A disaster caused by massive flooding in Brazil is beginning to ease, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, with the number of homeless dropping from more than 300,000 to 265,000. Officials said people began returning to their homes in some of the 10 states affected by the floods — an affected area three times the size of the U.S. state of Alaska. But AP also reported that the death toll rose by two to 42 after two people who went swimming drowned in a torrent. Rain was still falling on Tuesday in some parts of normally dry northeastern Brazil. The flooding, which is the worst in at least two decades, has been blamed on an Atlantic Ocean weather system that usually moves on in March but didn't this year.
