Afghan Opium Crop at Fresh High as Foreign Troops Withdraw

Afghanistan’s opium crop will hit a new high this year, the United Nations said on Wednesday, presenting the new president with a challenge in tackling the trade fuelling the Taliban-led insurgency after the foreign combat mission ends.Opium cultivation expanded to 224,000 hectares in 2014, according to a survey by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, up 7 % from the previous year, rising in most poppy producing provinces in Afghanistan.The survey is likely to further embarrass aid donors who have invested millions of dollars in eradication over more than 13 years of war, only to see crops soar to unprecedented levels, flooding world markets with opium.