SNOW DESTROYS CHINESE CROPS: “The effects of China’s weather crisis on its economy worsened yesterday as the devastation of winter crops added to pressures on food prices. . . . Government figures said that snow had destroyed crops on 3,000 square miles of land. Wholesalers in Beijing reported that supplies of some foodstuffs were down to a fifth of normal levels. In areas directly affected by the snow, such as the central industrial cities of Wuhan and Changsha, food prices have reportedly already doubled.”