Hundreds of people were trapped in their vehicles on mountainous roads on Friday as storm Vladimir that began two days ago blanketed the high altitudes with snow on New Year's Day.

“More than 700 cars are trapped between Aitou and Ehden and residents are urging the army to intervene,” LBCI television reported.

The costumes were stunning. The manor house was sublime. And the "Downton Abbey" cast members made the most of their characters.

But it was the smart dialogue crafted by Julian Fellowes, who wrote every episode, that put the drama in a TV class of its own. The sixth and final season begins Sunday on PBS' "Masterpiece" (9 p.m. EST).

Hundreds of people marched in Corsica on Sunday after two days of violent anti-Arab riots, sidestepping a ban on demonstrations in a flashpoint neighborhood by taking their protests elsewhere in the capital.

Two people were detained over days of rioting on the French Mediterranean island, which saw demonstrators vandalize a Muslim prayer hall and set fire to books including copies of the Koran.

Iraq's top Shiite cleric has denounced the abduction earlier this month of up to 26 falconry hunters from Qatar who were seized by gunmen in a remote desert area in southern Iraq.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani says such acts are against the "religious laws and the moral principles of Iraqis and affect the reputation of the country."

Nicolas Cage has agreed to give back a national treasure from Mongolia.

A publicist for the star of the "National Treasure" adventure films confirmed Tuesday that Cage was the unwitting buyer of a dinosaur skull that federal prosecutors in New York say was stolen. Prosecutors announced last week that they were seeking court approval to take custody of the 32-inch fossil so it could be returned to the Asian nation, but they did not name the buyer.

One of New Jersey's "Real Housewives" is set to be freed after serving nearly a year in prison for bankruptcy fraud.

A lawyer for Teresa Giudice (JOO'-dys) says she will travel home to Montville, New Jersey, upon her release Wednesday from the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in Connecticut. She will be on home confinement until Feb. 5.

A man convicted of hijacking a Spanish airliner in 1996 on its way from Madrid to Havana has been removed from the U.S. by federal immigration officials.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said in a news release that officers took 47-year-old Saado Mohamed Ibrahim on Sunday from Jacksonville to Beirut, where he was handed over to officials.

The country's trash collection crisis, which set off huge protests this summer, is entering its sixth month, but you would hardly know it in Beirut.

Not only are the capital's streets kept relatively garbage-free, but the country's politicians have been in no hurry to resolve the catastrophe.

Thousands of people gathered Monday in the southern Beirut suburb of Ghobeiri for the funeral of high-profile Hizbullah militant Samir al-Quntar, who the group says was killed by an Israeli airstrike near the Syrian capital.

Hizbullah said Quntar, who spent 30 years in an Israeli prison after a deadly operation in northern Israel, was killed Saturday along with eight others in the airstrike on a residential building in Jaramana, close to Damascus.

Several of Hizbullah's allies in the region condemned Sunday the assassination of the group's top militant Samir al-Quntar in a raid in Syria.

Syrian Prime Minister Wael Halaqi condemned the attack, saying targeting Quntar was equivalent to "targeting the axis of resistance," referring to Syria and its allies.