SOLDIERS BURN 20 BAGS OF POPPIES

About 200 spectators watched as soldiers burned a pyre topped with about 20
bags full of poppies on Monday, a public display of the government's
commitment to purge the country of drugs.

The destruction of the poppies, from which opium is derived, was the first
in Kabul. Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Wardak said the drug destruction
would be repeated as more drugs were seized.

"The government of Afghanistan will not allow the growing of poppies, nor
the manufacturing or smuggling of drugs," he told a small group of
officials before the pyre of sticks and 1,470 pounds of poppies was doused
with kerosene and set on fire in a soccer field.