This week marks the tenth anniversary of the euro - and every eurocrat in existence is hailing the single currency as an exquisite success. According to European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, the euro has helped create 16 million jobs. The French finance minister Christine Lagarde hails it as 'a zone of security and stability'. Indeed, far from being the staggering success its supporters claim, the euro-zone is already inflicting huge damage on the nations within it. Many currency market experts believe that some of these struggling members may be forced to peel away from the euro - with devastating consequences for the rest of the world.

The greatest problems, in the short term at least, are in the four Mediterranean economies known as the PIGS - PORTUGAL, ITALY, GREECE AND SPAIN. For each of these countries, the euro has already proved a disaster. Put simply, most of the PIGS are so heavily indebted that the market no longer believes they will be able to repay their borrowings. Normally, if a country falls into too much debt, it can devalue its currency, essentially devaluing its debt burden - this is exactly what Britain has done over the past few months. In the euro-zone, however, the currency's value is set centrally.

This means THE ONLY WAY OUT FOR THE STRUGGLING PIGS IS TO CRASH OUT OF THE EURO, default on their debt and start again. At the start of 2009, this prospect is beginning to cast a huge shadow over the global economy, for the sums involved are huge. That is why, as the euro celebrates its tenth anniversary, I predict two things.

First, it WILL NEVER REACH ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY. The drachma, the lira, the peseta and the Portuguese escudo (and the Irish punt - Ireland can be regarded as an honorary PIG) will all make a return as the PIGS plunge for the exit.

Second, THE COLLAPSE OF THE EURO-ZONE WILL NOT BE A PEACEFUL PROCESS. Expect the European political elites to fight to save their beloved single currency. Eventually, however, their citizens will take to the streets and force their hands. In Britain we can thank our lucky stars we do not have to go through the same painful and bloody crisis.

Ambulance control centres reported receiving 999 calls as often as once every seven seconds - the second highest volume of calls since the Millennium - as binge drinkers turned nasty in the freezing temperatures. Many of the calls related either to alcohol-fuelled assaults or excessive drunkenness.

Booze contributed to time-wasting calls to 999 operators too, with one man calling to ask if New York was in America, and what time it was there. Elsewhere, while large numbers were ferried to hospitals, in some areas injuries were treated by paramedics in 'booze buses' to leave ambulances free for more serious emergencies.

In Essex, so many drunk people were arrested that all 200 of the constabulary's cells were filled, and overflow revellers had to be shipped to neighbouring Kent to be held for the night. In one of the most disturbing incidents an ambulance was wrecked by callous thugs while parked outside the home of a sick baby boy in Tilehurst, Reading. He eventually had to be sped to hospital in his family's own car.

Rocket attacks from Gaza have forced Israelis to flee in ever greater numbers and military chiefs have been shaken by the size and sophistication of the militant group's arsenal. In Beersheba, until a few days ago a sleepy desert town in southern Israel, there is little sign of the 186,000 inhabitants. Schools are closed and the streets of shuttered shops echo with the howl of sirens warning of incoming rockets.

Israeli officials say that Hamas has also acquired dozens of Iranian-made Fajr-3 missiles with an even longer range. Many fear that as the group acquires ever more sophisticated weaponry IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THE NUCLEAR INSTALLATION AT DIMONA, 20 miles east of Beersheba, falls within its sights. Dimona houses Israel's only nuclear reactor and is believed to be where nuclear warheads are stored.

Israel's worst nightmare is that soon ALL ITS CITIES WILL BE WITHIN RANGE either of the Hezbollah Katyushas arrayed on the Lebanese border to the north or the increasingly sophisticated missiles stockpiled by Hamas to the south. Both groups have links to Israel's archenemy Iran.

"It's not enough, as Jesus said, to put patches on an old suit," Benedict said in his New Year's Day blessing to thousands of people huddled under umbrellas in a rain-soaked St. Peter's Square. Echoing a similar theme in his New Year's Day homily, Benedict said the crisis should be seen as a test-case about the future of globalization.

"Are we ready to read it in its complexity as a way for the future and not just an emergency to respond to with short-term answers?" he asked. "Are we ready to make a profound revision in the dominant development model, to correct it in a farsighted and concerted way?" He said the health of the planet required such a correction, as well as what he called the "cultural and moral crisis" in which the world finds itself.

