Mentawais Islands , Indonesia, (Hollowtrees) June 2011.
An epic trip to the Mentawai islands of the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia June 2011. Hollowtrees was pumping. Filmed from the boat on a Nikon D7000, and from the water on a GOPRO.
By: Hollowpits
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Mentawais Islands , Indonesia, (Hollowtrees) June 2011. - Video
China criticizing US remarks over disputed islands in East China Sea
In Beijing, the Chinese government has rebuked US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her backing of Japan #39;s administration over East China Sea islands which are at the center of a row between China and Japan. The remarks came after a visit to the US by Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida. During the trip, Hilary Clinton said Washington is opposed to any unilateral action by China that seeks to undermine Japan #39;s administration. Follow our Facebook on: http://www.facebook.com Follow our Twitter on: twitter.com
By: PressTVGlobalNews
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China criticizing US remarks over disputed islands in East China Sea - Video
BEIJING: China has accused the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, of presenting a distorted picture of its dispute with Japan over islands in the East China Sea.
The Foreign Ministry said Mrs Clinton ''ignores the facts and confuses right and wrong'' in a short description of the situation at a news conference in Washington on Friday.
The unusual objection, released as Mrs Clinton prepares to step down as secretary of state, appears to have been prompted by a new phrase she used in an otherwise standard reference to the worsening feud between China and Japan.
With Japan's Foreign Minister, Fumio Kishida, standing beside her, Mrs Clinton said the Obama administration opposed ''any unilateral actions that would seek to undermine Japanese administration'' of the islands, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.
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The reference to unilateral actions was interpreted in the Japanese media as meaning the US was unhappy with China's recent actions in the East China Sea.
In the past few months, both China and Japan have sent civilian vessels to the waters around the uninhabited islands.
On January 10, China ordered a surveillance aircraft to fly near the area. In response, Japan scrambled F-15 fighter jets and China dispatched J-10 fighter jets in turn.
Under a longstanding security treaty with Japan, the US is obliged to defend the country, including the uninhabited islands, a position Mrs Clinton referred to at the news conference.
She also repeated that Washington recognised that the islands were administered by Japan. China insists its claim to the islands is supported by historical documents.
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Clinton is distorting islands dispute with Japan, says bearish China
Zhang Yunbi and Cai Hong
China Daily
Publication Date : 21-01-2013
Asks Washington to be 'responsible' and 'choose its words carefully'
Beijing yesterday blasted Washington's latest intervention in the Diaoyu Islands issue, warning the US to be "responsible" and "choose its words carefully".
The warning came as Beijing prepared to receive a high-ranking member of the governing coalition in Tokyo who will reportedly deliver a letter "aimed at improving ties".
But sending messengers to Beijing will be of little value, observers warned, if Washington's support for Tokyo's stance risks the situation getting out of control. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday revealed Washington's lack of neutrality when she said the islands were "under the administration of Japan", a phrase that China rejects.
Clinton told reporters after meeting with visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida that the US opposes "any unilateral actions" that would seek to undermine Japan's "administration", a remark observers see as clearly backing Japan.
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Beijing, Jan 21 (IANS) A Chinese marine surveillance fleet continued patrolling around the Diaoyu Islands Monday and monitored Japanese ships that entered the islands' waters.
The vessels -- Haijian 137, Haijian 23 and Haijian 46 -- followed and engaged in surveillance of the Japanese ships, solemnly declared China's sovereignty over the islands and sought the Japanese ships' immediate departure from the area, China Daily quoted the state oceanic administration as saying.
Last year, surveillance ships carried out 58 patrol missions in the South China Sea over its territorial waters off the disputed Diaoyu Islands to secure the nation's maritime rights and interests.
The islands are called "Diaoyu" in China but "Senkaku" in Japan. The row over the islands, which are presently controlled by Japan, has left ties between Tokyo and Beijing highly tense.
Japan claims occupying the islands since 1895, while China maintains the islands were recognised as Chinese territory as early as 1783.
The islands, which are also claimed by Taiwan, potentially contain large reserves of hydrocarbons.
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"A referendum in which the colonists will take part, the descendants of those who evicted the true inhabitants of those islands, means a disrespect to intelligence and to national and international law," Mr Boudou said on Sunday.
"No brand of pirates will get hold of the sovereignty and dignity of the Argentine Republic," added Mr Boudou, who ha been in charge of the executive during President Cristina Kirchner's trip to Asia.
