MEXICO CITY, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Justice officials from the Americas and the Caribbean agreed Wednesday to reinforce border security, at a meeting highlighting the spread of Mexican drug cartels across the region.

BEIJING, Oct 9, 2008 (AFP) - Three people have died in southwestern China after receiving a herbal injection, the government said, in the latest incident underlining the safety risks of Chinese-made products.

MADRID, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Spanish police said Wednesday they had smashed a major international drug trafficking ring, arresting 29 people nationwide and seizing 14 tonnes of hashish.

The gang smuggled in hashish from Morocco aboard a yacht equipped with a double hull where the drugs were hidden.

ABUJA, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Ministers from the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will meet in Cape Verde on October 28 and 29 to discuss drug trafficking in West Africa, the organisation said Wednesday.

The ministerial-level meeting will be preceded by a two-day meeting of experts.

MEXICO CITY, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - South America produces all the world's cocaine, around 950 tonnes per year, and Europe and the United States are the biggest consumers, the head of the UN drug agency said Wednesday.

BRUSSELS, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - NATO's top commander in Europe called Monday for a decisive assault by international forces on drug trafficking in Afghanistan, a major source of funds for the Taliban.

KNAYSSEH, Lebanon, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - With his pony tail, long sideburns, tight jeans and cowboy boots, Noah Zaayter cuts an odd figure as he struts through this tiny Lebanese village trailed by his own militiamen.

WASHINGTON, Oct 4, 2008 (AFP) - A bother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Ahmed Wali Karzai, may be involved in the illegal drug trade, which is prompting serious concern among top US officials, The New York Times reported on its website Saturday.

RIYADH, Oct 4, 2008 (AFP) - Saudi border guards have seized more than 1.2 tonnes of hashish as well as weapons along the border with Yemen during a shootout with drug traffickers, a senior official said on Saturday.

SOFIA, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - Bulgarian customs and police officers aided by German federal customs have seized 20 kilogrammes (44 pounds) of cocaine in the southern town of Pazardzhik, the interior ministry announced Friday.

The drugs, which were monitored by the officers all the way from Argentina, were hidden in a specially carved-out hydraulic pump.

LILLE, France, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - French customs have seized nearly two tonnes of marijuana with a street value of nine million euros (12.5 million dollars) from a truck at the Franco-Belgian border, officials said Friday.

ZAGREB, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - Croatian police said on Friday that together with Canada they have dismantled a drug smuggling ring, seizing 411 kilos (905 pounds) of norephedrine, a chemical used to produce amphetamine.

RABAT, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - Moroccan paramilitary police said Friday they had seized a small airplane carrying 1.6 tonnes (1,600 kilos) of hashish in the north of the country, MAP news agency reported.

The shipment was caught in a police air operation Thursday night after the plane had managed to escape once earlier, said MAP.

LONDON, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Cannabis is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, according to a report by a British research charity Thursday, which called for a 'serious rethink' of drug policy.

The Beckley Foundation, a charity which numbers senior British and other academics among its advisors, said banning cannabis has no impact on supply and turns users into criminals.

PARIS, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - A Nigerian man suspected of drug trafficking plunged to his death on Wednesday from the seventh floor of a Paris apartment building while apparently seeking to avoid police arrest, authorities said.

The 47-year-old man fell from a window while police were breaking down the door of his flat early Wednesday, according to police sources.

MADRID, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - Two Turkish immigrants who were reduced to begging on the streets after being released from prison are pleading with authorities to send them back to jail, judicial sources said Wednesday.

Sahin Eren and Erden Vardar were arrested in July, 2006 in southern Spain in possession of 11 kilogrammes (24 pounds) of heroin.

BISSAU, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - The head of Bissau airport's border and immigration department and six other policemen were arrested here over cocaine smuggling, a source close to the police said Wednesday.

The policemen are accused of keeping 180 capsules of pure cocaine they intercepted at the airport on Friday from a drug smuggler, who was about to board a flight to Portugal.

CASABLANCA, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - A Nigerian man suffered a heart attack after cocaine capsules burst in his stomach, forcing a plane flying from Senegal to Spain to make an emergency landing in Morocco, airport officials and police said Tuesday.

TOKYO, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - A disgraced Russian sumo wrestler threatened on Monday to lift the lid on drug use, match-fixing and other 'evil things' plaguing the ancient sport.

Soslan Gagloev, 20, rose quickly through the ranks under the ring name Wakanoho, but was thrown out last month for marijuana possession and has since tried unsuccessfully to return.

TOKYO, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - A disgraced Russian sumo wrestler threatened Monday to lift the lid on drug use, match-fixing and other 'evil things' plaguing the ancient sport.

