'You can keep our criminals, thanks.'

Cambodia suspends repatriation agreement with US -- Cambodia told Washington Tuesday it would no longer accept convicted criminals with Cambodian heritage being deported to the Southeast Asian nation, the latest blow to ties between the two countries.  For the last 15 years, the two nations have had a repatriation agreement allowing them to forcibly deport criminals with ties to the other country. ​  AFP via Yahoo!​ Not sure if they've considered that this means they'll have to keep all of the U.S. pedophiles lurking about -- ya know, the ones that they actually bother to catch...

First MoneyGram, next the Federal Reserve

If only that was a joke... Chinese Takeover Bid for US-based MoneyGram Scrutinized.  The financial industry is closely watching Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial's attempt to acquire Dallas-based MoneyGram International, the world's second biggest money transfer company after Western Union.  Ant is offering $1.2 billion, more than U.S.-based competitor Euronet Worldwide.  If successful, the deal would turn Ant Financial into a financial behemoth with access to MoneyGram's vast network of 350,000 outlets of retail shops, post offices and banks across 200 countries. At present, Ant's business is largely based on the Chinese yuan.  The acquisition would also give it access to U.S. dollar funds and escrow accounts for managing the funds.  “If you look at MoneyGram, what they might be doing here (to Ant Financial) is bringing a unique extra key that has much to do with that escrow account surplus and be able to hold a lot of dollars,” Jacob Cooke, chief executive officer of Web Presence in China, told VOA. “That, of course, will give them access to a whole bunch more opportunities to Ant's financial services.” VOA

Sure to be well-received

Netanyahu gives German FM ‘ultimatum’ over meeting with NGOs.   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to cancel an upcoming meeting with Germany’s foreign minister unless the visiting diplomat cancels an appointment with two groups critical of Israel’s actions in the West Bank.  A senior Israeli official confirmed that the prime minister issued an ultimatum to Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel that he would scrap their meeting scheduled for Tuesday if Gabriel met with members of non-governmental organizations Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem.   WTOP

Reason for grim satisfaction, if not celebration

Iraqi troops capture largest neighborhood in western Mosul.  Iraqi troops on Tuesday drove out Islamic State militants from the largest neighborhood in the western half of the city of Mosul, a senior military commander said, a major development in the months-long fight to recapture the country’s second-largest city.  U.S.-backed Iraqi forces declared eastern Mosul “fully liberated” in January, after officially launching the operation to retake the city in October.   WTOP

Who's on first??

So, everyone is against IS, but Turkey and the US are against Assad and Russia is for, and Turkey is against all Kurds, but the US is for -- totally clear. Turkey hits Kurdish areas in Iraq’s Sinjar, northeast Syria.  Turkish warplanes carried out airstrikes on Tuesday against suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and in northeastern Syria, the military said, in a bid to prevent militants from smuggling fighters and weapons into Turkey.  The attack killed at least 18 Syrian Kurdish troops, according to a monitoring group, as well as five members of the Iraqi Kurdish militia known as the Peshmerga and drew swift condemnation from Baghdad.  WTOP

There really is a boat this time...probably

North Korea tensions: US submarine arrives in South Korea.  A US submarine has arrived in South Korea, amid worries of another North Korean missile or nuclear test.  The missile-armed USS Michigan is set to join an incoming group of warships led by aircraft carrier Carl Vinson.  North Korea is celebrating its army's 85th founding anniversary on Tuesday. It marked the event with a large-scale firing drill, South Korea said.  Tensions have risen in the area in recent weeks, with the US and North Korea exchanging heated rhetoric.    Daily Times

'Mind your own war!'

South Sudan hosting rebels to 'extend war' in Sudan: security.  Sudan's powerful security agency on Monday accused breakaway South Sudan of staging talks with rebels fighting Khartoum's forces in two southern states, with the goal of "extending the war" there.  In a statement, the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) said South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, his deputy Taban Deng and top army commanders held meetings last week with the SPLM-N rebel group. News24

The despot dinner table continues to empty...