The Government of the Falkland Islands has arranged for outside observers to monitor the referendum in order to prove it is free and fair.
The announcement comes after defence chiefs drew up new contingency plans designed to scupper any possible hostile action by Argentina, which could include a stunt by radical elements.
Mrs Kirchner's overseas tour concludes on Monday in Vietnam.
She has repeatedly called for Britain to honour a 1965 United Nations resolution to start negotiations over the Falkland Island's sovereignty.
Prime Minister David Cameron has dismissed Kirchner's demands for the "return" of the Falkland Islands insisting its people have shown "a clear desire to remain British".
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21 January 2013 Last updated at 08:07 ET
China's foreign ministry has strongly criticised the US for backing Japan's control of a disputed group of islands in the East China Sea.
Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the view, expressed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "neglects the facts".
Mrs Clinton had warned that the US opposed any action that would undermine Japanese administration of the islands.
The row over the islands, called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, has left ties between Tokyo and Beijing tense.
In her comments on Friday following a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Mrs Clinton said the US did not take an official view on the sovereignty of the islands.
But she said Washington opposed "any unilateral actions that would seek to undermine Japanese administration".
"We want to see China and Japan resolve this matter peacefully through dialogue."
"We do not want to see any action taken by anyone that could raise tensions or result in miscalculation that would undermine the peace, security and economic growth in this region."
In Monday's regular briefing to journalists, Mr Hong said the US "bears undeniable historical responsibility on the Diaoyu issue".
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WWIII DOOM China Vs. Japan SHOWDOWN Disputed Islands
China #39;s People #39;s Liberation Army, or PLA, has been ordered to prepare for war in a training directive issued this week. The order comes from the General Staff headquarters, which oversees the army. eng.chinamil.com.cn Forces should train to, quote, "fight and win battles," the directive said. The strong words are in striking contrast to previous ones. Those had focused more on coordination within different branches of the PLA. In particular, the use of the word "dazheng," Chinese for "fighting wars," has not been seen before. Japan was not mentioned in the directive. But this commentary in the People #39;s Liberation Army Daily conjures up images of the Japanese invasion of China during World War II. It goes on to suggest Japan is gathering other East Asian countries to quote, "contain China." eng.chinamil.com.cn Some Chinese military officials have urged a quick strike to assert China #39;s sovereignty over the contested Diaoyu, or Senkaku, Islands. This is the metaphor they use: "kill a chicken to scare the monkeys." But some political commenters think that the talk of war is empty. That #39;s because the Chinese regime has more to lose than gain in an all-out war. [Lan Shu, NTD China Analyst]: "The Diaoyu Islands offer very little material interests, except it can hype up nationalism sentiments. The CCP will lose and ten ASEAN countries will immediately team up with the United States and Japan. China has not engaged in direct military conflict since 1979 with Vietnam. Right now ...
By: sammyanddaiana
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WWIII DOOM China Vs. Japan SHOWDOWN Disputed Islands - Video
Maserati - Passing close to the North West tip of the Falkland Islands
Got so close to the North West tip of the Falklands islands the seals were swimming around the boat like dolphins and when we couldn #39;t see them we could certainly smelll them! Our first sight of land since leaving New York 21 days ago.
By: BreymaierSailing
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Maserati - Passing close to the North West tip of the Falkland Islands - Video
Stanley Roberson, which may not be his real name, is accused of running a bogus credit union under the name Stanley McDuffie.
Federal regulators say a Colorado man for years ran a bogus credit union through the Virgin Islands and bilked more than $532,000 from unsuspecting customers.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, the Securities and Exchange Commission says Stanley McDuffie who the SEC and Colorado law enforcement say is also known as Stanley Roberson, Stanley Battle and Stanley Robertson-Baffle did this by offering unrealistic returns on certificates of deposit he advertised on the Internet.
The SEC says the purported credit union, known as Her Majesty's Credit Union, was no such thing at all and that it was little more than a funnel for McDuffie to siphon funds from a tiny office in Denver and later in Watkins.
The case is the latest in a string of efforts by regulators to determine what the business was really up to. As Roberson it's unclear which is his real name he was jailed in late 2010 when a Denver district court judge found him in contempt for refusing to provide documents to Colorado's banking commissioner during an investigation into Her Majesty's.
