The rains came up from India, washing the Himalayas, filling the rivers of the Punjab, pouring down water on the Hindu Kush and on the plain that extends from the Khyber to Karachi.

NEWYORKER: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders

Many people have gone hungry in the past few months thanks to a poor harvest: instead of falling evenly through the 2004-05 growing season, the rains came all at once, mostly early on.

ECONOMIST: Africa 40 years on