News & Views 08/08/07

Published: August 8, 2007, 11:57 pm

Photo: Iraqi shop-owners stop their work as U.S. soldiers from the 2nd battalion, 32nd Field Artillery brigade, patrol their market in Baghdad August 7, 2007. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj (IRAQ) REPORTS LIFE IN IRAQ Disaster looms as 'Saddam dam' struggles to hold back the Tigris As world attention focuses on the daily slaughter in Iraq, a devastating disaster is impending in the north of the country, where the wall of a dam holding back the Tigris river north of Mosul city is in danger of imminent collapse. "It could go at any minute," says a senior aid worker who has knowledge of the struggle by US and Iraqi engineers to save the dam. "The potential for disaster is very great." If the dam does fail, a wall of water will sweep into Mosul, Iraq's third largest city with a population of 1.7 million, 20 miles to the south. Experts say the flood waters could destroy 70 per cent of Mosul and inflict heavy damage 190 miles downstream along the Tigris. The dam was built between

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