Angola to hold election on August 23.  Angola's cabinet said on Monday that elections will be held on August 23 to choose a successor to President Eduardo dos Santos after 38 years of iron-fisted rule.   Dos Santos, 74, has been in power since 1979 and has announced that he will not contest the election. His ruling party's presidential candidate will be the current defense minister.   News24

History turned inside out

US general in Afghanistan suggests Russia arming the Taliban.  The United States must confront Russia for providing weapons to the Taliban for use against American-backed forces in Afghanistan, top US military officials said on Monday.  At a news conference with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis at his side, General John Nicholson, the American commander in Afghanistan, wouldn't provide specifics about Russia's role in Afghanistan.   News24

Don't feel bad, Mexico, it's not just you

Permit requested to build wall around Trump resort in Ireland It has emerged that the US President has applied to Clare County Council for permission for the wall which will stretch for up to four kilometres and be over three metres high.

In case you weren't sure, people really will do anything for money

Alleged Semen Smuggler Had Visited Cambodia The Cambodia Daily A man arrested by Thai border police for allegedly trying to smuggle human semen into Laos on Thursday had made several trips to Cambodia over ...

The REAL difference between futbol and football: Soccer hoodlums form organized crime rings, the NFL just recruits hoodlums

A high-level soccer official in Uruguay said recently that the country's organized fan clubs have begun operating like criminal organizations, indicating the evolution of these so-called "barras bravas" mirrors that of their counterparts in neighboring Argentina.  The barras bravas "have transformed themselves into true cartels that even fight for [control of] territory and the criminal activity they are involved in," said Rafael Peña, head of security for the Uruguayan Soccer Association (Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol - AUF). Peña made the remarks during a hearing before Uruguay's Parliament in early February, reported El País.  Insight Crime

Goes well with fava beans and a nice chianti

Duterte on terrorists: I'll eat their liver.  The Philippine president has warned that he can be 50 times more brutal than Muslim extremists, saying he'd even eat them if they're captured alive by troops.  President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly threatened drug suspects with death, but he raised his shock rhetoric to a new level on Sunday when he said in a speech during the opening of a national sports tournament what he could do to terrorists who have staged beheadings and other gruesome attacks.   News24

'Oh, you were serious about that?'

An international rights group says dozens of global clothing companies are not complying with a plan to ensure better safety in Bangladesh garment factories following the deadly collapse of a building four years ago.  Human Rights Watch said in a report Monday that only 29 out of 72 recently contacted companies are releasing information about how they source their products in Bangladesh. It said many brands have held out completely.  Associated Press

How refreshing -- old fashioned cops and robbers violence, no ideologies, no hate crimes...

In case you're new to sarcasm, this still sucks.

Three Seattle police officers were shot and injured during an exchange of gunfire with a suspect, who later died, after a robbery at a downtown convenience store.  Three people are suspected in the Thursday robbery at a 7-Eleven store near Pioneer Square, the city's oldest neighborhood, said Deputy Police Chief Carmen Best.  Associated Press​ 

She's a bad mama-jama -- we just won't say how bad

US won’t reveal ‘mother of all bombs’ toll.  The ear-splitting explosion from America’s “mother of all bombs” has been followed by calculated silence about the damage it inflicted.  U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday he does not intend to discuss damage estimates from last week’s use of the military’s most powerful non-nuclear bomb on an Islamic State stronghold in Afghanistan.   WTOP  

Yes, that's why the UN has not been allowed to investigate...

Syria formally asks UN to probe chemical attack.  Syrian President Bashar Assad says the Syrian government has formally approached the United Nations, asking it to send in the experts to investigate the April 4 suspected chemical attack.  Assad said in an interview with the Russian state-owned RIA Novosti news agency on Thursday that the U.N. has not sent anyone yet and blamed Western nations and the United States in particular for not allowing the experts to travel to Syria.   WTOP

Diplo-what???

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that Syria had dispersed its warplanes in recent days and that it retained chemical weapons, an issue he said would have to be taken up diplomatically.  The United States launched dozens of missiles earlier this month against a Syrian air base in response to a chemical attack that killed 90 people, including 30 children. It says the Syrian government launched the attack from the Shayrat air base.  Reuters

Numbers may not lie, but sometimes they stun

Where USG money comes from (hint: it's mostly peons!) and where it goes: USAFacts And read this article for info on how this came about (a smart rich dude with time on his hands who wanted to prove his wife wrong about social spending -- he didn't, btw) and how you can use it: Steve Ballmer Serves Up a Fascinating Data Trove

'Now could you just give me all of your personal information -- for your own protection, of course?'

