Climate-change skeptics are gleefully calling Cancun's weather the latest example of the "Gore Effect" - a plunge in temperature they say occurs wherever former Vice President Al Gore, now a Nobel Prize-winning environmental activist, makes a speech about the climate. Although Gore is not scheduled to speak in Cancun, "it could be that the Gore Effect has announced his secret arrival," jokes former NASA scientist Roy W Spencer.

The reaction: ClimateGate was "bad enough," says Duncan Davidson in Wall Street Pit, but Cancun's weather is particularly "inconvenient" for global-warming alarmists. It's a reminder that global temperatures have "flatlined" despite rising carbon dioxide levels, "which is decidedly chilling against the concept of hampering economic growth to limit Co2 emissions."

Grow up, says Tony Juniper in The Independent. "Sure, it's cold outside," but "the trend data show that the world is warming, that the climate is changing, and that the release of greenhouse gases is the cause." The longer we use every cold snap as an excuse to put off reducing emissions, "the bigger the risk we run".

The Stuxnet worm, named after initials found in its code, is the most sophisticated cyberweapon ever created. Examination of the worm shows it was a cybermissile designed to penetrate advanced security systems. It was equipped with a warhead that targeted and took over the controls of the centrifuge systems at Iran's uranium processing center in Natanz, and it had a second warhead that targeted the massive turbine at the nuclear reactor in Bashehr.

Stuxnet was designed to take over the control systems and evade detection, and it apparently was very successful. Last week President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after months of denials, admitted that the worm had penetrated Iran's nuclear sites, but he said it was detected and controlled. The second part of that claim, experts say, doesn't ring true.

Eric Byres, a computer expert who has studied the worm, said his site was hit with a surge in traffic from Iran, meaning that efforts to get the two nuclear plants to function normally have failed. The web traffic, he says, shows Iran still hasn't come to grips with the complexity of the malware that appears to be still infecting the systems at both Bashehr and Natanz. "The effort has been stunning," Byres said. "Two years ago American users on my site outnumbered Iranians by 100 to 1. Today we are close to a majority of Iranian users."

Ralph Langner, the German expert who was among the first to study and raise alarms about Stuxnet, said he was not surprised by the development. "Here is their problem. They should throw out every personal computer involved with the nuclear program and start over, but they can't do that. Moreover, they are completely dependent on outside companies for the construction and maintenance of their nuclear facilities. They should throw out their computers as well. But they can't," he explained. "They will just continually re-infect themselves."

"With the best of expertise and equipment it would take another year for the plants to function normally again because it is so hard to get the worm out. It even hides in the back-up systems. But they can't do it," he said. And Iran's anti-worm effort may have had another setback. In Tehran, men on motorcycles attacked two leading nuclear scientists on their way to work. Using magnetic bombs, the motorcyclists pulled alongside their cars and attached the devices. One scientist was wounded and the other killed. Confirmed reports say that the murdered scientist was in charge of dealing with the Stuxnet virus at the nuclear plants.

The group offers free software to let anyone help take down websites they believe are the "enemies" of WikiLeaks, targeting MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, Amazon and others. But is it legal? Experts told FoxNews.com that several international laws ban just this sort of activity. In the UK, laws combating what is called "distributed denial of service," or DDoS, "have been in place since 2006 and could result in you being sent to jail for up to ten years. Similar laws have also been present in Sweden since 2007," wrote Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for security firm Sophos, in a blog post on his site.

"It's the same story in the USA, where they take a tough line on those who engage in denial-of-service attacks against websites. For instance, last year saw the jailing of a man who launched a DDoS attack against the Scientology website," he added.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that authorities were investigating the cyberattacks. "We are aware of the incidents... and I'll simply say we're looking into them," Holder told reporters after meeting European Union officials on a range of issues, including terrorism, airline security, cybersecurity and privacy. The anonymous group behind 'Operation: Payback' released a video Thursday defending its actions, describing the efforts to bring down a variety of websites as "a peaceful campaign."

"We have decided to write to you, the media, and all citizens of the free world to inform you of our intentions, potential targets, and our ongoing peaceful campaign for Freedom of Expression. Anonymous is peacefully campaigning for Freedom of Expression everywhere, in all forms, for all platforms." It may be peaceful, but it sure isn't legal, Daliah Saper, a principal with Saper Law Offices, told FoxNews.com.

