Afghan opium production explodes despite billions spent, says US report

Report by DC's Afghanistan war watchdog found opium cultivation unaffected by $7.5bn US spent to combat it

Opium cultivation is estimated to be at an all-time high in Afghanistan, despite the US spending $7.5bn to combat it.

A report released Wednesday by Washington’s Afghanistan war watchdog has found that the billions spent by the State and Defense departments on counter-narcotics since 2002 has been for nought. Opium-poppy cultivation takes up 209,000 hectares (516,230 acres) of land in Afghanistan, a 36% increase since 2012.

Drug use inside Afghanistan has spiked, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. About 1.3 million Afghan adults were regular drug users in 2012, up from 1 million in 2009; regular opium users grew to 230,000 in 2009 from 130,000 in 2005. The population of Afghanistan is just under 32 million.

Maldives enacts regulation for death penalty

Regulation overturns 60-year-old moratorium, meaning children as young as seven could get death sentences, says UN.

Last updated: 30 Apr 2014 23:02

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5/1/14, 4:48 PM

Children as young as seven can be held for some offences including apostasy and theft
The United Nations and European Union have condemned the Maldives for approving a regulation that allows children as young as seven to be sentenced to death for certain crimes.

5/1/14, 4:46 PM

NATO support called in to foil Afghan attack
Attack by hundreds of fighters on army posts in Zirok district of Paktika province is intercepted, killing scores.
Last updated: 30 Apr 2014 17:23

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Afghan forces have repulsed an assault by hundreds of fighters, many from across the border in Pakistan, in the biggest clash since the presidential election about four weeks ago.

NATO air support was called in on Wednesday to help beat back the attack that left 60 fighters and at least five Afghan soldiers dead at an army base near the porous border on Monday night.

  An Uneasy Inheritance of India’s Political Dynasty

By GARDINER HARRIS APRIL 30, 2014
NEW DELHI — On a visit to the rural constituency that has sent him or his relatives to Parliament for decades, Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India’s most powerful political dynasty, was asked a simple question: Can you name five party workers from the area?
The question, asked in a pre-election review meeting two years ago by a party worker unhappy with Mr. Gandhi’s attitude toward politics, led Mr. Gandhi to shrug and admit that he could not name anyone, said a flabbergasted Shakeel Ahmad, 60, a second-generation Indian National Congress party leader in the politically vital state of Uttar Pradesh who was at the meeting.