Florida growers endured a freeze and difficult spell of weather in January, "but now, the timing is more unfortunate because we are gearing up to put vegetables out for peoples' holiday meals," said Lisa Lochridge, spokeswoman for the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association. The association was still determining total loss on Tuesday.

In Palm Beach County, the nation's top producer of winter vegetables, the price of a bushel of green beans soared 62% Tuesday to between $24 and $26, compared to $14 to $16 over the weekend, said JD Poole, vice president of Pioneer Growers Cooperative in Belle Glade, Florida. Frigid air from Canada pushed into the southeast Monday, bringing snow to mountains in Tennessee and West Virginia, cancelling schools in parts of North Carolina, and ushering in temperatures 15 to 20 degrees below normal in some places. The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning through Wednesday morning for most of Florida, the southeast corner of Alabama and southern Georgia.

In Loxahatchee, Florida, workers at Hundley Farms were up all night into Tuesday, running warm water between crops of sweet corn and green beans to fend off frost. Starting at 3:40 am, six helicopters flew at varying levels back and forth over Hundley's fields an in attempt to push the layer of warm air down on the crops, said Tom Perryman, crop supervisor. Still, Tuesday morning revealed that about 30% of the crops were hurt by freeze, with delicate green beans the worse off, he said, adding, "And still have to get through tonight. I can't remember a time when we had a freeze by December 7," he said.

If you were overdrawn by 1,000 pounds for a year, the cost would be nearly 200 pounds, before any other charges or fees are taken into account. Lloyds, which was bailed out by the taxpayer two years ago, charges 19.3% - with customers required to pay 5 pounds a month on top for the privilege of having an overdraft facility.

Last night Andrew Hagger, of financial information website Moneynet, said: 'When an overdraft is unauthorised, you can understand the idea that you are charged when you go further into the red. But to ask to borrow money and then be charged these exorbitant rates is just very difficult to swallow.' He said that the record authorised overdraft rates revealed by the Bank of England were particularly galling when they were compared to the average interest rate paid to those whose current accounts are not overdrawn.

An average customer in credit is paid interest at an insulting 0.19%. If you were to have a 1,000 pounds in your account for a year, a basic rate taxpayer would get interest worth a paltry 1.50 pounds after tax. Banks say these daily charges are easier for customers to understand. The average unauthorised overdraft rate is now around 3%, with some of the worst offenders charging up to 30%, according to Moneyfacts.

He said: 'Greece is insolvent, Portugal has a liquidity problem, Spain has a liquidity problem, Belgium has been cooking the books for a long time, Italy has been cooking the books for a long time and the UK is totally insolvent.'

Rogers has been criticised for making attention-grabbing remarks. But his views are not entirely without basis. While debt owed by the British government is less, relatively, than the amounts faced by Ireland, Greece or Japan, the UK's debts in total are 466% of annual economic output once consumer debt is included. That's second only to Japan.

The markets are, understandably, nervous. The prices paid for Portuguese government bonds say the country needs a rescue - but their finance minister hotly denies it. Which is reminiscent of Ireland's Taoiseach pooh-poohing the idea three weeks ago that any rescue was needed for Ireland. The IMF says the reserve fund the eurozone nations have cobbled together after the Greek troubles is too small. The zone's finance ministers insist that it is ample.

With so many in or near the firing line - even the names of Belgium and Italy are whispered - the call goes out for the European Central Bank to prop up the weak nations by taking over their bond issues. Not on your life, says Germany's Angela Merkel. Her voters would not stand for taking over other nations' borrowing.

For the British view of a euro break-up we have Professor Stephen Nickell, from the Office for Budget Responsibility, saying that it is possible, but he thinks it highly unlikely. It would have created a storm if he'd said anything stronger. When it comes to the timing of the end-game, Britain has its own experience of currency crises. It reminds us that they can come to a head at almost bewildering speed.

The figure includes the carbon generated by flights, transport, hotels and food - and means the conference is polluting at the same rate as Somalia or Mali. The organisers of the UN talks say they will plant trees and pay farmers to protect forests to offset the emissions. The Mexicans are also recycling rubbish from the conference, which spans two venues connected by shuttle buses running on biodiesel. However, the rubbish has to be driven 800 miles to the nearest recycling plant in Mexico City.

Last year's summit in Copenhagen generated an estimated 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide - a figure that was lower because many delegates did not need to fly. More than 15,000 delegates and campaigners have flown to Cancun to work toward a treaty that cuts greenhouse gas emissions and prevents temperatures rising by more than 2c.

Delegates are also trying to set up a 60 billion pounds fund to help poor nations cope with global warming as well as creating a financing scheme to protect forests. The talks last until the weekend.

"I expect interest rates in the US to go much, much, much higher over the next few years," he said, adding that he is betting against US Treasuries. The core personal consumption expenditure index, which strips out food and energy costs, is the Fed's preferred measure of inflation. This was flat in October for the second straight month.

"Everybody in this room knows prices are going up for everything," Mr Rogers told the Reuters Summit. The investor remains bullish on commodities given the debt crises facing many countries across the world. "If the world economy gets better, commodities are going to go up in price because there are shortages. If the world economy does not get better, you should own commodities, because [central banks] are going to print more money," he said. "Real assets are the way to protect yourself.

