HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan -- Canadian soldiers have seized an estimated $3 million in opium from a mud-walled Taliban compound after an outnumbered Canadian reconnaissance patrol held off more than two dozen fighters until additional firepower arrived. "It confirms what we knew but hadn't seen -- Ethe physical evidence that there is a direct connection between Taliban activities and the drug trade here," said Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, commander of the Canadian battlegroup in southern Afghanistan. "The Taliban is funded in large part by the opium trade." Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium, which is refined into heroin. In the...