Italian police have arrested the leader of the Calabrian mafia, which has parlayed drug trafficking to become more powerful than the more famous Sicilian mob. Clan feuds of the powerful 'Ndrangheta organized crime syndicate have bloodied the southern Italian region for years. Sabina Castelfranco reports from Rome.

A Pakistani man was beheaded on Friday. He was convicted of smuggling heroin into Saudi Arabia. In a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, the ministry said that Aslam Shahbaz Khan was executed in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Afghanistan’s blooming heroin production led to appearance of two new "Golden Triangles" of lawlessness on the country's borders with Pakistan, Iran and Turkmenistan , the U.S. anti-narcotics chief said on Friday.

Indonesia's constitutional court has upheld capital punishment for drug traffickers. The verdict came in an appeal filed by members of the so-called Bali nine - Australians convicted in a heroin case two years ago.

Criminal gangs are trafficking hundreds of children into Britain and forcing them to work in cannabis factories, with at least one child per week being found by police, a report said today.

The United States says Afghanistan has made some gains in its fight against the cultivation of opium poppies. But in its annual report on drug trafficking around the world, the State Department also said opium accounted for one-third of Afghanistan's economy.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is denying accusations by a fugitive drug lord that his 2002 election campaign was partially funded by far-right paramilitaries and cocaine traffickers.

The United Nations says the amount of land used to cultivate coca, the raw material in cocaine, has increased in Peru.

Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe is in the United States Thursday to push for a free trade agreement, as Congress considers cutting anti-drug aid to the South American nation.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon says he will continue to use the military to fight drug cartels, despite criticism from Mexico's congress and a rights group.

Interior ministers of the G-6 countries - France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain and Britain - are in Venice for a two-day summit. In their first meeting Friday, discussions focused on immigration and drug trafficking. Sabina Castelfranco reports for VOA from Venice.

The head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) today called for drug testing to be introduced to curtail substance abuse by automobile drivers and operators of public transportation and commercial aircraft.