McDuffie, 46, has said in court papers that he has never been convicted of contempt, implying that McDuffie and Roberson and the others are all different people. Whatever the truth, the SEC so far can't seem to get any two of them in the same place at the same time.
McDuffie could be reached only through his lawyer, E. Dale Parrish of Golden, who said his client wasn't ready to comment. Telephone numbers listed for McDuffie's home and businesses here and in Hampton, Ga. the same ones used by Roberson have been disconnected. Parrish said McDuffie ultimately will be vindicated.
"All I can say is there is much more to this than even the SEC knows," Parrish said.
He added that the credit union has since closed because of the pressure.
"Stan feels as if the closure was forced and leveraged," Parrish said.
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Colorado man accused of running phony credit union in Virgin Islands
Beijing, Jan 20 (IANS) China is firmly opposed to comments made by the US about the Diaoyu Islands, a foreign ministry official said here Sunday.
"We urge the US side to adopt a responsible attitude in regard to the issue of the Diaoyu Islands," said Qin Gang, a foreign ministry spokesperson, while addressing media relating to comments US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made Friday.
"It (the US) should be careful with its words, and act and maintain regional peace, stability and the general situation of China-US relations with practical actions and build credit with the Chinese people," China Daily quoted Qin as saying.
At a joint news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington, Clinton said the US did not not take a position on the ultimate sovereignty of the islands.
She, however, admitted that the Diaoyu Islands was under the administrative authority of Japan, saying the US opposed any unilateral actions to undermine Japanese authority over the islands.
"The comments by the US side are ignorant of facts and indiscriminate of rights and wrongs," Qin said.
The US cannot deny its historical responsibility on the issue of the islands, Qin said, referring to the fact that despite opposition from China, the Washington put the islands under the control of Japan after the World War II.
Qin said the Diayou Islands and its affiliated islets have been the inherent territories of China, which is an undeniable fact backed up by historical records and international laws.
Qin said the primary source of persistent tension over the islands lies with the Japanese government. He said Japan insisted on carrying out the wrongful action of purchasing some of the islands and continued to adopt escalating moves.
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Sky Islands Or Floating BLOCK? Awsome
A Combined MAp Called Sky BLOCK And Floating Island Awsome Please Wait Till THe Download Arrives With A Texture PAck Called GERUDOKU?
By: Nigel Caguiat
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The Cayman Islands will open the thousands of companies and hedge funds domiciled on the offshore Caribbean territory to greater scrutiny, in a break from decades of secrecy.
The British overseas territory, which has been criticised as being one of the most secretive finance jurisdictions in the world, is introducing reforms that will make public the names of thousands of previously hidden companies and their directors, reports the Financial Times,
CIMA, the islands' monetary authority, sent proposals, seen by the FT , to Cayman-based hedge funds and outlined plans to create a public database of funds domiciled on the island for the first time and will also list the funds directors, pending an ongoing consultation process due to close in mid-March.
In the 24 months subsequent to the onset of the financial crisis, the BVI Financial Services Commission, the Central Bank of Ireland (OTC BB: IRLD - news) , the Jersey Financial Services Commission, the Bahamas Financial Services Board and the Isle of Man Supervision Commission all updated their corporate governance codes, laws and/or regulations, the FT reports CIMA said in one document.
CIMA did not respond to the FT's request for a comment.
The Cayman Islands are seen as a tax-haven by many companies to avoid payer higher rates of tax in other countries.
Last month, filings showed that Facebook hid almost half a billion pounds in a Cayman Islands tax haven last year in an effort to avoid paying tax in Britain and its other main markets.
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The British overseas territory, which wants to shed its reputation for clandestine financial activity, is introducing sweeping reforms that will make public the names of thousands of previously hidden companies and their directors.
In proposals sent to Cayman-based hedge fund businesses and seen by the Financial Times, the islands' powerful monetary authority, CIMA, has outlined plans to create a public database of funds domiciled on the island for the first time. The database will also list funds' directors, pending an ongoing consultation process due to close in mid-March.
CIMA, which did not respond to a request for comment, also plans to require directors to undergo a vetting process to ensure they are qualified to act as fiduciaries for investors.
"In the 24 months subsequent to the onset of the financial crisis, the BVI Financial Services Commission, the Central Bank of Ireland, the Jersey Financial Services Commission, the Bahamas Financial Services Board and the Isle of Man Supervision Commission all updated their corporate governance codes, laws and/or regulations," CIMA said in one document.
