Hawaiian Islands Modulating with Australia 1/17/13
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Hawaiian Islands Modulating with Australia 1/17/13 - Video

ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) A former senator in the U.S. Virgin Islands pleaded guilty Thursday in a public corruption case.

Alvin Williams Jr. entered the plea to racketeering, one of nine charges he faced after he was indicted by a grand jury in November. He faces up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine as well as forfeiture penalties and restitution.

Williams, 34, acknowledged that he attempted to bribe an official to steer business to a company owned by his father and to soliciting bribes from developers in the U.S. Caribbean territory. The former politician also admitted that he demanded salary kickbacks from his legislative staff and to having staff members do his coursework for an online college degree from the University of Phoenix.

Williams, whose term in the territorial legislature expired Monday, appeared downcast as he entered his plea in federal court in St. Thomas. Defense attorney Gordon Rhea said he accepts responsibility.

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Guilty plea in US Virgin Islands corruption case

BEIJING, China - A high-level Chinese official has called for talks with Japan over a disputed island chain, in an apparent attempt by Beijing to cool tensions that have seen both sides scramble jet fighters to the area in recent days.

Jia Qinglin, the head of China's top political advisory body, made the gesture at a meeting in Beijing with former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, the official China Daily newspaper reported Thursday.

Japan has steadfastly refused China's past calls to hold talks over the islands, with Tokyo arguing that it holds sovereignty over the islets and thus there is nothing to negotiate.

Jia is believed to be the highest-ranking Chinese official to publicly issue such a call, and the mild tenor of his remarks omitting China's standard accusation that Japan is wholly responsible for the frictions was seen as a signal Beijing hopes to arrest momentum toward an all-out crisis.

"The two sides should appropriately handle questions surrounding the Diaoyu islands and other and other issues on which their stances' differ," Jia said, using the Chinese term for the tiny uninhabited islands lying north of Taiwan. Japan, which controls the islands, calls them the Senkakus.

Jia is due to retire in March and Hatoyama has long been an advocate of closer ties with China, though he has lost influence under new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. China's call for talks in a meeting Wednesday could represent a way to ask for talks that is less risky than an official, high-level exchange.

However, Japan showed no sign of budging from its position.

Responding to reports that Hatoyama had agreed with Jia on the need for negotiations, Japan's chief Cabinet spokesman Yoshihide Suga expressed the Abe government's disapproval. "This is clearly not a comment that reflects the position of the Japanese government and we very much regret that someone who was once the prime minister of our country would make such remarks," Suga told reporters in Tokyo.

Feng Wei, a researcher at Fudan University's Japanese Studies Center in Shanghai, said that Jia represents "the official stance, which is to ease tensions."

"That's also why he (Hatoyama) was invited to China in the first place. It's highly symbolic."

Originally posted here:

Senior Chinese official calls for dialogue with Japan over disputed islands, to cool tensions

Published: Jan. 16, 2013 at 11:19 PM

BEIJING, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- A top Chinese official called for dialogue on the island dispute with Japan while a spokesman said Beijing remained on high alert over the escalating tensions.

Amid the fast worsening tensions between China and Japan over their rival claims to a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama visited Beijing Wednesday and met with China's top political adviser Jia Qinglin, who holds the title of chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Jia said the two sides should resolve the dispute over the islands -- called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan -- through dialogue and consultation, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The resource-rich islands have been under Japanese control for decades.

"The two sides should handle the Diaoyu Islands dispute properly in order to ensure that bilateral relations remain on a track of healthy and stable development," Jia said. He said cooperation between China and Japan would serve the fundamental interests of both sides, as well as the region and the international community.

Separately Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, commenting on reports about Japanese stand on Chinese jets entering the islands' airspace, said China is on high alert as Japan escalates tensions, Xinhua reported.

Japan's Mainichi Daily News reported the new Japanese government headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering stationing a fleet of fighter jets on the Sakishima Islands near the disputed islands on the Okinawa prefecture to deal more effectively and promptly with the Chinese planes.

"China has taken note of relevant reports. The patrol conducted by China's public service ships and planes in waters and airspace of the islands is a normal performance of duty to exercise jurisdiction," the Chinese spokesman said. He also said China opposes Japanese planes and vessels entering the waters and airspace of the disputed islands, Xinhua said.

The dispute over the islands, which China's claims are part of its territory, deteriorated last September when Japan nationalized them. Immediately thereafter, there were widespread protests in China, some violent, and led to boycott of Japanese goods. The issue already had affected bilateral trade totaling about $345 billion annually.

Since September, China's official media has been bitterly attacking the Japanese stand, while some of its officials have also issued warnings.

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Chinese official for dialogue over islands

18 January 2013

In a prepared address to Jersey's Chamber of Commerce, Guernsey Chief Minister, Peter Harwood joined his Jersey counterpart Ian Gorst in highlighting the importance of stronger relations between the two Channel Islands, to identify potential spending efficiencies through joint initiatives, and to support the growth of the islands' financial services industries.

Harwood stated: "The past 20 years have seen the pace of pan-Channel Island working in the private sector grow significantly, particularly in finance houses, accountancy, law, information technology, and public relations and marketing. The private sector is creating an expectancy of greater cooperation within the public sector."

"Since being elected as Chief Minister last May, the topic of mutual co-operation between the Channel Islands has been a regular and recurring theme. Within the first month of my election Ian and I met and agreed to progress the issue of Channel Islands co-operation as a joint initiative. It has always been very clear to me that Guernsey and Jersey do have shared interests, and that acting together would undoubtedly help us to make a stronger case for ourselves."

"In the area of external relations, particularly with the European Union, there is a clear political benefit in standing together to make our case. That is why the Channel Islands Brussels Office was set up to protect and promote our joint interests in Europe - to ensure that we have access to the single market and that we maintain our competitiveness. In September representatives of both Islands met the Irish government together, to discuss how we could better engage with their Presidency of the European Union, which began last week."

He highlighted that as recently as December, the two islands joined forces to make themselves heard on a new Communication from the European Commission "Fighting Tax Fraud and Tax Evasion," which proposes minimum standards for third country good governance in tax matters.

"The islands are naturally a geographical package," he continued. "We must recognise that we share that common brand and that we need to work jointly to protect that brand."

Highlighting the substantial progress made by both islands, in particular towards adopting best standards on tax transparency, Harwood underscored that: "There is, however, no room for complacency. We face many challenges - from the UK, from Brussels, from Washington; from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the implied threat from the UK as it takes on the chairmanship of the G8. We are much more likely to meet these challenges if we stand together."

He said that alongside discussions to identify cost savings, the islands should increasingly work together on economic development, in recognition that although Jersey and Guernsey are competitors, they share common interests and goals.

"In Guernsey we have recently launched a consultation on our economic development strategy. We are doing further work on how we best support and enable our growing and thriving digital sector; on how we strengthen our skills strategy and how we maximize the number of those on our Island who are economically active; and around stronger co-ordination of enterprise and business development support."

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Channel Islands Collaboration Taking Shape