Chiquita Brands International, owner of the namesake banana label, failed to halt U.S. lawsuits brought by thousands of Colombians who said they or their relatives were tortured or killed by militias the company paid. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Mara in West Palm Beach, Fla., denied Chiquita's motion Friday to dismiss some of the claims brought under the Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victim Protection Act. black christian louboutin The civil suits, which have been joined into a single case, seek compensation for the victims. The Cincinnati-based company was fined $25 million by the United States after pleading guilty in March 2007 to engaging in transactions with a terrorist group by paying Colombian paramilitary militias $1.7 million from 1997 to 2004. No executives were charged. The seven complaints consolidated before Mara cover "several thousand" plaintiffs who allege their family members were killed or tortured by Colombian paramilitary groups in banana-growing regions, according to Friday's order. The paramilitaries targeted trade unionists and leftist activists, the judge said. Air traffic increases: Delta Air Lines said May traffic rose 2.2 percent from a year ago, and U.S. flights grew more crowded heading into the busy summer vacation season. International travel picked up 2.6 percent, while domestic traffic rose 1.9 percent. The average domestic flight was 85.1 percent full, compared with 83.8 percent a year earlier. spiked christian louboutin Stocks extended their losses Friday as the Labor Department's unemployment report offered fresh evidence that the economic recovery is stumbling, capping a tumultuous week on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.79 percent to 12,151.26, closing down for the fifth consecutive week. The S&P 500-stock index fell 0.97 percent, to 1,300.16, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was off 1.46 percent, to 2,732.78. All three indexes were down about 2.3 percent for the week. The holiday-shortened trading week began Tuesday with the Dow Jones ticking up on speculation that European nations were preparing to deliver more financial aid for debt-ridden Greece, which faces the prospect of "You brought back the idea that without jobs this is not a sustainable recovery."
