firewall.

Some technologists surmised Tuesday that the disruption may have been caused by Chinese Internet censors who attempted to block traffic to Sophidea’s websites but mistakenly redirected traffic to the service instead.

That theory was buttressed by the fact that a separate wave of Chinese Internet traffic Tuesday was simultaneously redirected to Internet addresses owned by Dynamic Internet Technology, a company that helps people evade China’s Great Firewall, and is typically blocked in China.

Bill Xia, who created Dynamic Internet Technology in 2001, told The Wall Street Journal Tuesday that his company had nothing to do with the traffic shift and also suspected that the problem was the doing of China’s own Internet censors.

The disruption mirrored a similar incident in 2002 when Chinese Internet users attempting to access Sina.com were redirected to a banned website belonging to followers of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China.

Nicole Perlroth reported from San Francisco. David Barboza contributed reporting from Shanghai.

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Worldwide ~ Snow and Ice make China's Mount hua Pilgrimage Espesially Dangerous.

The five peaks of Mount Hua have been vertical sanctuaries for monks, hermits, and spiritual seekers, especially Taoists, for centuries, but to get to them pilgrims must cross treacherous trails, such as those made from links of chain and wooden planks joined by iron staples. And now with winter in full swing, it’s the most dangerous time of year to attempt what could be the most dangerous hike in the world. All five peaks are joined by steep, narrow trails, stairs, and ladders, and dotted with temples and lookout points. Though some peaks involve riskier ascents than others, all hikes require slow and steady climbing along the trails, or you’ll risk a speedy decent. Numerous visitors have embarked on the hike and never returned, although the Chinese government isn’t saying how many. Check out this skyscraping trek in this story.

For the images story and more about it, Click Here

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Worldwide ~ Plane Crashes at Aspen, 1 Killed, 2 Injured.

A private plane crashed upon landing at an airport in Aspen, Colo., on Sunday, eyewitnesses and aviation officials said.

Emergency crews at Aspen-Pitkin County Airport responded to the plane following the crash, which occurred shortly after noon local time. According to the Pitkin County Sheriff's Department, one person was killed and two were injured — one severely — in the crash. The victims were not immediately identified.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the plane, a Bombardier Challenger 600, was en route to Aspen from Tucson. According to public flight data, a 22-seat private Challenger model plane — owned by a Bank of Utah trustee — took off from Tucson International Airport shortly after 10 a.m. and was due to land in Aspen at 12:11 p.m. MST. Earlier Sunday, the same plane flew from Toluca, Mexico, to Tucson before flying to Aspen.

There were reports of 30 mph wind gusts in Aspen around the time of the crash, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures were between zero and minus-10 degrees. Video taken just after the crash near the tarmac appeared to show strong winds and deteorating weather conditions.

The National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, D.C., said it was sending a team to Aspen to investigate the crash. All remaining flights in and out of the airport were cancelled Sunday.

In a photo taken by a passenger on a different plane, the plane that crashed could be seen upside down in the snow. In another, dark smoke could be seen billowing from the wreckage. 

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Worldwide ~ Great Britain's Lashing Waves & Tides.

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High winds, waves and tides were lashing Britain's western coast Friday in a winter storm that flooded seaside towns and low-lying areas. 

Wales, southwest England and Northern Ireland were the worst-hit regions by the storm, the latest in a series of extreme winter conditions. Parts of northwestern France also suffered flooding. (AP)

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Worldwide ~ 14 Years Old Powerlifter draws Pirze, Concern.

Meet Jake Schellenschlager. He's 14 years old. And he can deadlift more than two times his body weight.

A profile in The Washington Post spotlights Schellenschlager and the challenges inherent in his chosen sport. He's one of thousands of young powerlifters across the United States who are able to lift enormous weights far heavier than their own frame. (Powerlifters are not the same thing as bodybuilders, who focus more on appearance than on lifting for its own sake.)

Schellenschlager weighs only about 119 pounds, but can deadlift 300. He's been lifting for the past two years under a coach's supervision. The Post notes that children can begin competing in powerlifting competitions at 14, but that some children begin lifting at age 8 for fun.