Soslan Gagloev, 20, rose quickly through the ranks under the ring name Wakanoho, but was thrown out last month for marijuana possession and has since tried unsuccessfully to return.

PARIS, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) - Youngsters in the United States are three times likelier to be prescribed antidepressants and stimulants and twice as likely to be given antipsychotic drugs than counterparts in Germany and the Netherlands, a study published Thursday reports.

BOGOTA, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) - A former chief of prosecutors who is a brother of Colombia's Justice Minister Fabio Valencia, Guillermo Leon Valencia, was arrested Thursday for alleged ties to drug traffickers, authorities said.

Valencia was arrested in Medellin, where he lives, after a Supreme Court-appointed prosecutor issued an arrest warrant.

PARIS, Sept 24, 2008 (AFP) - Around 16 million people around the world inject illegal drugs, and nearly one in five of them may have the AIDS virus, according to an estimate published online Wednesday by The Lancet.

The global tally of intravenous drug users (IDUs) is put at 15.9 million, around three million of whom could have the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), it says.

PARIS, Sept 24, 2008 (AFP) - Around 16 million people around the world inject illegal drugs, and nearly one in five of them may have the AIDS virus, according to an estimate published online Wednesday by The Lancet.

The global tally of intravenous drug users (IDUs) is put at 15.9 million, around three million of whom could have the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), it says.

MEXICO CITY, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - The Mexican army seized 26.2 million dollars from a house in northwestern Sinaloa state in the second largest cash haul in the country's history, a defense ministry official said Thursday.

The army found 890 packets of cash in a house during a routine patrol in Culiacan, the state capital, general Luis Arturo Oliver told a news conference here.

CASERTA, Italy, Sept 19, 2008 (AFP) - Police investigating the murder of six African near Naples said Friday they suspected a local mafia clan might be behind the killings, possibly because of a dispute over drug trafficking.

ROME, Sept 19, 2008 (AFP) - Six immigrants of African origin shot dead near the southern Italian city of Naples may have been killed in a dispute over drug trafficking with the local mafia, police said Friday.

GUATEMALA CITY, Sept 19, 2008 (AFP) - Guatemala's vice president called his country a paradise for drug dealers with no laws, in comments to journalists Friday, after it appeared on a US narcotics blacklist this week.

ROME, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - Five foreign nationals died and two others were critically injured Thursday in a shooting near the southern Italian city of Naples, police said, as reports said the incident was believed to be linked to drugs trafficking.

'There are at least five people dead and two seriously injured. All are immigrants,' a police source told AFP.

ROME, Sept 19, 2008 (AFP) - Seven people including six foreign nationals were killed Thursday in two shooting incidents near the southern Italian city of Naples, police said.

Two people were also seriously injured in the shootings which the Italian news agency ANSA reported was believed to be linked to drugs trafficking.

PARIS, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - NATO needs to take more action in the fight against drug trafficking in Afghanistan, a senior UN official said Wednesday.

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said NATO forces should bomb production laboratories where more than 60 percent of Afghan opium is processed and then exported.

BRUSSELS, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - The European Commission unveiled Thursday a new action plan for tackling drug abuse, with cocaine consumption in Europe on the rise.

The plan, for the 2009-2012 period, aims to reduce demand for and supply of illegal drugs, raise public awareness and improve education about the dangers and boost international cooperation on fighting the phenomena.

THE HAGUE, Sept 16, 2008 (AFP) - The Dutch Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a landmark appeal court ruling that made it legal for a patient with multiple sclerosis to grow cannabis for therapeutic use.

Upholding the October 2006 ruling, the higher court said that 'exceptional circumstances' meant an 'illegal scheme can be justified when committed out of necessity.

PARIS, September 14, 2008 (AFP) - Scientists have figured out how tuberculosis tricks the immune system, a discovery that could lead to new anti-TB drugs, according to a study published Sunday.

In experiments with mice, they identified a key mechanism whereby TB bacteria provoke a form of death in host cells that enables the infection to spread through the lungs, they reported.

SOFIA, September 13, 2008 (AFP) - Bulgarian customs seized 20 kilogrammes (44 pounds) of heroin at the border with Turkey on Saturday, just a day after a similar catch at the Greek border, the customs agency said.

DUSHANBE, September 13, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan drug smugglers clashed overnight with border guards in Tajikistan leaving two of the Tajiks dead after a two-hour gun battle, an official said Saturday.

JAKARTA, September 13, 2008 (AFP) - A Nigerian was shot dead by Indonesian police after he tried to escape a drug arrest in the second police killing of a citizen of the African country in as many days, a report said Saturday.