News from March 2017
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
News Release: Benin is a stable constitutional parliamentary democracy (republic). On March 20, voters elected Patrice Talon to a five-year term in a multiparty election, replacing former president Thomas Boni Yayi, who served two consecutive five-year terms. In April 2015 authorities held legislative elections in...
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
Release: The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is ruled by its only constitutionally legitimate party, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP). The most recent National Assembly election held on March 20 was not free and fair. The LPRP selected all candidates, and voting is mandatory for all citizens. Following the election the National Assembly approved Thongloun Sisoulith to be the new prime minister.
By DOJ Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
News Release: WASHINGTON - A former Arkansas state senator, a college president and a consultant were charged in an indictment filed for perpetrating a bribery and fraud scheme involving tens of thousands of dollars in bribes provided to the senator and another legislator in exchange for directing approximately $600,000...
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
News Release: The Kingdom of Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with a freely elected multiparty parliamentary form of government. Legislative authority rests in the unicameral parliament (Riksdag). Observers considered the national elections in 2014 to be free and fair. In the same year, the king announced that...
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
News Release: Fiji is a constitutional republic. The country held general elections, which the Australian-led Multi-national Observer Group deemed credible and “broadly reflected the will of the Fijian people," in 2014. Josaia Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama’s Fiji First party won 32 of the 50 seats, and he was sworn in as prime minister.
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
Release: Saint Kitts and Nevis is a multiparty parliamentary democracy and federation. In February 2015 national elections, Team Unity, a coalition of three opposition parties, defeated the previously ruling Saint Kitts and Nevis Labor Party and won seven of the 11 elected seats in the legislature. Team Unity...
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
Release: Mauritania is a highly centralized Islamic Republic with a president as head of state and a constitution grounded in French civil law and sharia (Islamic law). The Senate and National Assembly exercise legislative functions but were weak relative to the executive. Voters elect municipal councilors, who...
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
News Release: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the paramount authority. CCP members hold almost all top government and security apparatus positions. Ultimate authority rests with the CCP Central Committee’s 25-member Political Bureau (Politburo)...
By USDA Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
News Release: Washington - The U.S. Department of Agriculture is seeking nominations for three peanut producers and three industry representatives to serve on the Peanut Standards Board to succeed members whose terms of office expire on June 30, 2017. Nominations are due April 17, 2017. Selected members will serve three-year terms from June 30, 2017 through June 30, 2020.
By DOJ Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
News Release: CHARLOTTE, N.C. - On Thursday, March 2, 2017, Chief U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney sentenced a Lincolnton, N.C. man to 112 months in prison on child pornography charges, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Daniel Lee Rathbone, 38, was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release and to register as a sex offender after he is released from prison.
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
News Release: The Philippines is a multiparty, constitutional republic with a bicameral legislature. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, elected in May, began the first year of his constitutionally limited six-year term on June 30. The May presidential and 2013 midterm national elections were generally free and fair. The 2016 local elections were postponed until 2017.
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
News Release: Colombia is a constitutional, multiparty republic. In June 2014 voters re-elected Juan Manuel Santos president in elections that observers considered free and fair. On Aug. 24, the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s largest guerrilla insurgency group, reached...
By DOJ Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
News Release: Charlottesville, VIRGINIA - A personal care attendant, who for four years lied about the amount of hours she worked for a homebound retiree, pled guilty yesterday in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Charlottesville to federal false statement charges, Acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle and Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring announced.
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
Release: Rwanda is a constitutional republic dominated by a strong presidency. The ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) led a governing coalition that included four smaller parties. In 2010 voters elected President Paul Kagame to a second seven-year term with 93 percent of the vote. Three other registered political...
By DOJ Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
News Release: BOSTON - Two former corrections officers at the Essex County Correctional Facility were sentenced recently in U.S. District Court in Boston for their involvement with smuggling Suboxone into the Essex County House of Corrections - Middleton for inmates.
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
Release: The Central African Republic is a presidential republic. After a three-year transitional government, most recently led by Catherine Samba Panza from January 2014 to March 2016, voters elected President Faustin-Archange Touadera in a February run-off. A new constitution came into effect on March 30, approved...
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
Release: New Zealand is a parliamentary democracy. Citizens choose their representatives in free and fair multiparty elections, most recently held in September 2014. The National Party won 60 of 121 parliamentary seats and formed a coalition government with three other parties, led by John Key as prime minister.
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
Release: Grenada is a parliamentary democracy with a bicameral legislature. Observers considered the 2013 elections to be generally free and fair. The New National Party won all 15 seats in the House of Representatives and selected Keith Mitchell as prime minister.
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
News Release: Turkey is a constitutional republic with a multiparty parliamentary system and a president. A unicameral parliament (the Grand National Assembly) exercises legislative authority. Binali Yildirim succeeded Ahmet Davutoglu as prime minister in May.
By State Newswire | Mar 3, 2017
News Release: The Oriental Republic of Uruguay is a constitutional republic with an elected president and a bicameral legislature. In 2014, in a free and fair runoff election, Tabare Vazquez won a five-year presidential term, and his Frente Amplio party won a majority in parliament.
