Biden promises to 'save democracy,' that Putin will 'pay' for invasion | Main | Spanish edition

United States President Joe Biden promised Tuesday that he will “save democracy” from the challenges faced inside and outside the country, and that his Russian counterpart will “pay” for his invasion of Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine was the focus of part of Biden’s first State of the Union address, in which he announced his decision to close US airspace to Russian flights, as Canada and the European Union have done.

“[Russian president Vladimir] Putin is now isolated from the world more than he has ever been,” the president said before lawmakers from both houses of US Congress.

“[He] has unleashed violence and chaos. But while he may make gains on the battlefield, he will pay a continuing high price over the long run.”

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These are the 9 tolls where you will not have to stop or pay in cash - Colombia

The company GoPass It will be the first intermediary of the Vehicle Electronic Collection Interoperability system after meeting the requirements requested by the Ministry of Transportation.

Thus, as of February 28, the drivers who have the electronic payment devices attached to the vehicle will be able to use these in the nine tolls enabled in the country and thus reduce the time spent passing through these points.

As established by the Ministry of Transport, the nine tolls that are most advanced in the process of implementing the Vehicle Electronic Collection Interoperability systemwhich must guarantee their operation from next February 28.

These nine tolls are located in four departments and are as follows:

Cundinamarca: Mondoñedo, La Tebaida, Siberia, Caiquero and Bicentennial.

Atlantic: Galapa and Juan Mina.

Quindio: The Line Tunnel.

Tolima: The Line Tunnel.

The second phase will be implemented on October 30 of the current year, when the Vehicle Electronic Collection Interoperability system must be operating in all tolls in the country.

Toll fees can continue to be paid in cash and manually without inconvenience by drivers who prefer, however, whoever acquires their TAG will avoid long lines of vehicles at these collection points.

Air Force Ordered to Pay More Than $230 Million in Church Shooting

SAN ANTONIO — 

The U.S. Air Force must pay more than $230 million in damages to survivors and victims’ families of a 2017 Texas church massacre for failing to flag a conviction that might have kept the gunman from legally buying the weapon used in the shooting, a federal judge ruled Monday.

More than two dozen people were killed when Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire during a Sunday service at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs. Kelley, who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after being shot and chased by two men who heard the gunfire at the church, had served in the Air Force before the attack.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez had ruled in July that the Air Force was “60% liable” for the attack because it failed to submit Kelley’s assault conviction during his time in the Air Force to a national database.

FILE – This undated file photo provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety shows Devin Patrick Kelley.

An Air Force record of the Kelley court-martial says he pleaded guilty to multiple specifications of assault, including striking his wife, choking her with his hands and kicking her. He also was convicted of striking his stepson on the head and body “with a force likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm.”

In 2012, several months before his conviction in the domestic violence case, Kelley briefly escaped from a mental health center in New Mexico and got in trouble for bringing guns onto a military base and threatening his superiors there, police reports indicate.

Deputies were called to Kelley’s home in New Braunfels in June 2013 about the rape case and investigated for three months, Comal County Sheriff Mark Reynolds said. But it appeared that they stopped investigating after they believed Kelley left Texas and moved to Colorado. Reynolds said the case was then listed as inactive.

Under Pentagon rules, information about convictions of military personnel in crimes like assault is supposed to be submitted to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Investigation Services Division for inclusion in the National Criminal Information Center database.

For unspecified reasons, the Air Force did not provide the information about Kelley as required.

Lawyers for survivors and relatives of those killed had asked for $418 million, while the Justice Department proposed $31.8 million. Messages to the Justice Department, Air Force and the plaintiffs’ legal team were not immediately returned.

The approximately 80 claimants include relatives of those killed and 21 survivors and their families. Authorities put the official death toll at 26 because one of the 25 people killed was pregnant.

Martinelli pay 700,000 dollars as part of the agreement with the Prosecutor's Office | Society

The Martinelli Linares brothers, sons of former Panamanian President Ricardo Marinelli, have paid $697,458 as part of the plea agreement reached with the New York Prosecutor’s Office last December, when they admitted to having laundered $28 million and made bribes in favor of of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

Luis Enrique and Ricardo Alberto, who are awaiting the reading of the sentence, scheduled for this spring, in a New York prison, will have to pay a fine of 19 million dollars and could spend up to a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Pharmacy Giants to Pay $590 Million to US Native Americans Over Opioids

NEW YORK — 

A group of pharmaceutical companies and distributors agreed to pay $590 million to settle lawsuits connected to opioid addiction among Native American tribes, according to a U.S. court filing released Tuesday.