Attacking the EU's "bad economics" for "corroding the value of the euro", Rogers painted a stark picture of the single currency's future. "I don't expect the euro to be around within 10 to 15 years," he said, adding that the Chinese yuan is the most attractive currency today.

Instead, European Union finance ministers confirmed that a second, more stringent round of stress tests on the banks would be carried out in February and that the details of a permanent crisis resolution mechanism for troubled euro members would be outlined next week. Weaker nations had been pushing for the 440 billion euros euro-area rescue package to be increased to calm tremulous bond markets.

Facing resistance from Germany, the strongest nation in the single currency bloc, the plans were dropped. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said: "Up to now there is no need to increase the means available for the facility. If needed, we will consider, but there is no question today." In the meantime, the European Central Bank continues to prop up Greece, Ireland and Portugal by buying their sovereign debt from banks to provide liquidity. Last week, it bought nearly 2 billion euros - its most concerted action in five months.

Attention is now switching to Portugal, which is considered the next weak link in the chain, after Greece's 110 billion euros bail-out and Ireland's 85 billion euros rescue. Speaking after a two-day meeting of EU finance ministers, Olli Rehn, European Economic Affairs Commissioner said: "Currently the Portuguese government is preparing its next steps and in our view, it is important that the Portuguese government will shortly substantiate the consolidation measures for next year."

The euro has never been popular with Germans. But now that they might have to atone for the financial sins of other EU countries, the number of euroskeptics has been swelling dramatically.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel would warmly welcome a chance to provide a bit of relief on the domestic front. The way to do so is through something the experts call "creditor liability." In layman's terms, it means that the scoundrels from the banks that lent all the money to the severely cash-strapped EU member states should bear some of the pain resulting from any defaults. Merkel has publicly stated that the euro zone should no longer be a "land of milk and honey" for the financial institutions that cashed in on high interest rates from their loans without being held responsible when things collapse.

But, as we all know, that won't happen. Once again, Berlin has gone to Brussels and failed to push anything through, not against the alleged friends from France and not against the rest of the Europeans. The banks are apparently now only going to have to help bear the costs in "extreme cases," involving downright insolvency. If it is simply a matter of the countries having problems servicing their debts, the banks are supposed to be "encouraged" to hold on to the government bonds of high-debt nations a little longer.

With this decision, Europe is continuing to pile new debt on top of old, is letting itself sink deeper into a mire of debt, and is just putting off steps that will be unavoidable in the future. The end result will be that when the crash finally does come, it will be all the more devastating.

The group of about 25 neo-Nazis marched through the district until they reached Turmstrasse underground station where they extinguished their torches, according to a report in Sunday's Berliner Morgenpost.

They then ran off in different directions, but by that time a number of plain-clothes police officers had arrived at the scene and arrested four suspects, confiscating leaflets. The four men aged between 20 and 26 years old are being investigated on suspicion of incitement. It seems the group were members of the 'National Liberation Front', a particularly radical group of neo-Nazis.

The leaks actually benefit the establishment by providing a myriad of distraction news stories and ammunition for the corporate media to have more false debates surrounding Iran and the bogus terror war. Supposedly, this recent batch of documents released by Wikileaks is only a small portion of the entire Cablegate archive which raises a number of questions. Why would Julian Assange the public face behind Wikileaks not release a vast majority of the documents all at once?

It is understandable that he would want an insurance policy by keeping a cache of documents that they could release in case he or other people affiliated with Wikileaks get arrested but what is not understandable is why he would not release as many documents as possible. It certainly appears as if Wikileaks wants to turn this whole Cablegate scandal into a long drawn out affair by releasing all of these documents over a long period of time.

The bottom line is that if Wikileaks was a real operation, almost all of these documents in the Cablegate archive would have been immediately released. They want this to be a long drawn out affair to provide an unlimited amount of distraction news stories and discussions in the corporate media. It will also be used to provide a justification to establish more controls over the alternative media and the Internet.

According to a complaint filed against the school earlier this year, school officials demanded Keeton, 24, go through a "remediation" program after she asserted homosexuality is a behavioral choice, not a "state of being" as a professor said. Specifically, the remediation program was to include "sensitivity training" on homosexual issues, additional outside study on literature promoting homosexuality and the plan that she attend a "gay pride parade" and report on it. "Besides violating Keeton's own First Amendment rights," writes University of California Los Angeles law professor Eugene Volokh in the brief, "the university's retaliation also sent a powerful message to other students: If you express views like Keeton's, prepare to suffer the same consequences - prepare to incur many hours of extra obligations, and to put yourself at risk of expulsion."

University "faculty have promised to expel Miss Keeton from the graduate Counselor Education program, not because of poor academic showing or demonstrated deficiencies in clinical performance, but simply because she has communicated both inside and outside the classroom that she holds to Christian ethical convictions on matters of human sexuality and gender identity," the law firm explained. According to court documents, Keeton faces the "remediation" requirement because she supposedly (1) "voiced disagreement in several class discussions and in written assignments with the gay and lesbian 'lifestyle," (2) "stated in one paper that she believes GLBTQ 'lifestyles' to be identity confusion," (3) "relayed [to another student] her interest in conversion therapy for GLBTQ populations" and (4) "tried to convince other students to support and believe her views."

