Shifting Monsoon Patterns Worsen South Asia's Flood Menace
NEW DELHI - Devastating floods that have washed away homes, drowned rice fields and stranded millions of people in northeast India and Bangladesh in recent weeks are not unusual -- flooding during South Asia's monsoon season has become a virtually annual occurrence.
What is unusual is that vast swathes of land in the two countries disappeared underwater much earlier this year.
"The peak flooding takes place