Enough Afghan opium to supply world demand for two years has effectively gone missing, with the Taliban suspected of stockpiling supplies in a bid to corner the market, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has revealed. Afghanistan is the world's leading narcotics supplier. Earlier this month, a U.N. study revealed Afghanistan's opium production had dropped dramatically this year partly because of new aggressive drug-fighting tactics in the country. According to the UNODC report, production dipped by ...

Federal safety investigators said Tuesday they fear flaws found in Washington's Metro subway system after a deadly crash this summer may endanger other transit systems, and they sent out an urgent recommendation asking that other rail operators check for similar problems. In letters to federal regulators, the National Transportation Safety Board said "all rail transit operators and railroads should be informed" about system flaws that could cause a track circuit to fail to detect a train. It was not clear ...

In a sign that President Obama is facing growing skepticism within his own party on Afghanistan, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday that the U.S. commander in Afghanistan should brief Congress on his recommendations for revising U.S military strategy. "I think it is useful at some point in time for Gen. [Stanley] McChrystal to share with the Congress, both the Senate and the House, his views and his proposals and his sense of the success that change in strategy ...

America's top commander in Afghanistan warns that more troops are needed there within the next year or the nearly 8-year-old war "will likely result in failure," according to a copy of a 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post. "Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) -- while Afghan security capacity matures -- risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible," U.S. and NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal said ...

Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Bangkok, Thailand, on Saturday to mark the third anniversary of a military coup that ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. About 30,000 protesters, who wore red shirts in support of Thaksin, gathered in the country's capital near the Government House, said police Lt. Gen. Tritote Ronnarithvichai. The crowd was calm and there was no sign of violence, he said. The demonstration was expected to end by midnight. Thaksin, who served two terms ...

Israel has warned a terrorist group was planning attacks on Israeli and Western tourists in India, and advised its citizens against traveling to certain parts of that country. The warning from Israel's Counter Terrorism Bureau suggested Israelis avoid crowded tourist hubs that are not secured by armed guards, according to Yigal Palmor, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman. The bureau also advised Israelis not to travel to Jammu and Kashmir in northern India, and to avoid Chabad houses, or Jewish ...

"If Japan recklessly 'intercepts' [North Korea's] satellite for peaceful purposes, the [Korean People's Army] will mercilessly deal deadly blows not only at the already deployed intercepting means but at major targets," KCNA reported. Japan recently mobilized its missile defense system in response to the planned North Korean launch, Japanese officials said. The move, noteworthy for a country with a pacifist constitution, is aimed at shooting down any debris from the launch that might fall into Japanese territory. U.S. Navy ...

An arrest is "imminent" in the killing of Yale University student Annie Le, a police spokesman said Thursday. Le's body was found in the basement wall of an off-campus medical research building. She had been strangled. Police are close to making an arrest in the case, spokesman Joe Avery said Thursday morning. Yale employee Raymond Clark, 24, was released from custody Wednesday after submitting to a search warrant for his home and a warrant to collect DNA, New ...

A train carrying Rahul Gandhi, the heir apparent of India's ruling Congress party, was pelted with stones Tuesday night, police said. Gandhi was traveling on one of India's Shatabdi Express trains -- fully air-conditioned, speedy trains preferred mostly by India's wealthy and upper-class travelers. Gandhi's train was hit by stones -- and at least two windows were broken -- as it passed through a village en route to the capital of New Delhi from Punjab state, a spokesman for Haryana ...

A quiet rendition of "Amazing Grace" capped an emotional candlelight vigil Monday night for slain Yale University student Annie Le, whose body was found on what was to have been her wedding day. Several hundred people turned out on the Yale campus for the vigil, crying and hugging. Le's roommate, Natalie Powers, said the 24-year-old graduate student in pharmacology "was as good a human being as you'd ever hope to meet." "She was also really tenacious and had a sense ...