MIAMI (Reuters) – A large and soggy tropical depression formed in the northern Caribbean Sea on Tuesday and threatened to deluge Cuba, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and southern Florida with flooding rain.

The ragged system had top sustained winds of 35 mph and was expected to strengthen into Tropical Storm Nicole by Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Tropical cyclones become named storms when their sustained winds reach 39 mph (63 km per hour).

The system was centered about 115 miles south of Havana, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

It was forecast to move north-northeast over the Caymans and Cuba overnight then cut across the southern tip of Florida into the Atlantic, soaking the Bahamas as it headed for the South Carolina-North Carolina border.

The system was not expected to strengthen beyond a minimal tropical storm and forecasters predicted it would dissipate into a wide blob of thunderstorms by the weekend.

The main threat was from flash flooding and mudslides. The storm was expected to dump 5 to 10 inches of rain in its path, and as much as 20 inches in isolated spots, the forecasters said.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Florida’s orange groves are still shrinking as the state battles the tree-killing citrus greening disease and farmers sell their land, the annual Department of Agriculture census showed on Thursday.

The number of commercial orange trees and total acreage devoted to orange groves have steadily shrunk over the last five years in Florida, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. citrus fruit production.

The state has 63.78 million commercial orange trees, down about 1.9 percent from 2009, the USDA said.

About 93 percent of those are fruit-bearing trees, unchanged from recent years, while the rest are newer plantings. Orange trees typically start bearing fruit three or four years after being planted.

Florida has 483,418 acres planted with commercial orange trees, down more than 1.8 percent from a year ago, the USDA said.

The report gave no reason for the decline. But Florida’s $9 billion citrus fruit industry is battling citrus greening, an insect-borne bacterial disease that kills trees and has spread widely since it first appeared in the state in 2005.

Despite the collapse of the real estate market, some farmers are still selling off their land for a variety of reasons, said Andrew Meadows, a spokesman for the growers and processors group Florida Citrus Mutual.

MIAMI (Reuters) – There is no rational reason to prohibit all homosexuals from adopting children, a Florida appeals court said on Wednesday in a ruling that upheld a gay man’s adoption of two young boys.

Florida is the only remaining U.S. state to expressly ban adoption by gay men and women without exception, the ruling noted.

A lower court found in 2008 that the ban violated the state constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment. It allowed the plaintiff, a gay man named Frank Martin Gill, to adopt two boys — half-brothers he had been raising as foster children since 2004.

The Florida Department of Children and Families said the lower court erred and the adoption was illegal under the state’s 33-year-old ban on adoption by gays.

But the state’s Third District Court of Appeal in Miami on Wednesday upheld the lower court’s finding that “there is no rational basis for the statute.”

The children were removed from their home because of abuse and neglect when one was 4 years old and the other 4 months old, and their parents’ rights to the boys were terminated by a court.

When they were placed with Gill, the older boy did not speak, the younger one had an untreated ear infection. Both had ringworm and other medical problems, the court documents said.

MIAMI (Reuters) – There is no rational reason to prohibit all homosexuals from adopting children, a Florida appeals court said on Wednesday in a ruling that upheld a gay man’s adoption of two young boys.

Florida is the only remaining U.S. state to expressly ban adoption by gay men and women without exception, the ruling noted.

A lower court found in 2008 that the ban violated the state constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment. It allowed the plaintiff, a gay man named Frank Martin Gill, to adopt two boys — half-brothers he had been raising as foster children since 2004.

The Florida Department of Children and Families said the lower court erred and the adoption was illegal under the state’s 33-year-old ban on adoption by gays.

But the state’s Third District Court of Appeal in Miami on Wednesday upheld the lower court’s finding that “there is no rational basis for the statute.”

The children were removed from their home because of abuse and neglect when one was 4 years old and the other 4 months old, and their parents’ rights to the boys were terminated by a court.

When they were placed with Gill, the older boy did not speak, the younger one had an untreated ear infection. Both had ringworm and other medical problems, the court documents said.

MIAMI (Reuters) – The Atlantic region can expect one more major hurricane this autumn and the northeast U.S. coast still faces double the average risk of getting hit, Weather Services International (WSI) said on Tuesday.

The Massachusetts-based private forecaster predicted the six-month Atlantic-Caribbean storm season that ends November 30 would see a total of six “major” hurricanes with winds of at least 111 miles per hour — one more than it envisaged in its August forecast.

There have already been five major hurricanes this year, including Julia and Karl last week, in what forecasters had warned would be an above-average active season.

After a relatively slow start, the tropical storm season had picked up dramatically in the past few weeks, with five major hurricanes occurring within the last three weeks, a historically unprecedented event, Todd Crawford, WSI’s chief meteorologist, said in a statement with the forecast.

Conditions in the Atlantic meant the northeast U.S. coast remained at twice the average risk of getting hit, WSI said.

“Our models still indicate that there’s an enhanced threat along the northeast … that risk is twice the normal risk,” Crawford told Reuters in a separate interview.

The United States had been spared a significant destructive landfall so far this season.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Florida Governor Charlie Crist’s strategy of taking the best ideas from Democrats and Republicans in his campaign as an independent for a Senate seat is failing.

