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MP Lavulavu says she still supports PM Pōhiva; she finally resigns

The Vava’u 16 MP ‘Akosita Lavulavu told Kaniva News she still supported Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva and PTOA Party despite the fact she was forced to resign in April.

The Prime Minister demanded MP Lavulavu’s resignation as Minister of Internal Affairs after Police charged her and her husband former Minister and MP ‘Etuate Lavulavu with three counts of obtaining by false pretences and three counts of knowingly dealing with forged documents.

MP ‘Akosita refused to resign citing constitutional rights in which she claimed the Prime Minister has no right to dismiss her because of her criminal charges.

In a letter to Hon Pōhiva on 18 June 2018 seen by Kaniva News MP ‘Akosita finally drew back and asked the Prime Minister to forgive her.

She said she still stands by the PTOA mission and slogan they used while campaigning during the 2017 snap election – “Te tau tu’u fakataha ka tau ikuna.” (We stand together so that we succeed)

She told the Prime Minister he has appointed MP Losaline Mā’asi to replace her and she has wholeheartedly supported the new Minister.

PM Pōhiva challenges Pacific Island leaders to lose weight

Tongan Prime Minister Akilisi Pohiva has challenged other Pacific Island leaders to participate in a year-long weight-loss challenge to set an example to their national communities.

Mr Pohiva told a local newspaper he would propose the competition when the leaders meet next month.

Ten of the islands sit at the top of the world obesity rate rankings.

On some, up to 90% of the population are overweight, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The region’s obesity epidemic has been blamed on traditional diets of fish and vegetables being shunned for processed food imports and fatty meat.

In the interview with the Samoan Observer, Mr Pohiva hit out at the regional failure to combat childhood obesity and diseases like heart disease and diabetes.

“[It] has everything to do with our eating habits and our lifestyle and it is complex issue when it comes to our Pacific people,” he told the newspaper.

“And with Pacific Island Leaders, we meet and talk and talk about this issue, yet initiatives on this issue is not making an impact, it doesn’t seem to work.”

He said he will propose the diet competition idea to his fellow leaders the annual Pacific Island Forum event held later this month.

“It is not about who loses the most kilos but in order to shake off the weight, you must eat light and having that healthy mentality will go a long way.

“Once the leaders are adapting to that mindset they would be determined to get their people on the same aspect and go from there,” Mr Pohiva told the newspaper.

  • BBC

Chinese hospital ship “more advanced” than Vaiola hospital, says Deputy Prime Minister

Tonga’s Deputy Prime Minister said the Chinese hospital ship which was welcomed at Vuna wharf was more advanced than Tonga’s main hospital.

Hon Sēmisi Sika and a delegation boarded the ship on Monday morning as part of a ceremony to mark the arrival of the Peace Ark in Nuku’alofa.

Hon Sika congratulated the Chinese government for the vessel’s Mission Harmony and the plans to include Tonga in its regional visits.

Hon Sika and the Chinese Ambassador HE Wang Baodong spoke during the welcoming event.

Mr. Wang said: “Over the past 20 years since China and Tonga established diplomatic ties, bilateral relations have maintained constant development with deepening exchanges and increasing cooperation in various fields which have brought more benefits to our two countries and their people.”

Mr. Baodong said that the visit of the Ark Peace is “of great significance” on the occasion of celebrating the 20th anniversary of Tonga-China diplomatic relations.

He believed that the visit will reinforce the cooperation of China and Tonga in health, military and enhance their friendship.

Rear Admiral Guan Bailin said that the Ark Peace is an “old friend of Tonga.”

“Three years ago, we were here from August 13th to the 20th. We were and are still impressed by your unique natural beauty, kind and hospitable people. This second visit this time is just like a joyful get together for old friends while it is surprising that the current visit is also from August 13th – 20th.

“In the following few days, we will provide free medical services, ship tool and exchange culture entertainments to further deepen our mutual understanding, expand communication and cooperation to cement the traditional friendship,” he said.