"This is the leadership team that crafted the first comprehensive financial reform bill to put an end to the bailouts, wind down the taxpayer funding of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and enforce a strong audit of the Federal Reserve," Bachus said in a statement.

Paul, in an interview last week, said he plans a slate of hearings on US monetary policy and will restart his push for a full audit of the Fed's functions. "We are ready to hit the ground running, and I look forward to continuing our work in the next Congress," Bachus said.

Paul, who has introduced legislation to abolish the Fed, became nationally known during his 2008 presidential campaign. His campaign to audit the Fed picked up steam as the central bank deployed trillions of dollars in emergency loans in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Paul's bill gained the support of 320 of 435 members of the House and a portion of the measure ended up in the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul enacted this year.

A feature of the skyline surrounding the Somerset town, the tree has been visited by thousands retracing the steps said to have been taken by Joseph of Arimathea, who some say was Jesus' great uncle. According to legend, Saint Joseph travelled to the spot after Christ was crucified, taking with him the Holy Grail of Arthurian folklore.

He is said to have stuck his wooden staff - which had belonged to Jesus - into the ground on Wearyall Hill before he went to sleep. When he awoke it had sprouted into a thorn tree, which became a natural shrine for Christians across Europe. To add to its sacred status, the tree 'miraculously' flowered twice a year - once at Christmas and once at Easter. It survived for hundreds of years before it was chopped down by puritans in the Civil War, but secret cuttings of the original were taken and planted around the town.

It is from one of the new plants that a replacement tree was planted in the original spot over 50 years ago. Yesterday residents of Glastonbury wept as they surveyed the damage done to the tree on Wednesday night. Katherine Gorbing, curator of the town's abbey, said: 'The mindless vandals who have hacked down this tree have struck at the heart of Christianity.

Every winter a sprig of thorns from one of the town's trees is sent to the Queen to be used as a table decoration on Christmas Day. Experts had verified that the tree - known as the Crategus Monogyna Bi Flora - originated from the Middle East.

The Times says another day of protest against rising tuition fees descended into confrontation on London's streets. The trouble culminated in a breakaway mob chasing and attacking the royal car, the paper continues.

"Rioters attack prince in car," exclaims the Daily Telegraph. The paper says demonstrators kicked the Prince of Wales's Rolls-Royce as it travelled to the Royal Variety Performance in central London.

"Student demo yobs in shameful attack on Charles and Camilla," proclaims the Sun, calling it a "battle royal". The paper says the royal couple appeared to gasp in shock as their vehicle was kicked and punched, and spattered with paint.

"With terror written across her face, the Duchess of Cornwall comes under fire from a snarling mob of student fees rioters." That is how the Daily Mail describes the moment Prince Charles and Camilla's car is attacked by protesters.

The move underlines concern that the Burmese regime might be trying to build a nuclear weapon, despite denials. Wikileaks has so far released more than 1,100 of 251,000 diplomatic cables. The reports, which stretch over the past six years, suggest dockworkers and foreign businessmen have seen evidence of alleged sites. A cable dating from August 2004 spoke of a Burmese officer in an engineering unit who said surface-to-air missiles were being built at a site in a town called Minbu in west-central Myanmar.

"The North Koreans, aided by Burmese workers, are constructing a concrete-reinforced underground facility that is '500ft from the top of the cave to the top of the hill above'," reads the cable, published by the Guardian newspaper. Some 300 North Koreans were working at the site, the authors said, although the cable suggested this number was improbably high.

An expatriate businessman also told the US Embassy in Rangoon that he had heard rumours of a nuclear site being built. According to another cable, the businessman told an embassy officer about rumours of a large barge unloading reinforced steel which looked as if it was for a project larger than a factory. Analysts have previously raised concerns that Burma is co-operating with North Korea to develop nuclear technology, although Burma has denied the claim.

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says that for months there have been persistent reports in the press and specialised journals suggesting that Burma is building a nuclear facility with North Korean help. Those reports are mainly derived from clues pieced together from defectors and satellite imagery, he adds.

Ambulance services say 37 people were hurt. The police made 15 arrests. Protests have spread to the West End with demonstrators breaking shop windows in Oxford Street. And riot police had to force back protesters who were smashing windows and trying to break into a side door of the Treasury and the Supreme Court. Earlier protesters had forced their way into Parliament Square and pressed against lines of police in front of the Houses of Parliament.

