GUINEA-BISSAU:  One Step from Becoming First African "Narco-State"
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LISBON, Feb 1  (IPS) - Guinea-Bissau is an ideal African springboard for  Latin American mafias to smuggle large quantities of cocaine into  the wealthy European Union market.
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CARACAS, Venezuela -- Colombian drug kingpins in league with corrupt Venezuelan military officers are increasingly using this country as a way station for smuggling cocaine to the United States and Europe, according to Colombian and U.S. officials. The Bush administration's dismal relations with...
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Authorities suspect a new threat is lurking in the mountains and jungles of Colombia: Not a new rebel cadre, but altered coca plants that are bigger, faster-growing and produce more of the compound that gives cocaine its kick.
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KABUL, Afghanistan -- These have been fat years for Afghanistan's drug lords. Since the Taliban collapsed in November 2001, traffickers, some militia commanders, and provincial officials have reaped rich rewards from the opium and heroin industry, according to government and Western officials.
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PARIS, Jul 13 (IPS) - While oil profits have flooded into countries such  as Angola and Nigeria in recent decades, some African observers  see new potential for the continent in the form of increasingly  in-demand biofuels.
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NIAMEY, Niger  - Sent from China to hunt for oil  under the Sahara desert, Wenhui Tan looked distinctly uneasy as  the conversation turned to security fears ranging from the  spread of Islamic radicalism to cold-blooded banditry.
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THE men exposed as plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea are the scum of the earth. Next time someone demands that the West should &quot;take over and sort out Africa&quot;, remember this scandal and the real face of Western intervention it reveals.
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A glance at Chechnya and its conflict:
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BRUSSELS, Dec. 7 (IPS) - The police can be your friend, but the friendship  often has to be paid for: more than half of Africans and one in  three Latin Americans who have had contact with police officers  in the past 12 months have paid a bribe at least once, says a  Transparency International survey.
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More than two decades ago, Frank Enwonwu got caught smuggling five ounces of heroin into the United States from his homeland in Nigeria. He admitted his mistake and readily agreed to work as an informant, believing the U.S. had promised to keep him safe.
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BARRANQUILLA, Colombia -- Pedro Luis Daza, a 40-year-old telecommunications technician, dressed up as guerrilla leader Simon Trinidad, who was recently extradited to the United States. One of his two brothers masqueraded as a US Army adviser in Colombia, complete with a realistic-looking rifle. The other posed as a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebel who was recently captured in Venezuela.
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Responding to a U.N. report warning it risks becoming a narco-state after opium cultivation jumped to record levels, Afghanistan said Friday the war on drugs was the top priority but opposed aerial spraying of opium fields.
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COLIDER, Brazil -- Researchers in the state prosecutor's office in Cuiaba, surrounded by annotated maps of central Brazil and stacks of file folders, believe they have a pretty good idea why the reclusive Kayapo Indians  emerged from the forest: Many of the "uncontacted" tribes of the area are on...
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AFRICA/SENEGAL - Scheda del Paese Roma (Agenzia Fides)- Paese dellÂAfrica occidentale che si affaccia sullÂOceano Atlantico, il Senegal ha unÂestensione di 200mila km2. Confina a sud con Gambia, Guinea Bissau e Guinea Conakry, ad est con il Mali e a nord-est con la Mauritania. Al cen...
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Seven helicopter gunships skirted the steep mountainsides, then quickly descended on a cocaine lab, marked by a smoke grenade thrown by one of the raiders. As the heavily armed anti-narcotics police jumped from the hovering craft, accompanied by an informant wearing a ski mask, peasants who worked the coca fields and in the complex scampered away.
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How an isolated African region became a barometer of tastes and trends in other parts of the world.
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MALABO, Equatorial Guinea  - Soldiers in combat  gear cluster at street corners, taxi drivers lower their voices  to ask foreign visitors what is going on in the country, and  oil tankers glide by in the distance.