The question for someone so young, of course, is whether lifting at such a young age can have detrimental effects later in life. "Powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting sports are different because they usually are involving maximum lifts — the squat, bench press and the dead lift," Paul Stricker, a youth sports medicine specialist at the Scripps Health Clinic in San Diego, told the Post. "There is high risk to heavy maximal lifts or explosive lifts during their rapid growth phrase. That is our biggest caution. We just don’t recommend they do maximal lifts or explosive lifts until they have finished the majority of their growth spurt."

“He doesn’t feel he can be defeated," says his trainer, Mike Sarni. "It is that inner strength that tells him, ‘I can do this.’ Usually, you only get that in older, more mature people.”

Here's video of Jake lifting last summer:  Watch Here

So, your thoughts. Is 14 too young for this activity, or is it no more damaging than any of a half-dozen other sports kids could be playing?

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Worldwide ~ Skype Hackers Revealed.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Syrian Electronic Army, an amorphous hacker collective that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, claimed credit on Wednesday for hacking into the social media accounts of Internet calling service Skype.

The group also posted the contact information of Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Corp's retiring chief executive, on its Twitter account along with the message, "You can thank Microsoft for monitoring your accounts/emails using this details. #SEA"

That message was an apparent reference to revelations last year by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that Skype, which is owned by Microsoft, was part of the NSA's program to monitor communications through some of the biggest U.S. Internet companies.

A message posted on Skype's official Twitter feed on Wednesday, apparently by the hacking group, read: "Don't use Microsoft emails (hotmail, outlook), They are monitoring your accounts and selling the data to the governments. More details soon. #SEA"

Similar messages were posted on Skype's official Facebook pages and on a blog on its website before being taken down in late afternoon. The SEA later tweeted out copies of the message "for those who missed it."

Representatives for Microsoft could not be reached for comment.

The NSA's practices essentially made Microsoft and other technology companies partners in government surveillance efforts against private citizens in the United States and elsewhere.

Last month Microsoft joined seven other top technology companies in pressing President Barack Obama to rein in the U.S. government's electronic spying in a meeting at the White House.

Media companies, including the New York Times and the BBC, have repeatedly been targeted by the Syrian Electronic Army and other hacker activist groups that deface websites and take over Twitter accounts.

Obama and his national security team are trying to decide what recommendations to adopt from an outside panel's review of the NSA's activities.

A U.S. District judge in December ruled that the U.S. government's gathering of Americans' phone records is likely unlawful and raised what he called "serious doubts" about the value of the so-called metadata counter-terrorism program.

A second federal judge ruled later in the month that the program was constitutional, raising the likelihood that the issue will be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.

This week, a monitoring group said the death toll in Syria's civil war, which began in March 2011 as peaceful protests against four decades of rule by Assad's family, had risen to at least 130,000.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Ian Simpson and Sandra Maler)

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Worldwide ~ Spectacular Fireworks were Launched due to Welcome the 2014 !

Hello Visitors !!! Lets forgot about what you've done at year 2013 and lets step forward to 2014 !! As usually, whole world celebrates and greatly Welcome the new year. Below are some photos of Super and Beautiful Fireworks from several Country and Places. Take a look....... Happy New Year 2014 , Wish all the best.

Fireworks Around The London Eye

Fireworks Around The London Eye

Fireworks Above the Catherdal Square

Fireworks @ France, Paris

Superb Fireworks @ Sydney

Another Superb fireworks @ Sydney

Nice and Beautiful fireworks @ New Zealand

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Worldwide ~ Swarm Of Tremors Rattle Canary Islands.

Two years after a new underwater volcano appeared offshore of El Hierro in the Canary Islands, earthquake swarms and a sudden change in height suggest a new eruption is brewing near the island's villages, officials announced today (Dec. 27).

After the announcement, one of the largest temblors ever recorded at the volcanic island, a magnitude-5.1 earthquake, struck offshore of El Hierro at 12:46 p.m. ET (5:46 p.m. local time) today, the National Geographic Institute reported. Residents on the island reported strong shaking, and the quake was felt throughout the Canary Islands, according to news reports. The earthquake's epicenter was 9 miles (15 kilometers) deep.