The Ark Peace will leave Tonga next Monday.

Man arrested after cannabis plants seized in ‘Eua

Police have seized 46 cannabis plants from a bush allotment in southeast ‘Eua on Monday 13 August 2018.

Police said they received information cannabis plants were being cultivated in the area.

A 48-year-old male suspect was arrested and charged with cultivation of illicit drugs.

He is remanded in police custody to appear at the Magistrate Court at a later date.

“We would like to acknowledge the assistance of members of the public which led to the drug seizure on Monday,” said Inspector Loluhama Fine.

“It only takes one call to disrupt the supply of drugs in our community and we encourage anyone who can provide information on drug dealing to contact Police.”

Tonga Police are committed to disrupting the supply of drugs and preventing the harm this illegal trade supports.

Anyone with information can contact Police on 922 or the nearest Police station to you.

Police investigation continues.

Police officer suspended following arrest during drug raid

A 31-year-old Tongatapu Police officer is suspended and could face termination after he was arrested during a drug raid at a home in Ngele’ia.

The off-duty police officer was arrested along with four other men, Acting Police Commissioner Pelenatita Vaisuai said.

Police seized 8.32 grams of methamphetamine, 1.32 grams of cannabis seeds, cash, electronic devices and a live bullet during this drug raid.

The arrested officer is now suspended from Police duty.

Magistrate Salesi Mafi ordered yesterday for all 5 suspects to be remanded in police custody until Friday 17 August 2018.

Police investigation continues.

Kaniva receives spam e-mails from Ian Jones over human waste dumping stories

An e-mail sender who used the name and email address of Ian Jones has accused Kaniva Tonga News of incorrectly reporting Mr Jones’ dumping of septic human waste in mangroves in Vava’u.

Mr Jones did not say which part of our stories was incorrect.

His first email on July 18 was received through our spam folder and because of that we did not reply.

Mr Jones claimed he was a victim of a what he described as a government cover-up after he threatened to expose what he claimed was illegal dumping thousands of litres of sewage into the mangroves at Kalaka in Vava’u by the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications.

“I am prepared to give you a full report and press release together with photos showing what the government is doing.

“Will you publish my release in full?  Will you show the photos?” he asked.

Jones was convicted by a Vava’u court and fined TP$1000 on June 20 after an inspection by the Health Authority following the dump found infectious disease from the waste in the sea near the dumping site.

Fishing and swimming in the area has been banned, affecting residents of Pangaimotu, Toula, ‘Utungake, ‘Utulei, Talihau and Neiafu.

On July 31 we received another email from Jones, but this time he complained about our not replying to his previous email.

“Your lack of response would indicate to me that you are not interested in reporting both sides of the story.

“Your bias is noted with disappointment,” Jones’ e-mail read.

Because of his complaint Kaniva’s editor decided to take the risk of replying to spamming e-mails and sent a reply.

Our response to Mr Jones did not go through and hotmail sent us a returned rejected email message saying we were contacting Jones on trippm1960@yandex.com.

We did not emailed Jones on this email. We emailed him on the hotmail address he was using when he emailed us which was ianjones@hotmail.com.

After following suggestions given to us on the rejected email message which was sent from postmaster@outlook.com we resent the email to Jones this evening. Again our response was rejected with the following same message as before:

mxfront7o.mail.yandex.net rejected your message to the following email addresses:

trippm1960@yandex.com

The address you sent your message to wasn’t found at the destination domain. It might be misspelled or it might not exist. Try to fix the problem by doing one or more of the following:

  1. Send the message again, but before you do, delete and retype the address. If your email program automatically suggests an address to use, don’t select it.
  2. Clear the recipient AutoComplete cache in your email program by following the steps in this article: Status code 5.1.1. Then resend the message, but before you do, be sure to delete and retype the address.
  3. Contact the recipient by some other means (by phone, for example) to confirm you’re using the right address. Ask them if they’ve set up an email forwarding rule that could be forwarding your message to an incorrect address.

mxfront7o.mail.yandex.net gave this error:

Editor’s note:

Kaniva stands by our stories on Mr Jones’ actions before and after he was convicted in Vava’u. We only run this story to let him know how his e-mails to us were received through our spam folder and when we tried to reply the responses were rejected. He should try contacting us on Facebook on https://www.facebook.com/kanivatongamedia/ or https://www.facebook.com/Kanivatonga. He is welcome to tell his side of the story on Kaniva.

