Canada in Brief

AFGHAN DRUG TRADE HURTS STABILITY, GENERAL SAYS

VANCOUVER -- Corruption and drug-trafficking stemming from
Afghanistan's poppy crops pose the biggest threat to coalition
efforts to nurture a stable government in the country, U.S.
Lieutenant-General Karl Eikenberry said yesterday.

Speaking via teleconference from the U.S. embassy in Geneva to the
Asia Pacific Summit in Vancouver, Lt.-Gen. Eikenberry -- commanding
general with combined forces command in Afghanistan -- said the poppy-
growing problem is big enough to warrant a strategy aimed at
providing an alternative economy, not just alternative livlihoods for
poppy farmers.