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John Hay was President Lincoln's personal secretary, a position that began nearly five decades of public service. A diplomat who served multiple Administrations from Lincoln to Roosevelt, he was a central figure in defining the U.S. foreign policy that would be the basis of the United States role on the world stage in the twentieth century.This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for...

Western Union Co. said Thursday that it is suspending its operations in Russia and Belarus. The money-transfer and payments company said it has engaged in "extensive dialogue" with a wide variety of its stakeholders to arrive at a decision regarding its services in Russia and Belarus.

Recently released emails appear to further show a direct connection between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, including efforts to get foundation donors seats to an official lunch with Chinese President Hu Jintao. In emails dated December 2010, Clinton State Department aide Huma Abedin and then-top Clinton Foundation official Doug Band discussed potential guests for the lunch with the Chinese president — including three executives from groups that had donated millions to the foundation, according to an ABC News report late Saturday. Among the possible guests discussed were Bob McCann, then-president of...

The Department of Justice announced today that the Western Union Remission Fund began its first distribution of approximately $153 million in funds forfeited to the U.S. government from the Western Union Company (Western Union) to over 109,000 victims located in the United States and abroad. These victims, many of whom were elderly victims of consumer fraud and abuse, will be recovering the full amount of their losses.“The $153 million distribution announced today brings some measure of justice for the elderly and other victims who were financially harmed by the fraudulent schemes in this case,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian...

Vicente Fox Trump acting like 'a child, a CEO': Vicente Fox 1 Hour Ago | 01:35 Former Mexican President Vicente Fox blasted President Donald Trump on Friday, calling him a "child" and mockingly referring to him as a corporate "CEO" rather than president of the world's most powerful country. In an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box," the outspoken Fox said Mexico won't pay for the wall Trump wants to build along the border, "not now, not ever." Fox also said he doesn't believe Trump is an American "in his soul and his beliefs." He added he does not understand the...

Western Union Co. (NYSE: WU) declined for the second day in a row on Friday. The fall may be related to concerns about possible competition from Bitcoin, a topic that was discussed in StreetInsider.com's Pulse Picks Newsletter Wednesday and later touched on by analyst Mark Palmer of BTIG. Palmer commented on Bitcoin-related worry on Thursday, just a day after initiating Western Union at Buy.

SNIPPET: "Gufran Ahmed Kauser Mohammed, 30, and Mohamed Hussein Said, 25, face an indictment charging them with conspiring to provide and attempting to provide material support to three U.S.-designated terrorist organizations that have operated in Iraq, Syria and Somalia, according to authorities." SNIPPET: "The defendants, while based overseas in 2011-13, allegedly sent thousands of dollars via Western Union to an al-Qaida terrorist affiliate, al-Nusrah Front, which is fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. They also allegedly sent funds to al-Shabaab, another terrorist group seeking to overthrow the U.S.-backed transitional government in Somalia."

Subject: Terrible Trip......Jxxxx XXXXXXXX From: Jxxxxxxx Date: Monday To: undisclosed recipients: ; I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,I came down to London England for a short vacation and i was mugged at gun point last night,all cash,credit cards and cell were stolen off,It was so scary just happy I still have my life and passport. I've been to the embassy and the Police here thank God they are really helping with a return flight and our fight leaves in few hours from now,but we are only having problems settling our hotel bills before leaving I need you to...

NOTE The following text SNIPPET is a quote: International Hacker Arraigned After Extradition Elaborate Scheme Stole over $9.4 Million from Credit Card Processor ATLANTA, GA—SERGEI TŠURIKOV, 26, of Tallinn, Estonia, has been extradited to the United States. TŠURIKOV appeared today and was arraigned before United States Magistrate Judge E. Clayton Scofield III, on federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, computer fraud, and aggravated identity theft. TŠURIKOV was indicted by a federal grand jury on these charges on November 10, 2010, along with VIKTOR PLESHCHUK, 29, of St. Petersburg, Russia; OLEG COVELIN,...

SNIPPET: “In about less than a week, India will mark the first anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks. After the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s Chicago breakthrough, now Italy has achieved some headway in the investigations relating to last year’s terror events(26/11). The Italian police have arrested, after almost a year long monitoring and surveillance, two Pakistani nationals (Father and Son duo) from Brescia city who are accused of sending funds from their money transfer agency and providing the logistical support to Pakistani terrorists. The suspects Mohammad Yaqub Janjua and Aamer Yaqub Janjua, owners of the Madina Trading telephone...

