Rain or Shine...

HEAVY SNOWFALL and the danger of avalanches closed the Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland, a key north-south route through the Alps, and some 500 people were evacuated from their exposed homes yesterday.

Some 450 trucks were backed up on the north side of the tunnel, which is expected to reopen today. Several remote mountain villages, including resorts in Grindelwald and Adelboden, were cut off.