The agreement is the latest amid a deluge of litigation spawned by the U.S. opioid crisis, which has claimed more than 500,000 lives over the past 20 years and ensnared some of the largest firms in American medicine.

The companies involved in the latest agreement include Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and McKesson, according to a filing in an Ohio federal court by a committee of plaintiffs in the case.

Native Americans have “suffered some of the worst consequences of the opioid epidemic of any population in the United States,” including the highest per-capita rate of opioid overdoses compared with other racial groups, according to the filing from the tribal leadership committee.

“The burden of paying these increased costs has diverted scarce funds from other needs and has imposed severe financial burdens on the tribal plaintiffs.”

J&J, McKesson and the other two companies in the accord – AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health – previously agreed to a $26 billion global settlement on opioid cases.

J&J said Tuesday the $150 million it agreed to pay in the Native American case has been deducted from what it owes in the global settlement.

“This settlement is not an admission of any liability or wrongdoing and the company will continue to defend against any litigation that the final agreement does not resolve,” the company said.

It was unclear if the other companies would take their portion under the latest agreement from the global settlement.

‘Measure of justice’

Robins Kaplan, a law firm negotiating on the behalf of the plaintiffs, said the agreement still must be approved by the Native American tribes.

“This initial settlement for tribes in the national opioid litigation is a crucial first step in delivering some measure of justice to the tribes and reservation communities across the United States that have been ground zero for the opioid epidemic,” Tara Sutton, an attorney at the firm, said in a statement.

Douglas Yankton, chairman of the North Dakota-based Spirit Lake Nation, said the money from the settlement would “help fund crucial, on-reservation, culturally appropriate opioid treatment services.”

Steven Skikos, an attorney representing the tribes, told AFP they are pursuing claims against other drugmakers.

“This is hopefully the first two of many other settlements,” he said.

All tribes recognized by the U.S. government, 574 in all, will be able to participate in the agreement, even if they have not filed lawsuits.

The settlement is separate from a prior agreement that resulted in $75 million in payments to the Cherokee Nation from three distribution companies, including McKesson.

Many of the lawsuits regarding the opioid crisis have centered on Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, a highly addictive prescription painkiller blamed for causing a spike in addiction.

A judge in December overturned the company’s bankruptcy plan because it provided some immunity for the owners of the company in exchange for a $4.5 billion payout to victims of the opioid crisis.

The litigation wave also has swamped pharmacies owned by Walmart, Walgreens and CVS, which a jury found in November bear responsibility for the opioid crisis in two counties in Ohio.

Iran Teachers Protest New Pay Scales as Inflation Bites

Hundreds of teachers rallied in cities across Iran Thursday to protest against changes to their pay and pensions that come just as soaring prices hit their wallets, state media reported.

In Gilan province on the Caspian Sea coast, around 150 teachers marched in the city of Rasht, while another 70 did so in Lahijan, the state broadcaster reported.

Protesters chanted slogans such as “if embezzlement is reduced, our problems will be solved,” and “we only heard promises, we didn’t see justice”, it said.

In Iran’s third-largest city, Isfahan, around 300 teachers demonstrated, the Mehr news agency reported, adding that another protest was held in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari province in the southwest.

Social media platforms showed similar protests in Neyshabur in the northeast, Kermanshah in the west and Khorramshahr in the southwest.

The government wants to introduce a new grading system for teachers based on experience and performance.

The protesters are opposed to the way it will be implemented. They are also demanding that the government move more quickly to align pensions with the salaries of working teachers.

Hit by severe economic sanctions imposed since 2018 by the United States, Iran has seen inflation soar to close to 60%, exacting a heavy toll on the standard of living of public sector staff and others on fixed incomes.

Civil servants in one of Iran’s most powerful sectors, the judiciary, held rare demonstrations on Sunday against the government’s refusal to increase their pay.

On Monday, attorney general Mohammad Jafar Montazeri threatened to prosecute the protesters.

Ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi, who assumed his post in August, had proposed a salary hike in the last weeks of his previous job as judicial chief.

But the new government which he leads changed its mind.