Index: src/java/org/apache/fop/layoutmgr/BreakingAlgorithm.java
===================================================================
--- src/java/org/apache/fop/layoutmgr/BreakingAlgorithm.java	(revision 1067111)
+++ src/java/org/apache/fop/layoutmgr/BreakingAlgorithm.java	(working copy)
@@ -542,7 +542,6 @@
         addNode(0, createNode(firstBoxIndex, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, null));
         KnuthNode lastForced = getNode(0);
 
-
         if (log.isTraceEnabled()) {
             log.trace("Looping over " + (par.size() - startIndex) + " elements");
             log.trace(par);
@@ -631,6 +630,13 @@
             log.debug("Recovering from too long: " + lastTooLong);
         }
 
+        // if lastTooLong would be the first break, add an auxiliary penalty
+        // to make it possible to create a genuine 'empty' node that represents
+        // a break before the first box
+        if (lastTooLong.previous.previous == null) {
+            this.par.add(0, new KnuthPenalty(0, 0, false, null, true));
+        }
+        
         // content would overflow, insert empty line/page and try again
         return createNode(
                 lastTooLong.previous.position, lastTooLong.previous.line + 1, 1,
Index: test/layoutengine/standard-testcases/fox_disable-column-balancing.xml
===================================================================
--- test/layoutengine/standard-testcases/fox_disable-column-balancing.xml	(revision 1067111)
+++ test/layoutengine/standard-testcases/fox_disable-column-balancing.xml	(working copy)
@@ -216,11 +216,7 @@
   </fo>
   <checks>
     <eval expected="0" xpath="//pageSequence[1]/pageViewport[2]//span[1]/flow[2]/@bpd"/>
-    <eval expected="12000" xpath="//pageSequence[1]/pageViewport[3]//span[2]/@bpd"/>
-    <!-- TODO Replace with the following test once bugs affecting multiple columns have been 
-    corrected
-        <eval expected="0" xpath="count(//pageSequence[1]/pageViewport[3]//block[@prod-id='span2'])"/>
-    -->
+    <eval expected="0" xpath="count(//pageSequence[1]/pageViewport[3]//block[@prod-id='span2'])"/>
 
     <eval expected="24000" xpath="//pageSequence[2]/pageViewport[2]//span[1]/flow[2]/@bpd"/>
     <eval expected="84000" xpath="//pageSequence[2]/pageViewport[3]//span[1]/flow[2]/@bpd"/>