Homeland Security hotline number used in phone scam. A fraud alert has been issued by the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Inspector General after scammers altered caller ID systems to make it appear they were calling from an official phone number. The callers claimed to be from “U.S. Immigration,” told victims they had been affected by identity theft, and then asked victims to provide or confirm personal information. The calls were made to appear as if they were coming from the hotline number for Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, 1-800-323-8603. (The office is the department’s independent oversight arm, and the hotline is used to receive calls about fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement.) “This came to our attention from individuals who had actually been victims of this scam,” said the office’s Diana Shaw. She said the hotline received a flood of calls in mid-March, with the callers asking why they had been contacted and asked personal questions. People throughout the country were targeted.WTOP

'Maybe I will let you send me to Mexican jail, maybe I won't...'

Mexican ex-governor stalls fast-track extradition from Guatemala.  Javier Duarte, the former state governor of Mexico's ruling party who was arrested in Guatemala at the weekend, said in court on Wednesday he would not agree to be extradited until his lawyers were able to study a formal extradition request.  "At this time, I can't agree (to extradition) until the formal extradition request arrives, and it can be studied by my defense team" said Duarte. "This doesn't mean I won't accept it, though."  Reuters

Ditto

Russia denies it is moving troops close to North Korea.  Russian authorities are denying reports that they are moving troops to the border with North Korea over growing tensions in the Korean peninsula.  The Interfax news agency on Friday quoted Alexander Gordeyev, spokesman for the Far Eastern Military district, as saying that the movement of heavy weaponry, caught on film and widely distributed on social media, is part of “absolutely scheduled maneuvers of combat readiness.” Gordeyev said the military hardware was on its way back from drills elsewhere and denied any connection to the tensions around North Korea’s nuclear program   WTOP

Nothing to see here...

No reason to believe gays abused in Chechnya.  Vladimir Putin’s spokesman says the Russian president has no reason to disbelieve the Chechen leader’s assurances that reports of detentions and killings of gay men in Chechnya have no basis in fact.  Dmitry Peskov also told journalists on Thursday that investigators have found no evidence to back up reports by the respected newspaper Novaya Gazeta that police in the predominantly Muslim republic rounded up more than 100 men suspected of homosexuality and that at least three of them were killed.   WTOP

Super-something...

North Korea warns of 'super-mighty preemptive strike' as U.S. plans next move.  North Korean state media warned the United States of a "super-mighty preemptive strike" after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States was looking at ways to bring pressure to bear on North Korea over its nuclear programmer.  U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a hard line with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has rebuffed admonitions from sole major ally China and proceeded with nuclear and missile programmed in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions.  Reuters  Perhaps inspired by:  https://www.mightytaco.com/OurFood  (check out the super-mighty taco -- mmmm!)

Shaping young minds, for good or ill

Anger, confusion as Japan revives militaristic edict.  Japan's century-old imperial proclamation urging people to be willing to die for the emperor was consigned to history books until video surfaced showing children in an Osaka kindergarten enthusiastically reciting it.   News24

I had not considered this angle

Trump, the second horseman of the apocalypse

Donald Trump did not even wait three months into his term to show signs that he may be the imperial character referred to in the Apocalypse because he has already put world peace in jeopardy by attacking Syria, and then bombing Afghanistan. He has also said he could attack North Korea. CoLatino

Because Nigeria doesn't have more important things to worry about

Nigeria 'gay wedding' bust leads to charges. Prosecutors in the northern Nigeria state of Kaduna have charged a group of 53 people with conspiring to celebrate a gay wedding.  The accused, arrested last Saturday, have denied the allegations, with their lawyers saying they were illegally detained.  The court released the group on bail and the case was remanded to 8 May.  BBC

Trying something new

Oh, my blog, how I have missed thee.  My grown-up job still discourages writing about myself, but I realized the other day that news headlines are WAY more interesting than my life anyhow.  So I'm going to share some tidbits from here, with a bit of my own snark thrown in -- b/c, ya know, it just wouldn't be my blog without some snark...