Benedict has spoken out frequently about the financial crisis, and he used the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, celebrated every Jan. 1, to emphasize his belief that the meltdown showed the need for greater solidarity with the poor.

The EU urged Russia and Ukraine to resume negotiations and not to let the dispute disrupt supplies to Europe. A similar row between Gazprom and Ukraine at the beginning of 2006 led to gas shortages in several EU countries. Pipes across Ukraine carry about a fifth of the EU's gas needs.

"Usually we supply 390 million cubic metres per day, of which 300 million is transit gas for Europe. Today supplies are running at 300 million cubic metres. We continue supplying Europe in full."

This week the euro climbed to a record high of 98p against the pound, leaving tourists receiving less than a euro given for each pound once commission charges are taken into account. It comes as William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, reiterated that a Tory government would never adopt the euro.

There are fears that the pound may fall further amid speculation that the Bank of England may deliver another cut in interest rates next week to stave off a prolonged recession. Sterling is less attractive to foreign investors if rates are coming down as they will typically get a lower return on their money.

When the euro was launched 10 years ago it became the official currency for 11 member states of the EU, marking an end to Germany's Deutschmark and the French franc. It began trading on January 4 1999, at just 71p against the pound and has since traded at an average of 67p against the pound. The euro hit an all-time low against the pound of 57p in May 2000 but recovered to reach this week's record high.

In the last two years, the number of Floridians on food stamps has increased more than 40 percent to 1.7 million. That increase is the highest in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And it's the second-largest jump in the state's history, surpassed only during the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, said an analyst at the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based think tank.

Almost one in 10 Floridians is now on food stamps, and state managers say many more qualify. Evidence of the unprecedented rise was on display at the Florida Department of Children & Families office in Miami recently, where the line of people waiting for help snaked out the door and around the corner.

Of the 1.7 million now on food stamps, about 356,000 of them live in Miami-Dade County, more than 127,000 in Broward. A person living on their own who earns $1,127 or less a month can qualify for food stamps, as can a family of four making $2,297 or less monthly. The dollar requirement changes depending on the number of people in the household.

Calls to GPs outside surgery hours have soared by 60 per cent in some places. But doctors said most flu sufferers do not need professional treatment. Dr Mark Reynolds, a GP and medical director of South East Health, which treats more than 2.2million patients, said phone lines had been 'red hot', with calls 'every few seconds'.

He said: "People who are usually fit and healthy are coming down with the flu virus and feeling very ill indeed. There's little we can do for them, we are much more concerned about the elderly and very young getting ill."

Accident and emergency departments are also feeling the strain. Doctors at Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General hospitals reported 30 per cent more arrivals than last year. Dr Phillip Fielding, a GP and member of the local medical committee, said: "We get a run of viruses each year but this year we have been knocked for six."

The Russian Gazprom monopoly announced that its engineers had started preparations to turn off gas to Ukraine at 10am today, claiming that the Government in Kiev had refused to sign a new contract by the midnight deadline.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, could barely conceal his fury that Moscow was once again being made to appear in Western eyes as an unreliable energy supplier in the depth of winter. Reporting to President Medvedev, Mr Putin said that despite Russia's offer of a below-market price for gas in 2009, Kiev had not only rebuffed Moscow but also threatened to disrupt onward supplies to Western Europe.

"Our Ukrainian partners have officially notified us that, in case no contract is signed on gas supplies for Ukraine itself, it will block the transit of our product to principal consumers in Western Europe," Mr Putin said. "We believe that this is an absolutely improper position both from the economic and from the legal point of view. If transit agreements were breached there would be serious consequences for Ukraine and consumers in European Union countries", he added.

More than 250 tremors have been recorded since Friday including nine greater than magnitude 3.0 on the Richter scale, according to the University of Utah. The largest, a magnitude 3.9, struck on Saturday and the area was shaken by a 3.3 tremor just after midday on Monday.

While earthquakes are common in the giant park, which covers parts of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana and experiences about 1,000 to 2,000 tremors a year, the intense burst of seismic activity lasting several days has been described as unusual. "THEY'RE CERTAINLY NOT NORMAL," said Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah. "We haven't had earthquakes of this energy or extent in many years."

