Pablo Escobar became one of the world's richest men by selling cocaine. Now, years after his death, his family is reinventing itself by going into the smartphone business.
Escobar Inc. is hoping to use the worldwide fame of the family's name to sell a foldable smartphone, called the "Fold 1" which they say will hit markets in January 2020.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - It wasn't the type of white powder that makes Christmas complete -- American retail giant Walmart has withdrawn a festive sweater that celebrates cocaine.
The sweater depicts Santa Claus with straw in hand, and three white lines laid out on a table before him.
"Let it snow" is written underneath, in a slang reference to cocaine.
The description of the product, marketed by a third-party vendor on Walmart's Canadian site, was explicit.
"The best snow comes straight from South America," it said. "Santa really likes to savor the moment when he gets his hands on some quality, grade-A, Colombian snow."
A Walmart spokeswoman told AFP on Tuesday that the sweaters were withdrawn from the site over the weekend, and have never been sold in the chain's stores.
She was unable to say how long the sweaters were offered for sale.
The sweaters "do not represent Walmart’s values and have no place on our website," the company said in a statement, apologizing "for any unintended offence this may have caused."
leo/jm/bgs
Agence France-Presse
WELLINGTON - New Zealand police and customs officials said on Friday they seized 190 kg (418.9 pounds) of cocaine with a street value of up to NZ$36 million ($25 million) that arrived in Auckland in a shipment of bananas, the country's largest-ever drug bust.
A 41-year-old man was arrested in neighboring Australia in connection with the seizure, New Zealand authorities said in a statement. Police put the street value of the cocaine at between NZ$28 million and NZ$36 million ($19 million-$25 million).
The haul followed an Australian investigation into an organized crime group. Officials there said a potential shipment of illicit drugs was heading to Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, after leaving Balboa, Panama, on Aug. 4.
The shipment arrived in Auckland on Aug. 20. Authorities inspected the container and found 5 duffel bags on top of banana boxes that contained 190 blocks of cocaine, each weighing around a kilogram.
The joint investigation between New Zealand and Australian authorities concluded in the past 24 hours with the arrest of the unidentified man in Sydney, the statement said.
Police said the drugs were destined for Australia.
"This seizure has stopped what would have been a very significant amount of harm," New Zealand's Minister of Customs Kris Faafoi said in a separate statement. ($1 = 1.4650 New Zealand dollars)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Carrie Fisher had a mixture of drugs including cocaine and ecstasy in her system when she suffered a fatal mid-air heart attack, a coroner's report revealed Monday.
The "Star Wars" actress -- who catapulted to stardom as the space epic's rebel warrior Princess Leia -- was rushed to hospital in Los Angeles on December 23 after collapsing on a flight from London and was pronounced dead four days later.
There were quantities of alcohol and opiates in her system, according to the toxicology report, which said the tests suggested "exposure to heroin, but that the dose and time of exposure cannot be pinpointed."
"Therefore we cannot establish the significance of heroin regarding the cause of death in this case," added the report, sent to AFP by the LA County Coroner's office.
The tests revealed the cocaine would have been taken within the previous three days, according to the report, which gave the cause of death as sleep apnea -- a breathing disorder -- and "other undetermined factors" including heart disease and "multiple drug intake."
"My mom battled drug addiction and mental illness her entire life. She ultimately died of it," Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd, said in a statement released to celebrity magazine People on Friday.
"She was purposefully open in all of her work about the social stigmas surrounding these diseases."
The star's brother, Todd Fisher, said her battle with drugs and bipolar disorder had "slowly but surely put her health in jeopardy over many, many years."
Fisher's mother, the actress Debbie Reynolds, suffered a fatal stroke the day after her daughter's death.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
