Widespread rains are drenching southeastern Brazil, bringing relief to the region's coffee and sugar cane plantations while refilling hydroelectric and drinking water reservoirs ravaged by two years of drought. Rains started over the weekend in the southern grain states of Rio Grande do Sul and Parana before pushing into Sao Paulo on Monday and intensifying through Tuesday. Sao Paulo is the world's leading sugar cane producer and a major coffee grower.
