Last night the extreme cold in Russia was on the news with tales of
evacuating whole cities when their power stations packed up.

And of course the survivors of the shambles that was the earthquake on
the Indian Pakistani border have been badly hit. 200 died in the first
week of the year:

"The bitter cold of winter settled ferociously over the interior of
Asia during the first week of 2006. A large mass of Siberian air swept
as far south as India and as far east as Japan, enveloping much of Asia
with uncommonly low temperatures. In many places, the cold weather was
accompanied by crippling snow. Among the most severely affected were
the 200,000-plus people stranded in northwestern China when heavy snow
fell over the region, reported United Press International. The cold
snap also levied a heavy toll on northern India, where an estimated 200
had died of the cold as of January 9, said the BBC."
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/New...3?img_id=17157