Greater Middle East

Lebanon’s hashish valley drawn into Syrian war

Lebanon’s hashish heartland of the Bekaa Valley is increasingly embroiled in the civil war raging across the border in Syria, with a wave of sectarian clashes and abductions.

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.

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.

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. 

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.