Burn Bag: “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

Via Burn Bag:

“Only Diplomatic Security (DS) would take somebody with no prior law enforcement or military background and send him to one of the most isolated and dangerous posts in the world for his first overseas assignment and expect FSOs to have blind trust in his competence and judgement.  But he graduated from DS’s “rigorous” high threat training course in West Virginia, you say.  Right.  Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

funny gifs

Snoring Elephant via gifbin.com

Click here for the gif version with sounds:  http://www.gifbin.com/sound/982900/ZO3qFwuS-3E/0#s  music via http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO3qFwuS-3E.

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U.S. Embassy Hanoi Starts Vietnam Adoption Processing Through the Special Adoption Program

— Domani Spero
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Last month, the the United States started processing the  Hague Convention adoptions from Vietnam through the Special Adoption Program. Two U.S. adoption service providers – Dillon International and Holt International Children’s Services, were selected and granted by the Government of Vietnam licenses to operate intercountry adoption program for children with special needs, children aged five and older, and children in biological sibling groups (Special Adoption Program).  According to Embassy Hanoi, the ceremony held on September 16, 2014 also marks the effective date for the United States to start processing Hague Convention adoptions from Vietnam through the Special Adoption Program. Below is an excerpt from the announcement:

Inter-country adoption between the United States and Vietnam has been inactive since 2008. Since that time, Vietnam has strengthened its commitment to reforming its adoption system. The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Convention) entered into force for Vietnam on February 1, 2012. The Government of Vietnam has taken a number of steps to improve its implementation of the Convention, particularly in adoptions of children with special needs and for older children and biological sibling groups. A new adoption law, implementing decree, and related circulars have been passed and are being implemented. The United States welcomes Vietnam’s efforts to enhance its child welfare and intercountry adoption system and has now determined that, through the Special Adoption Program, it will be able to process Convention adoptions from Vietnam. However, the United States will not process Convention adoptions from Vietnam that fall outside the parameters of the Special Adoption Program. We will continue to monitor the Vietnamese child welfare program to determine if the intercountry adoption program can be expanded.

Below is Tiffany Murphy, the Chief of the Consular Section of the U.S Embassy in Hanoi announcing the content of the adoption program between the two countries. Via Vietnam International Television VTV4

Click here for the adoption information from DHS/USCIS.

 

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US Embassy London Celebrates 10,750 Visitors to Winfield House With a Time-Lapse Video

— Domani Spero
[twitter-follow screen_name=’Diplopundit’ ]

 

Via US Embassy London:

 

With “Let ‘Em In,”  the second single from Paul McCartney and the Wings’ 1976 album Wings at the Speed of Sound. Post also did a timelapse video of Winfield House for the embassy’s New Orleans themed July 4th Party.

Since we now live in the age of social media, Winfield House which was given by Barbara Hutton to the U.S. Government after World War II for a token price of an American dollar — to be repaired and used as the official residence of the American Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s — now has its own Instagram account. Check it out!

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