Before the earthquake struck early this afternoon, the island's volcano monitoring agency, Pelvolca, had raised the volcanic eruption risk for El Hierro to "yellow." This warning means that activity is increasing at the volcano, but no eruption is imminent. A similar burst of activity prompted a yellow warning in June 2012, but the volcano soon quieted down.

Parts of El Hierro have swelled nearly 3 inches (7 centimeters) in the past week, with the growth centered between El Pinar and La Restinga, according to Involcan, the Volcanological Institute of the Canaries.

More than 550 earthquakes rattled the island between Monday and Wednesday, also centered on La Restinga. About 30 of the earthquakes were greater than magnitude 3, Involcan said. The earthquakes are triggered by magma rising underground, fracturing rocks and swelling the surface as the hot rock reaches upward. "The earthquake swarm corresponds to a new magmatic intrusion," Involcan said this morning in a statement.

Today's preliminary magnitude-5.1 earthquake was on the opposite side of the island from the ongoing swarm.

El Hierro was the site of a spectacular underwater volcanic eruption in 2011, which severely affected island fisheries and forced islanders to evacuate.

This new was freshly taken from Yahoo ! News , Thankyou for reading.

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Greenland's Snow Hides 100 Billion Tons of Water.

A drill rig was used to extract old snow.

Big surprises still hide beneath the frozen surface of snowy Greenland. Despite decades of poking and prodding by scientists, only now has the massive ice island revealed a hidden aquifer.]

In southeast Greenland, more than 100 billion tons of liquid water soaks a slushy snow layer buried anywhere from 15 to 160 feet (5 to 50 meters) below the surface. This snow aquifer covers more than 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometers) — an area bigger than West Virginia — researchers report today (Dec. 22) in the journal Nature Geoscience.

"We thought we had an understanding of how things work in Greenland, but here is this entire storage system of water we didn't realize was there," said Richard Forster, lead study author and a glaciologist at the University of Utah.

The discovery will help scientists better understand the fate of Greenland's annual surface melt, which contributes to sea level rise. When the summer sun warms the Arctic island, a giant water world of stunning blue lakes and streams appears atop the ice. Tracking this surface runoff helps scientists account for ice lost to melting each year. Until now, researchers thought most of this water went to the ocean or refroze on the ice. Now they've found a new hiding place.

"This throws an additional complexity into the system," Forster told LiveScience.

There is enough water in the snow aquifer to raise global sea level by 0.015 inches (0.4 millimeters), according to a separate study by the same team published Nov. 30 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters (GRL). Every year, Greenland adds 0.03 inches (0.7 mm) of water to global sea level rise from melting snow and ice, Forster said. [Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming]

Where water flows

No one yet knows how old the water in the aquifer is, and whether it stays trapped in the snow or reaches the ocean in slow streams or catastrophic floods. However, the top of the water table rose after Greenland's huge surface melt in 2012, the researchers report in their GRL study.

The group will return to southeast Greenland in the coming years to answer these and other questions, Forster said. "Just seeing how old it is would answer a lot of questions," he said.

The final destination of Greenland's melt water is also key to understanding how the ice sheet ebbs and flows, because water under the ice sheet lubricates flowing glaciers. Researchers know some melt water goes to the bottom of the ice, trickling through cracks and racing through vertical pipes called moulins. Some of the water also simply refreezes on the surface when winter comes. Liquid water sitting in buried snow layers can also slowly warm and melt the ice sheet.

"The existence of this rather flavorless natural snow cone has many implications for the future of the ice sheet, some that may make the ice go away faster and others that help keep the ice a little longer," said Richard Alley, a glaciologist at Pennsylvania State University, who was not involved in the study. "We would like to understand these implications better so we can help reduce the uncertainties about future changes."  

