BBC News with Jonathan Wheatley

A winter storm is causing major disruption along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled, and states of emergency have been declared in Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia. Rajini Vaidyanathan reports from Washington.

The snow has started to fall here in the nation's capital and across the east coast. A severe weather storm is forecast. The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for the next 24 hours for major cities including New York and Boston, predicting between 40 and 50cm of snow and winds of more than 55km/h. Hundreds of flights have been grounded at airports, including at New York's JFK, Newark, Washington DC and Boston. Both international and domestic services are affected.

The party of the would-be president of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, has called for a general strike from Monday until the incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo steps down.

A party statement said "We should not let them steal our victory." Both men say they won Ivory Coast's presidential election, but Mr Gbagbo has held on to day-to-day power, despite international

appeals to

him to leave office.

There have been clashes between armed Christian and Muslim groups in the central Nigerian city of Jos less than two days after bombings killed 32 people. Security forces

disperse

d the crowds, and there's no official word on casualties, but witnesses reported several dead bodies. Jos, in Nigeria's Plateau state, has been at the heart of ethnic and religious