Drought destroys wheat crop and dries up rivers

Baghdad: It's been a year of drought and sand storms across Iraq - a dry spell that has devastated the country's crucial wheat crop and created new worries about the safety of drinking water. US officials warn that Iraq will have to increase wheat imports sharply this winter to make up for the lost crop - a sobering proposition with world food prices high and some internal refugees already struggling to afford food. "Planting ... is totally destroyed," said Daham Mohammad Salim, 40, who farms 120 acres in Al Jazeera area near Tikrit, 128km north of Baghdad. "Even the ground water in wells is lower than before." Dry canals The Tikrit area, where Saddam Hussain was born, normally is flush with green meadows in the spring and early summer but this year has only thistles, said 30-year-old farmer Ziyad Sano. He's resorted to... [read full story]