KEY POINTS:
Snow and ice plastered a wide area of the United States Midwest yesterday, disrupting campaigning by presidential hopefuls, making highways hazardous and closing Des Moines airport.
The National Weather Service posted winter storm and ice warnings across parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, the eastern Dakotas, Illinois and northern Michigan, although some warnings were lifted by midday.
Officials decided to close Des Moines International Airport after a United Airlines plane slid off a taxiway as it was heading to a runway for a flight to Chicago's O'Hare. Airport spokesman Roy Criss said none of the 44 passengers was injured.
The airport reopened by mid-afternoon.
The storm also complicated plans for some presidential hopefuls drumming up support for the January 3 Iowa caucuses that kick off the nomination process.
Republican Mitt Romney cancelled three campaign stops in southern Iowa, and former President Bill Clinton cancelled a rally for his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, outside Des Moines.
- AP
