News from May 2018
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: The constitution guarantees all persons religious freedom, including the right to engage in religious ceremonies and acts of worship. The General Directorate for Religious Associations (DGAR) within the Interior Ministry, which is also known as the Secretariat of Governance or SEGOB, worked with state...
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
Release: The constitution provides for freedom of conscience and worship. The law prohibits religious discrimination. Religion and state are officially separate. The National Office of Religious Affairs (ONAR), an executive government agency, is charged with facilitating communication between faith communities...
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
Release: The constitution provides for freedom of religion, and both the constitution and the penal code prohibit discrimination based on religion. Any violation may be brought before a court of justice. Religious groups seeking financial support from the government are required to register with the Ministry...
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: The constitution prohibits religious discrimination and provides for freedom of religion, subject to limitations to ensure public order, health, and safety or to protect the rights of others. The law does not allow religious groups to register as legal entities, creating obstacles for them in conducting...
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: The constitution provides for freedom of religion, including freedom of thought, freedom to practice one’s religion, and freedom from oaths contrary to one’s beliefs. Rastafarians continued to disagree with the government’s prohibition of marijuana use. Members of the Rastafarian community said police...
By DOJ Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: OKLAHOMA CITY - A federal grand jury has returned two indictments involving the illegal distribution of and fraudulent billing for prescription opioids by health care professionals, announced Special Agent in Charge Clyde E. Shelley, Jr. of the Drug Enforcement Administration and Robert J. Troester, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: Gaborone, Botswana - House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and a bipartisan congressional delegation today concluded bilateral meetings in Botswana focused on conservation and economic development.
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: The constitution states the state is secular, prohibits religious discrimination, and provides for the right of individuals to choose and profess their religion. The Secretariat of Religious Affairs (SRA) continued to issue weekly themes for inclusion in Friday sermons at mosques and Sunday sermons in...
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
Release: Reports on Hong Kong, Macau, and Tibet are appended at the end of this report.
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
Release: The constitution establishes Nepal as a “secular state" but defines secularism as “protection of the age-old religion and culture and religious and cultural freedom." It provides for the right to profess and practice one’s own religion. The constitution prohibits converting persons from one religion...
By DOJ Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: United States Settles Lawsuit Alleging That Contractor Falsely Overcharged the U.S. Navy for Ship Husbanding Services.
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
Release: The constitution, laws, and executive decrees provide for freedom of religion and worship and prohibit discrimination based on religion. The constitution recognizes Catholicism as the religion of the majority of citizens, but not as the state religion. The law continued to require Muslim women, Catholic...
By DOJ Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: PORTLAND, Ore. - Rhyan Leigh Smith, 26, of Warm Springs, Oregon, was sentenced today to 13 years in federal prison for assault with intent to commit murder of two family members and using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
Release: The constitution provides for freedom of religion and prohibits discrimination based on religious belief. On Sept. 15, government security forces shot and killed 36 Burundian refugees and asylum seekers belonging to a Christian movement critical of the president of Burundi. The Burundians were protesting...
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: The constitution and other laws protect the right of individuals to choose, practice, profess, and change their religion. The law provides for freedom of religion and worship and provides for equal rights in accordance with the constitution and international law. Under a concordat with the Holy See,...
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: The constitution provides for freedom of conscience, thought, and religion and the right to practice religion freely. In October the new speaker of parliament announced that he would implement a 2016 national court order to reinstall indigenous cultural artifacts to the parliament house. The reinstallation...
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: Since 1974, the southern part of Cyprus has been under the authority of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus, while the northern part, administered by Turkish Cypriots, proclaimed itself the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (“TRNC") in 1983. The United States does not recognize the “TRNC," nor...
By State Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: The constitution provides for freedom of religion and prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion or traditional belief. The preamble to the constitution refers to traditional Christian values, but there is no state religion. In July the newly elected president, who is a Presbyterian Church pastor,...
By DOJ Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - A Mason County man was sentenced today to 18 months in prison, announced United States Attorney Mike Stuart. Conrad D. Berkley, II, 37, of Gallipolis Ferry, previously pled guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Stuart commended the investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
By DOJ Newswire | May 29, 2018
News Release: BIRMINGHAM - A federal grand jury today indicted a Madison man for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, Fentanyl and Alprazolam in Madison County and elsewhere in the Northern District of Alabama, announced U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town and U.S. Postal Inspection Service Inspector in Charge Adrian Gonzalez.
