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Malibu hit by snow as cold front blankets California LOS ANGELES, Jan 17 (AFP) Jan 18, 2007 The celebrity enclave of Malibu outside Los Angeles was given a rare sprinkling of snow on Wednesday as California remained in the grip of an arctic cold snap. A layer of snow blanketed hills in Malibu, a seaside town popular with entertainment industry celebrities which is situated by the Pacific Ocean and is famous for its beaches and year-round sunshine. Snow also fell on parts of metropolitan Los Angeles, with the upmarket neighborhood of Westwood receiving a dusting of flakes as the unseasonably low temperatures continued across California. The weather forced transport authorities to close a major California highway north of Los Angeles early Wednesday. A 60-kilometer (37-mile) stretch of the Interstate 5 which links Los Angeles to the state capital Sacramento was shut at around 9:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) and remained closed late in the afternoon. A spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation said there had been several accidents on the freeway and it was not known when it would be re-opened. "Motorists are advised to use an alternate route," the statement said. California's temperatures have plunged to near-record lows, prompting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency. The cold snap has devastated California's citrus fruit industry, with authorities forecasting losses of more than one billion dollars because of the damage to crops. All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.
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