The slight edge Crist held over Republican “Tea Party” favorite Marco Rubio in August has evaporated and turned into a wide deficit as he courts what appears to be a fast- shrinking moderate vote.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Wednesday showed Rubio far ahead in the three-way race to succeed Republican Senator George LeMieux, with support from 40 percent of likely voters. Crist had 26 percent while Democrat Kendrick Meek had 21 percent.

Florida’s U.S. Senate election is widely viewed as a referendum on President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy, and Rubio appears to be landing knockout punches bashing Obama.

Florida’s 11.5 percent jobless rate is nearly two points higher than the national rate, half the Florida homes that sell are foreclosures or short sales, and local governments are struggling with budget gaps because property tax revenues fell when the real estate market crashed.

In this state, it’s a tough sell trying to convince voters that the $787 billion stimulus package Obama pushed through last year to kick-start the collapsed economy did anything to help them.

One of the rare establishment Republicans backed by the “Tea Party” movement that wants limited government, lower spending and opposes Obama, Rubio blasts the package as reckless and wasteful.

MIAMI (Reuters) – The Florida Christian preacher who has received world fame and condemnation by threatening to burn a pile of Korans demands strict obedience and unpaid labor from his tiny flock and sells used furniture out of his sanctuary, those who know him say.

He was ejected from a church he headed in Germany by his own followers. Even his daughter says she believes he has lost his mind in his fanatical crusade against Islam.

Terry Jones, a previously obscure 58-year-old fundamentalist pastor with slicked-back gray hair and a shaggy mustache, has gained a global pulpit with his proposed burning of Korans, the Islamic holy book.

His estranged daughter, Emma Jones, called the church a cult that forced obedience through “mental violence” and threats of God’s punishment. She said he ignored her emails urging him not to burn Korans.

“I think he has gone mad,” she told Germany’s Spiegel Online.

President Barack Obama seemed unwilling to bolster Jones’ sudden fame when he referred to him in a news conference on Friday as “the individual down in Florida” without mentioning his name.

But Obama said Koran-burning could badly damage the United States abroad and endanger the lives of Americans.

MIAMI, Aug 31 (Reuters) – Powerful Hurricane Earl churned toward the eastern U.S. seaboard on Tuesday and looked to sideswipe the densely populated coast from North Carolina to New England, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Forecasters expected the main core of the Category 4 hurricane to stay offshore as Earl moved parallel to the coast during the upcoming Labor Day holiday weekend that traditionally marks the end of summer.

A hurricane watch was issued for most of the North Carolina coastline as officials warned any westward deviation from the forecast track could prompt coastal evacuations or even bring the storm ashore.

“A small error of 100 miles (160 km) in the wrong direction could be a huge impact difference,” National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read told a conference call with journalists.

“Even a minor shift back to the west could bring impacts to portions of the coastline from the mid-Atlantic northwards.”

The hurricane watch, issued by the Miami-based hurricane center, alerts residents that hurricane conditions — sustained winds of 74 mph (119 kph) — are possible within 48 hours. It covered the North Carolina coastline up from Surf City to the state’s border with Virginia, including the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds.

Earl, the second major hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic season, was moving west-northwest in the open Atlantic on Tuesday, keeping well east of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Hurricane Earl churned towards the North Carolina coast of the eastern U.S. seaboard on Tuesday after lashing Puerto Rico and the northeast Caribbean islands with winds, rain and waves, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said.

The forecast track of Earl, the second major hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic season, showed the fringes of the powerful Category 4 storm clipping the barrier islands of North Carolina’s Outer Banks early on Friday and threatening the densely populated coast northward from there to New England.

A hurricane watch could be posted by Tuesday night for the mid-Atlantic coast, alerting residents to expect storm conditions within 72 hours, the forecasters said.

Barry Baxter, a hurricane centre meteorologist, said forecasters had nudged the storm’s track slightly to the west overnight but still had it narrowly missing a direct full-on hit to the U.S. coast.

“It’s still staying off the coast at this point for the whole eastern U.S.,” Baxter said.

He declined to predict how close the hurricane would come to New York when it churned offshore east of the city during the weekend.

“It’s too early at this point,” Baxter said. “We’re just telling everybody to keep their eyes on the track and just keep checking back.”

MIAMI (Reuters) – Hurricane Earl churned on a path toward the North Carolina coast of the eastern seaboard on Tuesday after lashing Puerto Rico and northeast Caribbean islands with winds, rain and waves, the National Hurricane Center said.

The forecast track of Earl, the second major hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic season, showed the fringes of the powerful Category 4 storm clipping North Carolina’s Outer Banks barrier islands early on Friday and also threatening the U.S. coast northward from there.

“Interests from the Carolinas northward to New England should monitor the progress of Earl,” the Miami-based hurricane center said.

Barry Baxter, a hurricane center meteorologist, said forecasters had nudged the storm’s track slightly to the west overnight but still had it narrowly missing a direct full-on impact to the U.S. coast.

“It’s still staying off the coast at this point for the whole eastern U.S.,” Baxter said.

He declined to predict how close the hurricane would come to New York when it churned offshore east of the city at the weekend.

“We just don’t know,” Baxter said. “It’s too early at this point. We’re just telling everybody to keep their eyes on the track and just keep checking back.”