Mounted police were used to control crowds, as thousands of demonstrators protested outside the Houses of Parliament. Superintendent Julia Pendry said officers had come under sustained attack and condemned "acts of wanton vandalism, wanton violence" by protesters. At least ten police officers were injured. There were angry clashes as protesters - some throwing missiles - fought to break through police lines. Fires were started and buildings sprayed with graffiti.

The Metropolitan Police say there have been attacks using "flares, sticks, snooker balls and paint balls". Students from around the UK gathered in London for a day of protests and a rally - with police expecting about 20,000 demonstrators.

"Our meteorologists says it's never rained so much in Panama in the 73 years that we've kept climate records," Martinelli said. He said eight people were dead. The last time the canal closed was on December 20 1989, when US troops invaded the country to topple President Manuel Noriega. The canal was closed after water overflowed the banks of lakes Gatun and Alajuela, which supply the canal. Authorities said they've opened the floodgates for both lakes.

"We're taking measures to normalize transit operations in the coming hours," Manuel Benitez, the executive vice president of canal operations, said Wednesday afternoon. About 5 percent of the world's naval commerce moves through the canal, and the US is its main user. Meteorologists say the heavy rains are part of the La Nina

As the first tongue of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), it must take precedence at medal-giving and all other Olympic ceremonies. "Billboards and pageantry" in French as well as English must be displayed throughout the capital. The stipulation is among thousands of pages of detailed demands made by the IOC as a condition of hosting the games. Other legally-binding requirements include providing at least 40,000 hotel rooms for IOC members, foreign sports administrators and other official guests, and producing the Queen for a "ceremony planned by the IOC" just before the games open, at which its members can all meet her.

The Union flag must be flown fifth in precedence behind the Olympic flag, the London 2012 symbol, the United Nations flag and the flag of Greece at the stadium and fourth elsewhere in London for the duration. A recommended 700 people connected to the IOC must be given a dedicated car and chauffeur and 400 more must have a pool car and driver. London must "require behaviour modification for residents, public and business communities" as transport is disrupted.

As well as saying that Olympic ceremonies "must be presented in English and French" and that the English version "should be read after the French", they demand draconian powers to protect sponsors such as Coca-Cola and McDonalds, from "ambush marketing" by rivals. London is required to prevent spectators from "wearing clothes or accessories with commercial messages other than the manufacturer's brand name." This would ban them from wearing football clubs' replica strips, which usually carry the name of the club's sponsor.

Games organisers must "attempt to confiscate any infringing ambush material" from spectators, although there are warnings against being "overzealous". The city authorities must also "obtain control of all billboard advertising, city transport advertising, airport advertising etc for the duration of the games and the month preceding." Olympic "brand protection teams" must "confront violators" and "conduct surveillance" across London. Police and customs officers must enforce sponsorship rules.

Britain has complied by passing an Act of Parliament which makes "ambush marketing" at the games a criminal offence and gives officials power to enter homes and seize "infringing material". The documents stipulate that IOC meeting rooms must be provided with "photocopy paper in various colours - white, pink, green, blue - according to the precise instructions of the IOC."

Mastercard users were today facing problems with payments after WikiLeaks supporters hacked into the site in revenge for the card company's decision to stop processing donations. Online activists calling themselves Anonymous have launched 'Operation: Payback' following the move yesterday to cut off donations to the whistleblowing website.

They appear to have staged a 'distributed denial of service' attack and brought down the site, which was unavailable this lunchtime.

There were reports today that Mastercard users have been unable to make payments. Mastercard this afternoon confirmed a 'service disruption'.

A message on Twitter from @Anon_Operation, read: 'WE ARE GLAD TO TELL YOU THAT http://www.mastercard.com/ is DOWN AND IT'S CONFIRMED! '#ddos #wikileaks Operation:Payback(is a b****!) #PAYBACK'

Another, from AnonyWatcher, added - in a play on MasterCard's advertising: 'There are some things Wikileaks can't do. For everything else, there's Operation Payback.'

There were also unconfirmed reports that the group would also target Twitter over claims the #wikileaks tag was not being updated properly. WikiLeaks Europe - also on Twitter - declared it was 'cyberwar'. The organisation said: 'Group That Took Down Swiss Bank Site Have Now Taken Down Mastercard.com.' This type of attack, which is illegal, involves flooding a website with so many requests that it becomes overloaded and stops working.

