This shrinkage coincides with a period of prolonged drought in eastern Africa, and was probably caused by it.

ECONOMIST: Human evolution: Before the exodus | The

The rainy season next month will disrupt transport and so push up food prices, which a prolonged drought has already helped to inflate.

ECONOMIST: And now the political fall-out

Forest fires have been increasing in remote regions of North America during the past decade due to prolonged drought periods and climate variability.

CNN: Canadian forest fires add to U.S. pollution

Many Mapuches in the cities have lost their jobs, forcing them to return to their villages, straining resources already limited by a prolonged drought.

ECONOMIST: A new twist to an old tale

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to lose their jobs over the next few months, and food prices are rising because farmers have been hit by a prolonged drought.

ECONOMIST: They dare not tell the president

In the patches of woodland where mistletoe was left in place, the number of bird species actually increased, probably because of the end of a prolonged drought in the area.

ECONOMIST: Ecology: Under the mistletoe | The

Similarly, another prolonged drought in the 18th century, which was noted by foreign visitors to Siam (modern-day Thailand), coincided with a series of political upheavals that included the sacking of the Siamese capital by Burmese invaders.

ECONOMIST: Tree rings are laying bare the climatic history of Asia

Niger -- in the grip of a prolonged drought -- is already struggling to absorb as many as 200, 000 of its own citizens who have returned from Libya, according to the European Union's counter-terrorism co-coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Overleaf, we follow the fortunes of Homo sapiens sapiens around the Black and Mediterranean Seas through 30 000 years of a tumultuous history marked by sporadic earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, as well as more insidious hazards tied to a changing climate, such as flooding from glacier melt, gradual sea-level rise or prolonged drought.

UNESCO: Open Access to Scientific Information

Moreover, a prolonged investment drought in the region will hurt the major American industries -- notably aerospace, high technology, construction equipment and financial services -- that have prospered most from the Asian boom.

CNN: Wake up, America

The prolonged U.S. drought jacked up soybean prices to record highs, prompting local producers to go on strike.

CNN: Ramadan sales show Indonesia's growing economic feast

Scottish Water has submitted its first drought order application in five years following a prolonged dry spell across parts of the country.

BBC: Black Esk reservoir - courtesy Scottish Water