European freeze to last till Feb-end

LONDON,Febrauary9,2012: The worst February cold spell Europe has seen in decades may last until the end of the month, leading meteorologists said, raising the prospect of further deaths as the toll went past 400."We do have higher confidence in a change by mid-February, but not to milder weather," Leon Brown, a meteorologist at The Weather Channel in Britain, said. "February will probably remain a cold month right to the end." Meanwhile, helicopters ferried food and medicine to iced-in villagers on Wednesday as the 12-day-old cold snap tightened its frigid grip on the continent. More than 130 villages remained without electricity in Bulgaria and the army was delivering food and medicines, the defence ministry said in a statement. Pope Benedict XVI has called for prayers for the victims of the cold wave that is sweeping through Europe and offered encouragement to efforts to provide assistance to those in need. In Serbia, where 13 people have died and 70,000 are cut off by snow, authorities urged people to remove icicles from roofs after a woman in Belgrade was killed by falling ice.