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:

"The reputation of the United States has been damaged by the WikiLeaks-controlled release of secret documents. That is true... but the United States' reputation is being damaged much more right now as they attempt - with all of their means - to muzzle WikiLeaks and its head, Julian Assange. By doing so, the US is betraying one of its founding myths: Freedom of information. And they are doing so now, because for the first time since the end of the Cold War, they are threatened with losing worldwide control of information."

"'The first real information war has begun,' writes US civil rights activist John-Perry Barlow. 'The battlefield is WikiLeaks.' He is right. With the doctrine 'Free Flow of Information' the US has dominated the flow of information and most of its content for decades. They said that every person had the right, everywhere, and without limitations, to collect information and to broadcast and disseminate it. That was a tremendous doctrine, as long as only American companies had the power, the means, and the logisitical capabilities, to make use of this freedom."

"That changed somewhat with the Internet, but companies like Apple, Windows, Google, Facebook and Amazon advance US-domination in the supposedly democratic Internet. Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are the first who have used the power of the Internet against the United States. That is why they are being mercilessly pursued. That is why the government is betraying one of the principles of democracy."

The conservative daily Die Welt writes:

"The Swedish public prosecutor's office merely wants to question the Australian Assange about the serious accusations that have been made about him. So far, Assange has balked at this explanation of the facts. His supporters sense that the fix is in, and that the rape charges have been faked to harm the WikiLeaks project."

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"The arrest is as potentially scandalous and it is superfluous. The operation has produced a martyr, and he has asked if it is all really about the legally offered explanation of the rape charges. Or, if instead it is more about getting a man out of the way, who, in the opinion of numerous US politicians, is Public Enemy No1."

Some 42.9 million people collected food stamps last month, up 1.2% from the prior month and 16.2% higher than the same time a year ago, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Nationwide 14% of the population relied on food stamps as of September but in some states the percentage was much higher. In Washington DC, Mississippi and Tennessee - the states with the largest share of citizens receiving benefits - more than a fifth of the population in each was collecting food stamps.

"You could argue that we are at a new stage where the global cost of capital goes higher and higher," said Steven Major, global head of fixed income research at HSBC.

The yield on 10-year US Treasuries hit a six-month high of 3.33 per cent on Wednesday, up 0.39 percentage points from Monday and 1 percentage point higher than its October low. Japanese five-year yields also rose the most in two years, while Germany's benchmark borrowing costs hit 3 per cent. Germany has suffered from fears it could bear a high cost for bailing out troubled eurozone countries. Stock markets in Germany, the UK and Hong Kong all fell on Wednesday. "People are getting out of the market and moving to the sidelines, feeling shellshocked at the speed of the rise in yields," said David Ader, strategist at CRT Capital.

US 10-year yields have risen by about 0.76 percentage points since November 8, those of Germany by 0.62 percentage points, the UK by 0.53 percentage points and Japan by 0.29 percentage points as the prices of the bonds has fallen. Yields are still relatively low compared with long-term trends but investors are starting to fret that they could continue to move sharply higher. "YIELDS AT THIS LEVEL ARE CLEARLY UNSUSTAINABLE," said Paul Marson, chief investment officer at Lombard Odier, the Swiss private bank.

Europe must also solve the euro's structural rigidities and the enormous debts of its banks, he warned. Europe's banks - including the UK's - faced massive liabilities and had inadequate capital to absorb losses, he said, creating the risk of a Europe-wide banking crisis. The warning echoed complaints by Irish opposition politicians that their country had been strong-armed by Brussels into footing the bill for rescuing the Irish banks, because failing to do so could have sparked a wider European banking crisis.

Mr Brown also said that the structural reforms needed to make the euro work as a single currency area had not been carried out, or even agreed. Many economists warned at the euro's inception that weaker economies would need to have much more flexible labour markets in order to cut wage costs and maintain competitiveness, because they were giving up the option of devaluing their currency. The former prime minister said that European politicians risked their countries being picked off one-by-one by the financial markets.

Robert Peston, Business editor, BBC News comments:- "Mr Brown's intervention matters, partly because he remains in contact with other European leaders - and partly because he is saying what members of the British government also believe but cannot say."