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TOPIC: monsoon

Green Or Gone

Pakistan's "Monster Monsoon" And The Decade Of Destruction Left In Its Path

Caught between a natural disaster, an economic crisis and poor governance, flood-affected Pakistanis contemplate a future in ruins.

THATTA, SINDH — In a hastily put together settlement in the Matka embankment area of Thatta, Leela Mallah, carrying a child on her hip, looks at her new home: pieces of cloth draped over a bamboo structure assembled by the side of a road.

Leela’s actual home was washed away in the floods that have devastated the provinces of Sindh, Balochistan, South Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the middle of June, due to what Senator Sherry Rehman, the federal minister for climate change, called a “Monster Monsoon”.

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India: 5 Stories Making Headlines At Home

This week, we shine the spotlight on India:

P FOR PICHAI

Google's surprise announcement that it was restructuring its businesses under a new parent company called Alphabet was a significant boost to India's national pride, with much of the media coverage focused on Google's new CEO, Indian-born Sundar Pichai. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quick to congratulate the 43-year-old for his rapid climb to the top of one of the most successful and powerful companies on the planet.

Like Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella, Pichai has been hailed as a role model for young Indians, and Indian website Firspost now characterizes Indians as "the biggest power players in Silicon Valley." As many as 15% of startups there are founded by Indians.

Among the innumerable articles dedicated to Pichai, The Hindustan Times published a series of interviews with his former teachers and schoolmates. "He was one of those typical good students who would follow every word of the teacher," his former thesis supervisor said. A former student, meanwhile, said he remembered Pichai as "kind of a bookworm."

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India's "Climate-Change Refugees" Flee Rising Monsoon Flooding

NEW DELHI – In 2012, out of the millions of people displaced by natural disasters around the world, over a quarter were from northeast India. Almost nine million inhabitants were forced to flee the region's devastating monsoon.

These forced displacements are a common occurrence. Floods have become so routine in Assam, a state located at the foothills of the Himalayas, irrigated by one of the world’s mightiest river – the Brahmaputra – that a special administrative post was created to deal with natural disasters. “Most flood victims flee to temporary shelter and wait for the water to flow back, then they just go back home, it’s the same thing every year,” explains Harendra Nath Borah, the functionary in charge of natural disasters.

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The Quaintest European Village In The Jungles Of Southeast Asia

The taste of Alsace deep in the Malaysian heartland.

COLMAR TROPICALE - The intensity of the monsoon rain is having a bad effect on the geraniums in the window boxes, making the flowers droop. A shutter slams shut on one of the half-timbered, tile-roofed houses on the cobblestoned street with its two burbling fountains.

In the "boulangerie" (bakery) you can have croissants, pains au chocolat and café au lait. Alsatian "choucroute" (sauerkraut) and "flammekueche" (a type of pizza with cheese, cream and onions) are on the menu at the La Cigogne (stork) restaurant.

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Geopolitics

Heaviest Rainfall In Decades Kills Dozens In India, Pakistan

TIMES OF INDIA(India), BBC NEWS (UK), PAKISTANMETEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT (Pakistan)

Worldcrunch

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Geopolitics

Devastating Floods Force Thousands To Flee Philippine Capital

PHILIPPINE STAR, PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER (The Philippines), BBC (UK)

Worldcrunch

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