Afghan poppy growing takes huge leap
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A huge leap in opium poppy growing in Afghanistan, revealed by a US study released Friday, threatens the fragile democracy and increases pressure on anti-narcotics efforts to succeed, top federal officials said.
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Opium production in Afghanistan, which provides more than 90 percent of the world's heroin, broke all records in 2006, reaching a historic high despite ongoing U.S.-sponsored eradication efforts, the Bush administration reported yesterday.
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A "cancer of insurgency" in southern Afghanistan could drive the 2007 opium poppy harvest to record levels, the U.N. drug agency chief said Monday.
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The U.S.-backed strategy to fight Afghanistan's massive drug trade has been unsuccessful in stemming opium cultivation, which is expected to hit record levels this year, a senior U.S. official said Thursday.
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KABUL - Afghanistan&#39;s opium production is approaching record levels. A new United Nations report says drug production has shot up more than 60 per cent in the past year.
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Afghan farmers earned about $1 billion from opium production in 2007, by far the country's largest cash crop, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.
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An annual United Nations&#39; survey released Thursday in Brussels finds that opium poppies are being grown in record levels across Afghanistan.
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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 U.N. report said Tuesday.
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Afghanistan produced record levels of opium in 2007 for the second straight year, led by a staggering 45 percent increase in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand Province, according to a UN survey to be released tomorrow.
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KABUL, Afghanistan -- World-leading opium cultivation rose a ``staggering" 59 percent in the country this year, the UN antidrugs chief announced yesterday in urging the government to crack down on large traffickers and remove corrupt officials and police.
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UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 27 -- Opium production in Afghanistan has increased by 34 percent over the past year, and the country is now the source of 93 percent of the heroin, morphine and other opiates on the world market, according to a report by the United Nations' anti-drug agency.
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Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the source of most of the opium and heroin on Europe's streets, was up sharply this year.
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BALKH, Afghanistan  - As Afghanistan struggles to cut its raging opium production, aid workers try to find alternative crops, but for some former poppy farmers the choice was easy -- they planted marijuana instead.
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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 it opposed aerial spraying of opium fields.
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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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An Afghan city known as ÂLittle AmericaÂ is today the epicenter of a Taliban resurgence and an explosion in drug cultivation.
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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.