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Belgrade  - When one looks at Rhine from a bridge in the former German capital Bonn, one immediately thinks of a highway, with barges navigating underneath like cars running the roads, with the lighter vessels overtaking the slower one before returning to their lanes.

A look from the Pancevo bridge, which crosses Danube in the Serbian capital Belgrade, reveals swamps on one side, the city on the other - and an empty huge river underneath.

Belgrade  - Some have set themselves on fire in public and some have blown themselves up with hand grenades: many veterans from the Balkan wars saw suicide as the only way out of their misery.

And many will continue to do so - even though experts say more care could change that.

"Many soldiers' experiences are so extreme that they are unable to communicate them to others once they return from the frontline," says German expert Ursula Renner.

Renner, of the Bonn-based Forum Civil Peace Service, works with veterans in Croatia, which fought a bitter war against the Yugoslav army and Serb insurgents 1991-95.

Belgrade - Tens of thousands of people in dozens of villages were isolated from outside world Thursday in the Balkans after heavy snowfall, local reports said.

At least five municipalities, with some 10,000 people were cut off in northern Albania, as layers of fresh snow exceeded three metres in some places.

The highway Morina-Kukes-Qafa Shllak has been closed and it is believed that people may be trapped in cars stuck in snow. At least one family was rescued by police arriving after a several-hour trek.