MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's monsoon rains have covered the entire country a month ahead of the normal schedule, increasing the prospects for a bumper output for summer-sown crops such as rice, oilseeds and cotton in one of the world's leading producers. The rains usually cover all of India by mid-July, but this year it happened on June 16, said a senior official at the India Meteorological Department, who did not want to be named.

By Heide Brandes OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Officials in tornado-stricken Oklahoma cities are now dealing with looters who are stealing items ranging from copper wire to jewelry. Moore police spokesman Jeremy Lewis and Mayor Glenn Lewis said 17 arrests have been made on misdemeanor charges of looting in Moore since the May 20 EF5 tornado hit.

Naval boats and helicopters scoured seas off Sri Lanka on Monday for dozens of missing fishermen, as the death toll from heavy monsoon rains and strong winds rose to 40, an official said. The bodies of 39 fishermen along with one victim killed on land have been recovered while another 30 fishermen caught in rough seas are missing, said a spokesman for the Disaster Management Centre (DMC). The rain and winds which pummelled the island early on Saturday have also destroyed more than 100 houses and damaged another 2,185 buildings, said the spokesman, Sarath Lal Kumara.

Budapest averted the worst of the floods that caused devastation elsewhere in central Europe, as flood defences held firm, with the Danube starting to recede early Monday after reaching a historic high. "We have no reports of any catastrophic situation, the situation is normalising," Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos told a joint press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban early Monday. The same was true of the rest of the country, where no casualties or serious injuries have been caused by the floods that has been dubbed Europe's worst in a decade.