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• The former head of the Winter Hill Gang fled Boston in 1994 ahead of an indictment and spent more than 16 years as a fugitive before being captured in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2011.
• Bulger, now 84, was convicted in August in a broad indictment that included racketeering charges in a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as extortion, money-laundering and weapons charges. A federal jury found that prosecutors proved Bulger played a role in 11 out of 19 murders in which he was charged.
• Jurors found the government had not proven Bulger participated in seven other killings and were unable to reach a verdict in one additional murder.
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UN report says Afghan opium poppy production hits record high despite international efforts
• JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghanistan's opium production surged this year to record levels, despite international efforts over the past decade to wean the country off the narcotics trade, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.N.'s drug control agency.
• The harvest this past May resulted in a staggering 5,500 metric tons (6,060 tons) of opium, 49 percent higher than last year and more than the combined output of the rest of the world. Even Afghan provinces with some past successes in combating poppy cultivation saw those trends reversed, according to this year's annual U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report.
• The withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan next year is likely to make matters even worse, said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the UNODC regional representative in Kabul. He warned that as international assistance falls off, the Afghan government will become increasingly reliant on illicit sources of income. Uncertainty is also driving up poppy production, as farmers worried about the country's future turn to the tried and true.
• The big increase in production began in 2010 when farmers rushed to plant to take advantage of soaring prices, a result of a crop disease the previous year, the U.S. military surge in the south and the announcement of the U.S. and NATO's transition out of Afghanistan, Lemahieu told The Associated Press.
• Lemahieu said those who benefit from the drug trade include farmers, insurgents and many within the government. Often, he said, they work together.
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