In article <c7olf2d6028g4pfgp5ei4b8lr6lemv3jad@4ax.com>,
Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

From The Associated Press, 9/2/06:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14637693/

Opium cultivation out of control, U.N. says

Afghan crops total 92 percent of world’s supply, exceed global
consumption

KABUL, Afghanistan -

Afghanistan’s world-leading opium cultivation rose a "staggering" 60
percent this year, the U.N. anti-drugs chief announced Saturday in
urging the government to crack down on big traffickers and remove
corrupt officials and police.

The record crop yielded 6,100 tons of opium, or enough to make 610
tons of heroin -- outstripping the demand of the world’s heroin users
by a third, according to U.N. figures.

Officials warned that the illicit trade is undermining the Afghan
government, which is under attack by Islamic militants that a U.S.-led
offensive helped drive from power in late 2001 for harboring Osama bin
Laden and al-Qaida bases.

"The news is very bad. On the opium front today in some of the
provinces of Afghanistan, we face a state of emergency," Antonio Maria
Costa, chief of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said at a news
conference.

"In the southern provinces, the situation is out of control."

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Where's Osama?

Harry

The world bank makes some big bucks on the money-laundering. that's why
the Taliban had to go. they reduce h-production.