What is spam email?

According Google, Gmail automatically identifies spam and suspicious emails and marks those emails as spam.

In another words, they were irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the Internet, typically to a large number of users, for the purposes of advertising, phishing, spreading malware, etc.

When you open your Spam label, you’ll see any emails that were marked as spam by you or Gmail. Each email will include a label at the top that explains why it was sent to Spam.

For more information

Vava’u residents react with fury at fishing ban as accused free to leave Tonga

Vava’u residents react with fury at fishing ban as accused free to leave Tonga

New CEO for Ministry of Customs and Revenue

A new CEO has been appointed for the Ministry of Customs and Revenue.

He was Kelemete Vahe and his appointment took effect from August 10 for four years.

Mr Vahe was a Deputy Chief Executive Officer for the Ministry where he oversaw the operations of the Customs division.

Mr Vahe holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of the South Pacific, Fiji.

He was first recruited to the public service in 1979 and has since served in various senior management leadership positions mainly in the Ministry of Revenue and Customs.

“The Public Service Commission welcomes Mr Soane Patita Vahe appointment as the CEO for Ministry of Revenue and Customs and wishes him a successful and a fulfilling term in Office.”

Employee pleads not guilty to storage-container fraud charges

A Tongatapu employee has pleaded not guilty to charges that he had allegedly forged documents to sell storage shipping containers belonging to a company where he worked.

Sepuloni Mateo, who faced six charges following the sales is believed to have received TP$8,250 following the fraud activities.

The Pacific Forum Line (PFL) container company in Tonga alleged the accused forged its documents in August 2017, Kakalu ‘O Tonga newspaper has reported.

The paper said Mateo allegedly sold the containers to a Chinese man.

The accused is expected to reappear at the Supreme Court on August 29.

Serious crash in Counties Manukau; passengers trapped in vehicles

Police and emergency services are in attendance at a serious crash on Kingseat Road, Kingseat that occurred just before 10am this morning.

Three vehicles are involved and two vehicles have gone down a bank.

Occupants are still in trapped in vehicles.

One person is in a critical condition,  two people have serious injuries and one person has moderate injuries.

Westpac Rescue Helicopter will be transporting people to hospital.

Diversions are in place at Kingseat and Irwin Roads and Kingseat and Glenbrook Roads.

The Serious Crash Unit is attending and Police advise motorists to avoid the area if possible.

Tongan man dies while defending his female friend in Australia

By GRETA LEVY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

A Tongan man has died while trying to defend a female friend from her former partner.

Ben Apikotoa, who is described as “kind, caring and affectionate” by his family, was stabbed multiple times on Saturday night after reportedly being called to a home in Sydney’s west by his friend, Cassie Sanders, who was allegedly being assaulted by her ex-boyfriend Nathan Chatimba.

Chatimba, 31, has been charged with murdering the 34-year-old during a brawl between two men in a cul-de-sac in St Clair.

Police allege Ben responded to the call for help after Ms Sanders was allegedly attacked at the home.

A neighbour told Seven News he saw the men throwing punches before Chatimba allegedly pulled out a knife.

Residents claim the 31-year-old then fled the scene before being arrested by police two hours later.

He briefly appeared at Parramatta Bail Court on Sunday where he was denied bail. He will face court in October.

Chatimba appeared distraught as he was arrested by police.

Paramedics arrived at the home at 6.40pm. Despite the efforts from paramedics, Ben died at the scene.