Afghanistan
Afghanistan: opium crop breaks record
Opium cultivation in Afghanistan is expected to increase for a third straight year, expanding even to new areas of the country, warns the UN Office of Drugs and Crime.
Tag: opium
Southeast Asia
China: drug lord’s execution sparks dissent
Chinese TV broadcast images of a Burmese drug lord and his accomplices on their way to a death chamber in Yunnan, prompting online protests from rights activists in Beijing.
Afghanistan
US, Afghan forces accuse each other in abuses
Hamid Karzai barred US Special Forces from two strategic provinces following reports of atrocities, as US Marines level similar charges against Afghan police they are training.
South Asia
India: Naxalite hand in opium trade?
Authorities in India say that the Naxalite guerillas, following a series of reversals, have taken refuge in the northeast, where they are trading opium for guns from Burma.
Southeast Asia
Burma: Kachin rebels agree to peace talks
With fighting escalating after a 17-year ceasefire broke down last year, Burma’s Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has agreed to talks with the government.
Afghanistan
US blacklists Afghan airline for opium trafficking
One of Afghanistan’s top airlines has been officially blacklisted by US authorities for allegedly trafficking opium on civilian flights. The Kabul regime is demanding evidence.
Southeast Asia
Burma: new airstrikes on Kachin rebels
Burma's army claimed responsibility for air-strikes against Kachin rebel positions in the north—less than a day after the government denied the strikes had taken place.
Mexico
Mexico: peasant ecologist killed in Guerrero
Juventina Villa Mojica, an environmental activist in Mexico's southern state of Guerrero, was killed along with her 10-year-old son in a mountaintop attack by 30 gunmen.
Afghanistan
Treasury Department sanctions Taliban ‘kingpin’
The US Treasury Department sanctioned a senior Taliban official for his alleged role in the Afghan opium trade, saying the traffic is used to finance violence.
Southeast Asia
Burmese warlord confesses to Mekong massacre
Burmese warlord Naw Kham, hunted down in the Golden Triangle by elite Chinese forces, pleaded guilty before a court in Yunnan to a massacre of Chinese merchant crewmen.
The Andes
Venezuela, Bolivia give US backtalk over drug war ‘blacklist’
Venezuela and Bolivia reacted angrily to the fourth consecutive White House annual determination that they have "demonstrably failed" to combat narco trafficking.
Central Asia
Central Asia opium wars escalate
Tajikistan sealed its border with Afghanistan after clashes with armed rebels left 48 dead—a re-escalation of conflict over control of the cross-border traffic in Afghan opium.