BALTIMORE, June 23 (UPI) -- The drought afflicting much of the southwestern United States is in its fifth year, is the worst in the instrumental record, and recent research indicates it could last for decades, climate scientists said.

BOULDER, Colo., July 25 (UPI) -- India's monsoon rains have become stronger over the past 400 years as Earth warmed gradually following the Little Ice Age, government researchers report in a paper in Friday's issue of the journal Science.