(Read More: Hedge Fund 'Sharks Going After' Paulson: Pro)
The move comes amid a barrage of international criticism for the diminutive tax haven's minimal disclosure requirements and tough corporate privacy laws in recent years. The Caymans have borne the brunt of attacks on offshore centers from angry US and EU politicians as they struggled to keep pace with fast-moving new global regulations. They even featured in rancorous debates over the tax affairs of US presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton assured Japan on Friday of U.S. support in Tokyo's dispute with Beijing over a string of islands and invited new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Washington in late February for a meeting with President Barack Obama.
Clinton held a working lunch with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, and both emerged pledging that U.S.-Japan security and economic ties would remain strong following Abe's landslide election victory last month.
"Our alliance with Japan remains the cornerstone of American engagement with the region," Clinton told reporters, noting a wide range of cooperation on everything from disaster relief to the stand-off over nuclear North Korea.
Clinton, due to step down in coming weeks, again affirmed that the United States would stand by its longtime ally in its territorial dispute with China over islets in the East China Sea claimed by both countries.
Tensions over the tiny islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, have flared in recent months, one of several maritime territorial disputes involving China that have worsened as Washington seeks to shift its security focus to Asia.
"Although the United States does not take a position on the ultimate sovereignty of the islands, we acknowledge they are under the administration of Japan," Clinton said, repeating the long-standing U.S. position on the dispute.
"We oppose any unilateral actions that would seek to undermine Japanese administration, and we urge all parties to take steps to prevent incidents and manage disagreements through peaceful means."
Kishida signaled that Abe, who had taken a tough stance on the dispute during his election campaign, was not eager to escalate the conflict.
"While Japan will not concede and will uphold our fundamental position that the Senkaku islands are an inherent territory of Japan, we intend to respond calmly so as not to provoke China," he said through an interpreter.
Clinton announced that Abe had been invited to Washington in the third week of February to hold his first meeting with Obama.
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Clinton assures Japan on islands, invites Abe to U.S. in February
AN AMBITIOUS project, led by a Melbourne zookeeper, to create a series of man-made islands for sick and injured orang-utans in Indonesia, is a step closer after an Australian fund-raising drive.
Earth 4 Orang-utans has secured 48 hectares in the northern part of Sumatra after raising a $150,000 down payment on the land from Australian donors, including Melbourne advertising executive Ted Horton and his wife Miche. It is understood they gave a significant sum towards the project.
The initiative is the brainchild of Jessica McKelson, head primate keeper at Melbourne Zoo, and Dr Ian Singleton, conservation director at the Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Program (SOCP) in Indonesia.
Two other orang-utan non-government organisations, based in Britain and the US, are also backing the scheme, as well as the Australian-based network The Orang-utan Project.
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The project intends to relocate sick and injured orang-utans, which are unable to be released into the wild and are languishing in cages at the SOCP quarantine centre, Batu Mbelin. A chain of four islands will be created by digging moats around the land. Orang-utans, which are afraid of water, will be free to roam on the islands.
Orang-utans are critically endangered due to the clearing of forests for palm oil in Indonesia, the last country in which the flame-haired apes are found in the wild. They also suffer from direct contact with humans, with many shot or captured illegally. Human diseases such as hepatitis are also passed on to them.
Ms McKelson said she was thrilled the project had attracted support. ''I didn't think it was possible 12 months ago, but now we have land secured, which is a vital first step. This will be the first time that something has been built like this in Indonesia.''
A crucial part of the project will be an education centre at the site, aimed at the locals. The centre will highlight the threats orang-utans and other animals face from forest clearing and traditional medicine, which results in animals such as fruit bats and tigers being killed and eaten in the erroneous belief they cure diseases.
''No one has tried to educate the middle-class business people, the guys with the nice cars in the top networks,'' Dr Singleton said. ''At Melbourne or Sydney zoo, you'd get a strong education message, whereas the zoos here are all terrible, apart from, arguably, the ones in Bali. But even there you have people throwing peanuts at the animals and laughing at them.
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Hawaiian Islands Modulating with Australia 1/17/13
Recorded on my Android phone. - Captured Live on Ustream at http://www.ustream.tv with the Ustream Mobile App
By: 820MAUI
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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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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."
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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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