Blizzards in China

Crowds of frantic Chinese fought for seats Wednesday on the few trains leaving southern China, where the worst winter storms in half a century have crippled the nation's transport system during its busiest travel season. One desperate mob stormed a city bus in the main southern city of Guangzhou, mistakenly thinking it was taking passengers to the day's last departing trains. They pried open doors and elbowed their way inside as helpless police yelled that it was not going to the station. Hundreds of thousands of stranded Chinese want to get home for next week's Lunar New Year, a holiday that is as important in China as Christmas is in the West.