Sharif also enacted a constitutional amendment allowing leaders to fire deputies who desert their party for another -- a time-honored practice.

CNN: CAN THIS MAN MEND PAKISTAN?

The desert experience involves archery and a "fire walk" across hot coals.

CNN: , for

It'll take a few more wet years to reduce the fire danger on this high, desert landscape.

NPR: Western Wildfires Prompt Thousands of Evacuations

Smoke and fire rose from Naama Bay, a main strip of beach hotels in the desert city popular with Israeli and European tourists, witnesses said.

NPR: Deadly Blasts Rip Egyptian Resort of Sharm el-Sheik

The poppy fields were on both sides of the road where we had come under fire during our retreat, running toward the river on one side and toward the desert on the other.

NEWYORKER: The Taliban��s Opium War