Yellowstone is situated on a giant, geologically active feature known as a supervolcano and boasts some 75 per cent of the world's geysers. Much of the park sits in a caldera, or crater, which was formed when the massive volcano erupted 70,000 years ago. Last year a report in the journal Science found the park's central region was rising up at a rate of up to 7cm a year due to the movement of a pool of magma several miles below the surface.

Ultra-wealthy people such as the three men - a 91-year old U.S. billionaire, a jet-setting London property tycoon and a media-shy German industrialist - are often thought to be at the vanguard of financial innovation, private bankers say. "They're losing big money and THEIR WEALTH IS DISAPPEARING QUICKLY," said David Giampaolo, Chief Executive of Pi Capital, a London-based private equity investment boutique.

Rich investors often held large positions in specific companies or stocks, he said, and they had also often borrowed large amounts of money to boost returns. Hedge funds, still dominated by private investors, are among the players worst hit by the credit crunch, with some analysts predicting their assets will shrink by as much as 80 percent.

And the scandal around U.S. financier Bernard Madoff - accused of defrauding rich clients and charities of $50 billion - is another example of how the very wealthy are not immune to the financial turmoil.

Israeli troops and tank crews gathered in larger numbers on the Gazan border ready for a new stage in the fighting. A ­possible invasion by Israeli forces could range from limited ground incursions to a much larger land invasion of Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians. Another call-up of reservists has been approved, bringing the total to 9,000.

Israel extended its buffer zone under military authority around Gaza to a radius of 25 miles after the reach of Hamas ­rockets to the town of Be'er Sheva. In the first indication of a division over the course of the engagement since the conflict began on Saturday, the prime ­minister, Ehud Olmert, personally championed a continuation of the military campaign while his defence minister, Ehud Barak – Israel's most decorated soldier and a former chief of staff – proposed a 48-hour halt last night.

"If conditions will ripen and we think there will be a diplomatic solution that will ensure a better security reality in the south, we will consider it. But at the moment, it's not there," an aide quoted Olmert as saying. "We didn't start this operation just to end it with rocket fire continuing as it did before it began."

In the splendor of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI called for "soberness and solidarity" in 2009. During a year's end vespers service Wednesday evening, the pope said these times are "MARKED BY UNCERTAINTY AND WORRY FOR THE FUTURE" but urged people not to be afraid and to help each other.

In India, many were happy to see the end of 2008 after a series of terrorist attacks in several cities, culminating in the three-day siege in Mumbai that killed 164 people. "The year 2008 can best be described as a year of crime, terrorist activities, bloodshed and accidents," said Tavishi Srivastava, 51, an office worker in the northern Indian city of Lucknow. "I sincerely hope that 2009 will be a year of peace and progress."

In Athens, police said arsonists attacked at least 10 banks and two car dealerships amid the celebrations, but no arrests or injuries were reported. Cities in Greece had riots recently over the fatal shooting of a teenage boy by police.

In Tokyo, volunteers stirred huge pots of New Year's rice-cake soup and doled out blankets and clothing to the needy. Japan has long boasted a system of lifetime employment at major companies, but that has unraveled this year amid the financial crisis. "There's no work," Mitsuo Kobayashi, 61, muttered as he picked up a wool scarf, a coat and pants. "WHO KNOWS WHAT NEXT YEAR WILL BRING?"

The Year of the Rat, marked by an unprecedented, global financial crisis, will give way to a much more stable Year of the Ox, Chinese astrologists and feng shui masters predicted. "The soil represents a garden or a green field, a feng shui symbol for harmony, relaxation, and recovery," Raymond Lo, Hong Kong feng shui expert, told AFP.

The Chinese calendar moves in 60-year cycles, meaning the world will experience similar events in the new year to those that took place 60 years ago. In 1949, the People's Republic of China was established by communist leader Mao Zedong. Lo said that 2009's year of the Ox could similarly SEE A NEW WORLD ORDER BEING FORGED.

The Treasury report to a congressional panel overseeing the 700-billion-dollar rescue plan passed in early October said the extraordinary actions probably averted deeper problems. "Treasury, working with the Federal Reserve, the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) and other regulators, has taken the necessary steps to prevent a financial collapse," the report said.

"The most important evidence that our strategy is working is that Treasury's actions, in combination with other actions, stemmed a series of financial institution failures. The financial system is fundamentally more stable than it was when Congress passed the legislation."