Soppy surprise

Forster and his colleagues discovered the aquifer in 2011, when a drill punched into sopping wet snow, as mushy as a summer snow cone treat or a Slurpee. (This was a year before the big surface melt of 2012.) "Water was pouring out of the core," Forster said — not what one wants to find when all the electronics are mounted outside the drill. A video of the event reveals both excitement and a few choice words among the scientists. [Watch: Discover Greenland's Hidden Aquifer]

The water was stored in hard, compacted snow called firn — the remains of the previous year's snowfall. Forster thinks the aquifer went undiscovered because so much snow falls in this corner of Greenland.

In Southeast Greenland, frequent storms crash into tall mountains, dumping more winter snow there than anywhere else on the icy island. The thick, insulating snow blanket keeps the watery firn liquid during the freezing winter, like a down coverlet, Forster said.

Many drillers have skipped over this part of Greenland because the snow layers are so thick, Forster said, and most people who are drilling cylinders of ice from the ice sheet are looking to see the layers compacted over hundreds and thousands of years. "People who extract ice cores don't want to go through high accumulation layers," he said. But Forster's team was interested in the past 10 years of snowfall, so the southeast was a good research spot, he said.

Ground-penetrating radar, towed by snowmobile, helped the researchers locate more water nearby, which the group confirmed by drilling in 2011 and 2013. When the researchers returned home, they searched airborne radar data from NASA's Operation IceBridge and discovered the true extent of the buried snow aquifer, all in areas with heavy snowfall. Most of the water is in the southeast, but a few pockets appeared in the south and southwest, Forster said. "It all corresponds to these areas of high snow accumulation," he said.

Greenland's future

Researchers estimate Greenland has lost more than 200 million tons of ice and snow each year since 2003. The ice sheet will completely disappear when the planet's average temperature rises by 2 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 4 degrees Celsius) above preindustrial temperatures, as predicted by the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released in September.

This news were re-posted in my web , from : Yahoo News.

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Worldwide ~ US , Chinese Warship Nearly Collide in S. Chinese Sea.

Washinton ~ Venomz | A Chinese naval vessel came dangerously close to a US warship during a tense incident in the South China Sea last week, US military officials said Friday.

The USS Cowpens, a guided missile cruiser, was forced to maneuver to avoid a collision with the Chinese ship that had crossed directly in front of it and halted, according to naval officers and defense officials.

China's amphibious dock ship came less than 500 yards (meters) from the American warship, a defense official said.

"This encounter happened in international waters in the South China Sea on Dec. 5," the defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said in an email.

"Eventually, effective bridge-to-bridge communication occurred between the US and Chinese crews, and both vessels maneuvered to ensure safe passage," the official said.

The official said the Cowpens had been "in the vicinity" of China's new aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, when the incident occurred.

The stand-off ended peacefully but underscored tensions between the United States and China, which escalated after Beijing last month declared an expanded "air defense identification zone" in the East China Sea.

Last week's confrontation occurred in the strategic South China Sea, where Beijing has aggressively moved to push for control over territory claimed by other countries in the region.

The US military has repeatedly vowed to keep operating in international waters and airspace, and has increased its presence in Southeast Asia over the past year as a counter-balance to Beijing's more assertive regional stance.

China has declared an economic exclusion zone in part of the western Pacific, but the United States considers the area international waters beyond Beijing's control.

US military leaders have warned that China's air defense zone could aggravate tensions and possibly trigger a dangerous incident.

Washington has refused to recognize the air zone and flew a pair of B-52 bombers through the area without notifying Beijing in advance.

The defense official renewed calls for bolstering military relations between the two countries to prevent misunderstandings.

"US leaders have been clear about our commitment to develop a stable and continuous military-to-military relationship with China," the defense official said.

"Whether it is a tactical at-sea encounter, or strategic dialogue, sustained and reliable communication mitigates risk of mishaps, which is in the interest of both the US and China."

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Worldwide ~ Harshest Laws In The World.

