Word: costas
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...might sound like good news that so much opium has disappeared from the world drug market, but Costa believes the missing opium is a potential time bomb, and many law-enforcement officials agree. That's because the Taliban is believed to be "stockpiling to control the prices," says a spokesman for Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency, who confirmed that NATO forces have uncovered Taliban stockpiles of opium. Despite the bumper opium harvests, the street price of heroin remains a costly $67 per g in European cities, and the price Afghan farmers charge for their opium has remained about...
...tithe on farmers. Since heroin use is dropping steadily in the West, the value of opium is diminishing - that's why officials are especially alarmed by the Taliban's stockpiles. "Who would have reasons to hold on to a devalued stock? People who have mischief in mind," says Costa. He believes that the Taliban is saving the opium for lean times. He says the hundreds of Afghans working for the U.N. drug office in southern Afghanistan have recently found notices posted by the Taliban advising farmers not to grow opium this year. A similar edict by the Taliban during...
...about $464,000 per ton once it is exported from Afghanistan. When British forces recently occupied Musikalia in Helmand province, they uncovered a stockpile of 45 tons of opium. But that's a tiny fraction of what has disappeared. "Where is it? We have been asking," says Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. drug office. He recently appealed to NATO forces and Western intelligence officers to launch an aggressive hunt for the opium...
...telecommunications, comes at prices that are roughly 40% higher than those in Bali. And for potential buyers who are concerned about cultural authenticity, Phuket underwhelms. Much of the island's vacation-property development follows an anodyne architectural style that could just as easily be in southern California or the Costa del Sol. Phuket may be in Thailand, but large swaths of it don't feel very Thai...
...means that we may see a reduction in overall biodiversity and what scientists call "species richness." Meanwhile, species that already live at the highest elevations have no place to go, except perhaps to extinction. Case in point: the Golden Toad, which lived in the high-altitude cloud forests of Costa Rica and suddenly went extinct. Its disappearance may be due in part to warming, which made its habitat unlivable...