Afghan opium crop soars to "frightening levels": UN
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Opium production has soared to "frightening record levels" in Afghanistan, which now has more land producing drugs than Columbia, Bolivia and Peru combined, the United Nations said on Monday.
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LONDON, November 20 (Online): Afghanistan is a &quot;narco-economy&quot; and as such a likely breeding ground for terrorists, Britain said yesterday, after the United Nations reported a 64 per cent increase in opium cultivation.
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KABUL, Afghanistan -- The burgeoning illegal opium trade in Afghanistan has become the biggest single threat to democracy, surpassing Al Qaeda and the Taliban and prompting US officials to consider military intervention against the traffickers, US and Afghan officials say.
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Afghanistan's already booming drugs trade is likely to grow even more this year, the head of foreign troops in the country said on Wednesday, warning this would bankroll the Taliban insurgency.
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Afghanistan, the world's biggest opium producer, is set for another bumper crop of opium poppies in 2008, providing a windfall for the Taliban, which taxes farmers to finance its fight against government and foreign forces, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said Wednesday. Production rose 34...
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KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 2 -- Opium cultivation in Afghanistan rose a "staggering"  59 percent this year, the U.N. anti-drug chief announced Saturday in urging the government to crack down on big traffickers and remove corrupt officials and police.
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The United Nations warned nearly 90 countries including the United States and most of Europe on Thursday to prepare for more deaths from heroin overdoses because of surging opium production in Afghanistan.
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Heroin production is booming in Afghanistan, undermining democracy and putting money in the coffers of terrorists, according to a U.N. report Thursday that called on U.S. and NATO-led forces get more involved in fighting drug traffickers.
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VIENNA -- Afghanistan produced dramatically more opium in 2006, increasing its yield by nearly 50 percent from a year earlier and pushing global opium production to a new record high, a UN report said today .
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The international community is making significant strides toward ridding northern Afghanistan of opium, a U.S. counter-narcotics official said Friday, despite setbacks in the Taliban-controlled south and forecasts of another record year of poppy cultivation.
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The United Nations is expected to declare a &quot;significant increase&quot; in the cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan stemming from weak eradication, alternative income and interdiction programs, the US State Department said.
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the  rampant drugs trade poses a bigger threat than the Soviet invasion.
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Afghanistan's opium cultivation jumped  64 percent to a record 324,000 acres this year and drug exports  now account for more than 60 percent of the economy, the United  Nations drugs office said Thursday.
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BRUSSELS, Belgium The UN says heroin is big business in Afghanistan, and is calling on the United States and NATO to wage war on drug traffickers.
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The United States estimated on Thursday that Afghanistan's opium production hit a record high last year and said the narcotics trade is undermining democracy and security in the Southwest Asian U.S. ally.
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Afghanistan&#39;s poppy cultivation increased by almost two-thirds this year and accounts for 87% of world supply of raw opium, a UN report said yesterday, warning of the country&#39;s descent into a drugs-based economy.
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Afghanistan's opium cultivation jumped 64 percent to a record 324,000 acres this year and drug exports now account for more than 60 percent of the economy, the United Nations drugs office said Thursday.