Opium cultivation in Myanmar has increased for the third year in a row, with the number of hectares rising by 11 per cent – a total of almost 50 per cent since 2006 – although production was down due to a fall in yield per hectare, the United Nations anti-drug agency reported today.

The United Nations crime tsar today blamed shady trading for the financial crisis that rocked most of the world last year, urging governments to use an international anti-corruption treaty to outline measures to restore trust in the financial system.

Amid an increasingly brutal struggle for a bigger slice of the $50 billion global cocaine market between Central American drug cartels, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has warned that legalizing narcotics would be an “historic mistake,” in a call for a global boost in drug treatment and crime control.

Tackling the challenges posed by illicit drugs and organized crime in south-east Europe is one of the major priorities of a new agreement boosting cooperation between the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC).