Amazon drought returns in 2006 (c) The Guardian

"... last year the worst drought in more than a century hit the Amazon basin, drying up tributaries more than a mile wide and prompting Brazil to declare a state of emergency across the entire region.

"Tens of thousands were cut off as rivers that are the main means of transportation were turned into mudflats and grasslands, leaving boats stranded among millions of rotting fish on the baked mud.

"Locals hoped the drought was a once-in-a-generation event, but already there are signs that the extreme conditions of last year are returning. In the Acre region close to Brazil's borders with Bolivia and Peru, where last year's drought began, sandbanks have started appearing in rivers which are normally larger than any of their European counterparts."

Read more in ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/story/0,,1822208,00.html
Monday's "Guardian"