Mexican drug cartels use a “blood wire” to send money to drug and human smugglers, according to Arizona’s attorney general, who testified earlier this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Western Union is by far the largest provider of illicit money-movement services, so it is the source of valuable information about illicit money movements and has been the focus of interdiction efforts aimed at criminal proceeds in transit,” Terry Goddard, Arizona’s attorney general, told senators. Goddard was one of several witnesses who testified March 17 before the Judiciary Committee and the Senate International Narcotics Control Caucus on law enforcement responses...

PROVIDENCE — Providence has become the first municipality in the nation to endorse a boycott of money transfer giant Western Union. Activist groups nationwide have been organizing small protests against the company for the past month, charging that Western Union’s fees are too high, and that the company does not give back enough to the people and countries it serves. City Council members estimate that Western Union handles 55 percent of money transfers to and from Providence, and last night, the 15-member City Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting the campaign. “Cities around the country are looking towards the example...

Four months ago, Gwen Gampon wired $1,030 to her brother from a Western Union Co. outlet in Anaheim during a family emergency. In Hawaii, her brother, who is unemployed and doesn't have a checking account, ended up with just $950 -- after the money-transfer company deducted a $79.99 fee for the immediate transaction. "Western Union is seen as a lifeline," said Gampon, a refinery worker from Garden Grove. "That lifeline, however, has an ugly side that preys on those that are already in financial need." Sending money to less-affluent relatives is an age-old practice that grows more popular every year...

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 2, 2006 Money transfer agencies like Western Union have delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries on suspicion of terrorist connections simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed, company officials said. In one example, an Indian driver here said Western Union prevented him from sending US$120 to a friend at home this month because the recipient's name was Mohammed. "Western Union told me that if I send money to Sahir Mohammed, the money will be blocked because of his name," said 36-year-old Abdul Rahman Maruthayil, who later sent the money...

Last month, a briefly worded press release went nearly unnoticed. It simply read: "Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging Services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage." After 155 years, and millions of telegrams and Telex messages, a major part of American history quietly slipped into obscurity. For more than 100 years, Socorro was part of that history. With today's telephones, cell phones and e-mail, we can contact almost anyone we wish immediately and cheaply. This wasn't always the case. In Socorro's early days,...

Once a staple of American communications, the telegram died quietly last week. After more than 155 years during which it delivered millions of telegrams around the world, bringing news of births, deaths, weddings, wars and more, Western Union delivered its last telegram messages last Friday, ending a means of communication that began before the U.S. Civil War. Colin Wheeler, a spokesman for Denver-based First Data Corp., which owns Western Union Financial Services Inc., confirmed yesterday that the company ended its telegram services quietly on Jan. 27 by laying off 30 workers who still operated the telegram business. From a peak...

Era Ends: Western Union Stops Sending Telegrams Robert Roy Britt LiveScience Managing Editor LiveScience.com Wed Feb 1, 10:00 AM ET After 145 years, Western Union has quietly stopped sending telegrams. On the company's web site, if you click on "Telegrams" in the left-side navigation bar, you're taken to a page that ends a technological era with about as little fanfare as possible: "Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please...

AGs are out of line Western Union, a subsidiary of First Data Corp. of Greenwood Village, is a messenger that has agreed to be shot. That's a pity. Under pressure from the attorneys general of 47 states, including Colorado's John Suthers, Western Union signed a pact Monday in which it consented to pay $8.1 million to a "consumer awareness program" as part of an effort to reduce the number of wire transfers generated by fraudulent telemarketers. Western Union was never charged with a crime, and the agreement is not even called a "settlement," the term usually used when a company...

HonestReporting recently reported about American businesses advertising on Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV station. All three companies cited -- Pepsi, Western Union, and Proctor & Gamble -- have since backed down from advertising on Al-Manar. But it is interesting to compare the companies’ “official explanation.” Proctor & Gamble, for example, wrote that "We don't plan to renew our contract with Al Manar for a variety of reasons, which include the development of other media options to reach our consumers and the confusion surrounding the organization." HonestReporting member Deborah was bothered by the kid gloves attitude toward the Hizbullah terror organization. She wrote...

Why are local Lebanese subsidiaries of major American corporations--like PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble and Western Union--lending comfort and support to terrorists by advertising on Hezbollah television? Al Manar--the Arabic word for beacon--is the official television station of Lebanon's Party of G-d, more commonly known as Hezbollah. That Iranian-backed and -funded group has been implicated in the attacks against the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Americans in 1982, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut that killed 12 Americans in 1984, the Israeli Embassy and Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people in 1994 and numerous other...