The record-breaking heat has begun to subside, but it will likely be another two months before its effects on U.S. corn production can be fully discerned. Early data suggest, though, that the damage could be serious and cause corn prices to spike significantly. According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report, more than two-thirds of the contiguous United States is now under drought conditions, the highest level since record-keeping began in January 2000. Brad Rippey, an agricultural meteorologist at the Department of Agriculture, said that a band of the country stretching from the central Great Plains and into the lower Midwest has been the hardest hit by the heat wave and has experienced a significant expansion of drought conditions. Go to story #1

Extreme heat in the second half of June helped make the first six months of this year the hottest January to June ever recorded in the lower 48 United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said yesterday. Eighty-six locations set temperature records in June, with another 87 tying existing marks. Go to story #2

UNITED NATIONS -- In India's state of Punjab, where the country's "Green Revolution" began 40 years ago, another revolution may be in store. For four decades, India has encouraged food production through subsidies and other price supports to farmers there. Electricity is cheap, and water is free to whoever pumps it out of the ground. As a result, Punjab grows a fifth of India's wheat and 12 percent of its rice, while covering 1.5 percent of the country's land, according to the Columbia Water Center at Columbia University. But the "free" water may be exhausting water supplies, some warn. Unless something is done -- including, possibly, putting a price on water -- the future of "India's breadbasket" could hang in the balance. Go to story #3