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Last year, California voters amended the state’s “Three Strike Law,” which had required an automatic 25-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of three felonies. Advocates of the change said the severity of the crimes should be taken into account before sentencing. But there are other laws around the world that make “Three Strikes” look tame in comparison. In 1994, the country of Singapore made headlines when they caned a 19 year-old American who had been found guilty of vandalism. But far more serious an offense is drug possession. Having 17 ounces or more of marijuana in Singapore can carry a punishment of death by hanging. Drug possession carries equally strict penalties in other countries, too. In Saudi Arabia, drug traffickers can be publicly beheaded. And in Vietnam, drug convicts are sent to a rehabilitation center that, in reality, is a forced hard labor camp. There are also strict laws out there for crimes much less serious than drug dealing. In North Korea, trying to leave the country without permission could result in life imprisonment at labor camp for you, your children, and grandchildren. In India, cheating on an academic exam in school can land you in jail for 10 years. And in Dubai, a British couple learned the hard way that kissing in public can be considered indecent exposure. They were sentenced to one month in jail in 2010 for their public display of affection.Maybe the British couple’s next trip should be to California, where at least you get three strikes before you’re out.

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Worldwide ~ China's Air Polution Is So Damn Bad.

In America, we're used to our government, our industry and our media putting a spin on events to make the world seem a brighter, better place than it really is. But China is showing some impressive spin talent of its own, with a rationalization for pollution that is, quite literally, breathtaking.

Much of China has been suffering through choking smog in recent weeks, which has hampered daily activities and forced the closure of schools. In response, the government published a list of reasons documenting the benefits of smog. Yes, benefits.

A Time magazine translator indicated that Global Times offered up the following rationalizations for smog:

1. It unifies the Chinese people. 

2. It makes China more equal. 

3. It raises citizen awareness of the cost of China’s economic development. 

4. It makes people funnier. 

5. It makes people more knowledgeable (of things like meteorology and the English word haze).

That's some interesting rationalization. Following that line of thinking, hurricanes also unify people by forcing them to leave their isolated homes and gather in collectives. Tornadoes give people a sense of the power of nature. Wildfires place everyone on an equal footing by burning everyone's possessions to the ground. See? The problem isn't nature, the problem is you.

Oh, but the disinformation campaign wasn't done. The Global Times, a newspaper connected to the Communist Party's preferred publication the People's Daily, noted that smog has a defensive benefit. “Smog may affect people’s health and daily lives," the newspaper wrote, "but on the battlefield, it can serve as a defensive advantage in military operations." The article pointed to military operations in Kosovo and Saudi Arabia that used smoke as a means of obscuring the enemy's sight lines and fouling electronic equipment. This takes "we had to burn the village to save it" to a completely new level.

Assuming these comments are real — and the Chinese government historically has little patience for satire — it's a stunning attempt to deceive a populace about the true seriousness of a man-made environmental threat.

In future weeks, expect the Chinese government to endorse smoking (toughens your lungs!), junk food (purchasing larger items of clothing helps the textile industry!) and reality television (gives you a healthy distrust of your closest friends and family!).

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Worldwide ~ Norwegian Daredevil's Epic Handstand.

What does a daredevil cyclist do once he's conquered a handstand on top of a mountain with no net?

If you're Norwegian daredevil Eskil Ronningsbakken you bike backwards at speeds of up to 50 mph down Norway's Trollstigen mountain with only a bike helmet to protect you.

Ronningsbakken posted video of his feat to YouTube last month, where it has already been viewed more than 400,000 times.

Perched atop the bike's handlebars, Ronningsbakken weaves down the 850m-high-mountain on a foggy, rainy day, using only his own sideways glances to navigate the tricky terrain.

The YouTube video includes footage from Ronningsbakken's own perspective thanks to a helmet cam.

At the end of the video, after arriving safely at the mountain's base, Ronningsbakken makes his next goal known.

"I think there's only one thing missing now, and that's to go all the way back up," he says.

For more details , Click here

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Worldwide ~ Big storm dumps snow on East Coast.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A plodding storm that dumped heavy snow on the unsuspecting Mid-Atlantic region threatened to make roads dicey in the northeast corridor for Monday's commute while travel disruptions continued to ripple across the country days after the same system first began wreaking havoc in the skies.

