A military campaign against the Taliban in Pakistan's Tribal Areas has left a million displaced over the past year—and is now compounded with anti-hashish operations.
The Constitutional Court of Spain declared unconstitutional a resolution by the Parliament of Catalonia that puts forth a plan for the region's independence by 2017.
Saudi Arabia has executed 151 people so far this year, the highest number since 1995—contributing to a global spike in use of the death penalty.
Egyptian authorities arrested prominent human rights activist Hossam Bahgat after military officials questioned him concerning a report he wrote on the use of secret trials.
The same day the Tunisia Quartet civil activist group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a parliamentarian from the center-left ruling coalition survived an assassination attempt.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and related networks are said to control Saharan smuggling routes for Moroccan hashish to fund their regional operations.
Both sides in Yemen's bitter Sunni-Shi'ite divide—equally intolerant of hashish-smokers and khat-chewers—are turning to the dope trade to fund their arsenals.
As ISIS burns the cannabis fields of northern Syria, Kurdish fighters at Kobani claim that ISIS forces besieging the town are snorting cocaine to keep their spirits up.
The Bekaa Valley's cannabis farmers, who armed to resist Lebanese army eradication efforts, now say they are ready to resist any ISIS incursion into their fastness.
National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militants shot dead at least 50 adivasis, or tribal people, in a wave of coordinated attacks across India's northeast state of Assam.
The farmers of northern Syria have been forced to grow cannabis, with all other economic activity disrupted by war. Now they face harsh privation as ISIS burns the cannabis fields.
Border Guard patrols along Saudi Arabia's rugged mountain frontier with Yemen report mounting interceptions of hashish, weapons and other contraband.
