Drug trafficking allegations against FedEx head to trial
Drug trafficking allegations against FedEx head to trial
SAN FRANCISCO — Two giants — the U.S. government and FedEx — are set to do battle in a federal court over the explosive claim that the shipping company knowingly delivered illegal prescription drugs such as Ambien from pill mills to dealers and addicts, some of whom died.
Fedex has denied the charges and says it only shipped what it believed were legal drugs from licensed pharmacies. Opening statements are scheduled to start Monday.
The trial — nearly two-years in the making — is unusual both for the government’s decision to bring drug charges against a package delivery company and the lack of a settlement. Rival UPS Inc. paid $40 million in 2013 to resolve similar allegations that arose from a yearslong government crackdown on Internet pharmacies that ship drugs to customers without valid prescriptions.
The stakes are high for Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx. Though no FedEx officials are facing prison time, the charges carry a potential fine of $1.6 billion.
1 year after church shooting, much is the same in Charleston
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The names of Confederate generals still adorn street signs in Charleston’s public housing projects, and a heroic waterfront statue dedicated to the Confederate Defenders of Charleston still faces Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.
Just down from the Emanuel AME church — where nine black parishioners studying their Bibles were gunned down one year ago — a statue of Vice President John C. Calhoun, a staunch defender of slavery, towers above a park.
After the June 17, 2015, massacre, South Carolina lawmakers did what many people thought was impossible to achieve and removed the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds in Columbia. Across the country, as far away as Alaska, officials moved to strip streets, college dormitories and even lakes of the names of Confederates, secessionists and public figures who championed segregation.
But a year later, little has changed in Charleston, the city where tens of thousands of enslaved Africans first set foot in North America. It was here that the work of plantation slaves made the city one of the wealthiest in the nation before the Civil War. It was here where the bombardment of Fort Sumter threw the nation into that war in 1861.
A section of a street in front of the white stucco Emanuel AME church may have been renamed “Mother Emanuel Way Memorial District,” but all of Charleston’s Confederate commemorations remain intact — and longstanding racial issues endure.
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In Syria’s Aleppo, divided locals share fear of total siege
BEIRUT — Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, used to be the country’s economic locomotive but four years of grinding battles have rendered it almost uninhabitable. Pummeled by bombs and rocket fire, residents on both sides of this divided metropolis have experienced severe water and power shortages, soaring living costs, and collapsing public services.
In 2012, the city split between rebels and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. Now the prospect of a total siege looms over both sides.
As government forces mount attacks to close the only road to the opposition-held areas in the east of the city, rebels outside Aleppo are slowly constricting the passage to the western, government-held side.
After a two month lull following an internationally-brokered cease-fire in February, the death toll is rising on both sides. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, recorded that 302 civilians in opposition neighborhoods have been killed in presumed Russian and government airstrikes since hostilities resumed on April 22. In that time, 236 civilians have been killed in indiscriminate shelling and rocket attacks by the rebels.
Locals across the city worry that a day will come when they can no longer go in or out of their neighborhoods.
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IS suicide bombers hit Libyan forces in Sirte, killing 1
BENGHAZI, Libya — Islamic State suicide bombers using an ambulance and two other vehicles targeted Libyan forces in the coastal city of Sirte on Sunday, killing at least one of them, a spokesman for militias loyal to Libya’s U.N.-brokered government said.
IS took over Sirte last year, exploiting Libya’s turmoil to gain a foothold in the oil-rich country. The fight to retake it is being led by militias from the western city of Misrata, which advanced into the city last week.
Brig. Gen. Mohammed al-Ghasri said Sunday’s attack “infiltrated our siege” on the insurgents’ main stronghold in the country and targeted supply lines and medical units. At least one paramedic was killed and a dozen troops were wounded, he said.
“They aimed to shake our ranks, to force us to retreat, but we remain steadfast,” al-Ghasri said. “We are determined to finish the job before the end of the holy month of Ramadan,” which began June 6.
Earlier, he said the IS militants had barricaded themselves in a densely built-up area in the city center, with their snipers taking positions on rooftops waiting for the militiamen to advance. The militias have been shelling the area with artillery.