The seemingly never-ending storm that coated parts of Texas in ice struck with unexpected force on the East Coast, blanketing some spots in a foot of snow and grinding highways to a halt.

Travel problems could linger into Monday afternoon, with freezing rain and icy conditions sticking around as wintry weather stretched from Missouri to Maine.

The storm canceled more than 2,500 flights Sunday and delayed thousands more, according to estimates from the website Flightaware.com. More than 1,000 of Monday's flights were already canceled, the greatest share from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which was still reeling from the effects of the ice storm that brought North Texas to a standstill.

The forecast for Monday remained up in the air for the northeast, depending on how quickly the system moves and temperatures rise, according to the National Weather Service. Meanwhile, a winter storm warning was in effect until 10 a.m. for Washington, D.C., and Baltimore where up to a quarter inch of ice was expected because of freezing rain that could cause power outages.

The expectation was for another weather system moving out of Virginia to follow the same path as Sunday's storm overnight. It was expected to dump icy drizzle and eventually freezing rain through the New York City area and into Boston, National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Heavener said.

Indeed, slippery conditions were reported overnight in the New York City area: a crash involving about 20 vehicles closed southbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Greenwich, Conn., for a couple of hours. No serious injuries were immediately reported.

Forecasters said air travel would likely remain a hassle, too.

"I think the further north you look, departures and arrivals could be affected because of icy issues," Heavener said.

What was forecast in the Philadelphia area to be a tame storm system with about an inch of snow gradually changing over to rain mushroomed into a full-blown snow storm. Bands of heavy snow made for a wide range of accumulation: a foot was reported in Newark, Del. Philadelphia International Airport received 8.6 inches, more than it had all of last year. Other areas received far less: a little over an inch was reported in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, which usually is hit harder than downtown Philadelphia.

Sunday's snow fell so heavily in Philadelphia that yard markers at Lincoln Financial Field - where the Eagles beat the Detroit Lions - were completely obscured. It was almost as bad in Pittsburgh, where the snow intensified after the opening kickoff.

Philadelphia fan Dave Hamilton, of Ivyland, layered up for the game in Eagles gear.

"Twenty-seven years I've been a season-ticket holder, I've never seen snow at the game like this," he said. "It just kept coming down."

Heavy snow in the Philadelphia area led to a number of accidents, including a fatal crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike that spawned fender-benders involving 50 cars, stranding some motorists for up to seven hours. More than two dozen vehicles were involved in another series of crashes on nearby Interstate 78.

Paul Jones, 24, a youth hockey coach from Warminster in the Philadelphia suburbs, was on his way to a game in Lancaster when he got stuck - along with his fiancee, another coach and three players - in a major backup on the turnpike.

The roadway was "snow-covered, slick," Jones said in an interview from the car, where he was a passenger and had been at a standstill for more than an hour.

"People are in and out" of their vehicles, he said. "Kids are having a snowball fight on the side of the road, making snow angels, people are walking their dogs.

Philadelphia International Airport spokeswoman Stacey Jackson said a number of passengers were expected to remain in the airport overnight since area hotels had been full for several days. She said staff would hand out pillows and blankets to travelers to make them "feel at home even though they are not."

Air passengers in the Washington-area experienced increasing delays at both Dulles International and Ronald Reagan Washington National airports.

Virginia, parts of West Virginia and the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area braced for blackouts under steady freezing rain, wet snow and sleet. Parts of northwest and southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia got snow, while sleet and freezing rain prevailed west and north of Richmond.

In Maryland, a chain-reaction accident on Interstate 81 in Washington County involving more than 20 vehicles delayed snow removal efforts for hours. The highway was closed for more than three hours after a tractor-trailer ran into the median to avoid cars that had spun out. It was hit by another tractor-trailer that overturned and spilled its load. Several other tractor-trailers ran off the road and jackknifed as their drivers tried to avoid the crash.

But the nasty weather wasn't limited to the East Coast. Nebraska and Iowa saw snow; multiple weather-related crashes were reported in Wisconsin, including two that were fatal; thousands of customers lost power in Mississippi because of sleet and freezing rain.