School authorities cited the American Counseling Association's code of ethics and said students would be required to adopt its provisions to obtain a degree in counseling. Faculty members, therefore, had demanded Keeton "attend at least three workshops... which emphasize... diversity training sensitive toward working with GLBTQ populations." They also wanted her to "develop" her knowledge of homosexuality by reading 10 articles and increasing her exposure to homosexuals and lesbians by attending "the Gay Pride Parade."

"Simply put, the university is imposing thought reform," said ADF Senior Counsel David French. "Abandoning one's own religious beliefs should not be a precondition at a public university for obtaining a degree. This type of leftist zero-tolerance policy is in place at far too many universities, and it must stop. Jennifer's only crime was to have the beliefs that she does."

The number of children who will face family breakdown has soared from 40 per cent to 48 per cent over the last decade, according to analysis of official figures. The report undermines the claims of politically correct campaigners - endorsed by the last Labour government - who have said there is no difference between marriage and cohabiting and that it was not for government to interfere with people's choice of how they arranged their lives.

The report, carried out jointly by the Centre for Social Justice think tank and the Bristol Community Family Trust, found that family breakdown costs taxpayers 20 billion pounds every year. While more than half of children are born to married parents, divorce accounts for just one in five family break-ups for the under fives - and just 14 per cent of the costs. The collapse of cohabiting relationships costs taxpayers four times as much.

The report says: 'Of every 7 pounds spent on family breakdown among young families (by the taxpayer), 1 pound is spent on divorce, 4 pounds is spent on unmarried dual registered parents who separate and 2 pounds is spent on sole registered parents. In other words, the problem is not divorce. While marriage accounts for 54 per cent of births, the failure of marriages - ie divorce - accounts for only 20 per cent of break-ups and 14 per cent of the costs of family breakdown, among all families with children under five.' Unmarried couples account for 40 per cent of births, 59 per cent of family splits and 59 per cent of costs.

Another is the festival of Beltane, which falls in early May, devotees are urged to celebrate the Sun God with 'unabashed sexuality and promiscuity'.

The Yule festival involves pagans 'casting spells' and dressing up as ghosts. Pagan inmates may even be allowed special food and drink on their days off. Traditional pagan food include Ewe's milk for Imbolc, Simnel Cake and eggs on Spring Equinox and Roast Goose on Autumn Equinox.

On Samhain - celebrated on Halloween - pagans by tradition go apple bobbing.

It is the latest in a series of rulings to protect convicts' rights and ensure equality among different faiths. New guidelines entitled 'Religious Festival dates for 2011' state that all prison staff must be made aware of the pagan festival dates. It states: 'The Prison Service is committed to ensuring that prisoners from all religious faiths are given the opportunity and facilities to practise their religions.'

His comments came as deep divisions in the eurozone threatened to drive Spain, Portugal and Ireland into more difficulty. Attempting to defy Germany, the eurozone's powerhouse and the nation that will provide the bulk of any rescue fund, Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders called for the 440 billion euros bail-out fund to be expanded, while Luxembourg Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and Italian counterpart Giulio Tremonti outlined proposals for a joint European government bond.

However, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria on Monday pitched themselves against weaker member states by insisting the rescue package should not be increased. Finance ministers from the 16 member nations were debating the bail-out plans late into the night. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, quickly dashed hopes by rejecting the idea as unworkable and stating: "I see no need to expand the fund right now."

As market fears revived, the cost of insurance for Irish, Greek, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish sovereign debt rose. Bond yields were also higher as institutions shunned governments. European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council member Nout Wellink said it is not the central bank's task to rescue euro-area countries with funding problems. "It's not up to the ECB to save countries where governments run the risk of becoming insolvent," Wellink, who also heads the Dutch central bank, said. "We are not here to take over, on our balance sheet, the risks of the national economies of Europe."

Taylor runs the world's largest currency hedge fund with assets under management of around $8.5 billion. "I would argue that by the middle of next year, we will be in a recession and our fiscal hands will be tied," he said. Taylor has maintained in previous interviews that the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program, designed as a way to help jump-start the economy, won't necessarily prevent a recession.

Banks in a recession tend to demand the repayment of loans, and if the debt is denominated in the US currency - and in most cases they are - then investors are squeezed as they scramble to find dollars to repay the debt. That should be dollar-positive, Taylor said. This was what happened in late 2008 when panic in the markets - precipitated by the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers - drove the safe-haven dollar higher against most major currencies. "It's kind of perverse. When the US economy is doing badly, the dollar goes up and when the economy is doing well, the dollar goes down."

For now, all eyes are on the euro zone, which is facing a debt crisis. Theoretically, at some point the euro could fall apart, Taylor said, "What Europe has done is not enough. They have to have eurobonds," said Taylor. "You can't lend money to Ireland or Greece. You're just piling on more debt to them, and it's getting harder and harder to repay."