A Glimmer of Hope for Afghanistan

UNITED NATIONS -- There's a glimmer of hope amid the gathering gloom in Afghanistan; narcotics production is down. In the midst of an increasingly tough counterinsurgency campaign, a disputed presidential election, and deepening worries in Washington as how to handle the conflict, some very good news comes from a U.N. report which shows a slump in opium cultivation.

War-torn Afghanistan holds the dubious distinction of being the world's largest opium producer; narcotics in turn fund the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban forces as well as many local war lords. Opium, which goes into global heroin market, comes from vast fields of poppy cultivation.