A snowstorm that hit along the Utah-Arizona border left hundreds of travelers stranded on Interstate 15 overnight into Sunday. The Arizona Highway Patrol said passengers in about 300 vehicles became stranded after up to 10 inches of snow and slick road conditions prompted the closure of part of the highway. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

The specter of bad driving conditions for Monday's commute had some motorists concerned not just about getting to work, but getting out at all. New Jersey's new U.S. senator, Cory Booker, tweeted a promise to one Mount Holly resident to help him shovel out his car if he still needed the help in the morning.

___

Rubinkam reported from Pennsylvania. Associated Press writers Steve Szkotak in Richmond, Va., Ben Nuckols in Washington, D.C., Jamie Stengle in Dallas, and Samantha Henry in Newark, N.J., contributed to this report.

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Worldwide ~ Trio Lamborghinis Brun in Million - Dollar Wreck.

The upside to owning a car like a Lamborghini Aventador or Gallardo comes easily; the speed, the attention, the status. The downside comes from when something goes awry — like it did badly on a Malaysian freeway this morning, when three Lamborghinis — two Gallardos and an Aventador — collided and burst into flames, in a million-dollar bonfire of the vanities.

According to local reports, five Lamborghinis registered in Singapore were traveling toward Kuala Lumpur in a convoy when one of the Lamborghini drivers lost control. That Lambo hit the road divider, triggering the crash with the other two cars. None of the drivers were hurt.

Watch it's video : Click here

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Worldwide ~ Africa's Father Rest In Peace.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela has died at age 95 of complications from a recurring lung infection.

The anti-apartheid leader and Nobel laureate was a beloved figure around the world, a symbol of reconciliation from a country with a brutal history of racism. (Yahoo News)

For more about Mandela's Death, Click HERE

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Worldwide ~ Autospy results : Paul Walker died from " Traumatic and Thermal Injuries.

Venomz ~ Paul Walker died of "combined effects of traumatic and thermal injuries." That's the official word from the Los Angeles County Coroner's Department, which conducted autopsies on the "Fast & Furious" star and his friend Roger Rodas on Tuesday and released the results Wednesday morning.

The report formally identified Walker, 40, as the passenger, and Rodas, 38, as the driver, in what was ruled for the first time as an "accident." According to the report, Rodas succumbed to "multiple traumatic injuries" and Walker of "combined effects of traumatic and thermal injuries." Both men died "within seconds" of the incident, described as "auto versus fixed object."

A toxicology report is still pending for both men and should be completed in six to eight weeks.

[Related: 7 Latest Updates in Paul Walker Death Investigation]

Walker and Rodas were killed when Rodas apparently lost control of their 2005 Porsche Carrera GT and slammed into a tree and light pole on Saturday afternoon in Valencia, California, bursting into flames. Walker had just participated in a nearby charity event. He was on a Thanksgiving weekend hiatus from filming "Fast & Furious 7."

The Los Angeles Country Sheriff's Department is still investigating the cause of the crash. Investigators hope to have their initial findings in the next week. Although speed was determined to be a contributing factor, detectives are also looking at the possibility of a mechanical failure or blown tire.

In the meantime, the scene of the accident has become a makeshift memorial, attracting family, friends, co-stars, and fans, who are leaving flowers, photos, and other mementos.

Also Wednesday morning, Universal Pictures announced it was shutting down production on the latest sequel.

[Related: 'Wheel of Fortune' Slammed for Ill-Timed Paul Walker Reference]

"Right now, all of us at Universal are dedicated to providing support to Paul's immediate family and our extended 'Fast & Furious' family of cast, crew, and filmmakers," the studio said in a statement. "At this time we feel it is our responsibility to shut down production on 'Fast & Furious 7' for a period of time so we can assess all options available to move forward with the franchise. We are committed to keeping 'Fast & Furious' fans informed, and we will provide further information to them when we have it. Until then, we know they join us in mourning the passing of our dear friend Paul Walker."

The official "Fast & Furious" account on YouTube posted a loving tribute to the actor late Wednesday.

In Loving Memory , Videos of paul walker : Click here 

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