They perform the Yaokwa ritual every year during the drought period to honour the Yakairiti spirits, thereby ensuring cosmic and social order for the different clans.

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

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Using it, he has built up a series of tree-ring chronologies from Thailand and Vietnam that indicate a period of severe drought across mainland South-East Asia in the early 1400s.

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

The bad weather does not bode well for Chinese inflation, as important agricultural products like cabbage and rape leaf prices have risen 16.1% and 18.2%, respectively, in the May 21 to May 30 period because of the drought, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

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But even this terrible period was eclipsed by an incredible mega-drought that persisted from the 1550s to 1590s over the Southwestern U.S., and into the 1600s over Wyoming and Montana.

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Callahan provided the lead 34 seconds in, Derek Stepan added a goal in the first period, and Taylor Pyatt snapped a long drought in the second for the eighth-place Rangers, who are inching closer to a playoff berth.

WSJ: Rangers eliminate Devils from East playoff race

Foligno snapped a 20-game scoring drought with two goals, Enroth made 18 of his 32 saves in the third period to earn his first NHL win in more than a year, and the Sabres beat the Rangers 3-1 on Tuesday night.

WSJ: Foligno scores 2 in Sabres' 3-1 win over Rangers

"In the period ahead, growth is likely to remain modest, reflecting the effects of the severe drought, " said Australia's finance minister Peter Costello.

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